North Vietnamese (NVA) and the National Liberation Front (NLF) tactics during the Vietnam War

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Modern History Essay Questions:

  1. NLF Tactics

The armies of the North Vietnamese (NVA) and the National Liberation Front (NLF) lacked the conventional military strength of their adversaries. Thus they had to formulate new tactics and strategies to cover these weaknesses. Throughout the conflict in Indo-China, specifically the Vietnam War, the armies of the North Vietnamese and the NLF were technologically and militarily outclassed by their foes, first the French with aid and support from the United States, then later the advanced military power of the US and the US supplemented forces of the South Vietnamese. In the face of the overwhelming military might arrayed against them, the communist forces had to develop tactics and strategies to effectively level the playing field between the two forces. The NVA and the NLF developed what was known as guerrilla tactics to subvert the more powerful forces of the United States and South Vietnamese. Such basics principles employed were the use and knowledge of the local environment and the natural topography to vex the forces of the United States and the ARVN. They also employed further methods to strike at their opponents. They made sure that they never met their enemies in prolonged, conventional combat, only striking at the enemy when they were unprepared. They retreated in an enemy advance, and harried them when they were retreating, recovering or preparing for an assault. They also particularly targeted the morale of the enemy forces, using various methods to strike at the morale of the enemy, particularly by grievously wounding, as opposed to killing, the enemy.

The use of these tactics allowed the NVA and the NLF to harrow the US and ARVN forces, evening up the odds against themselves and all the while whittling down the forces and resolve of their enemies.

The use of the environment in conflict became critical to the NLF and NVA. It was a fundamental principle of guerrilla warfare that an army utilize to its full extent their natural surroundings. The communist forces made great use of the land in the war, employing it effectively against the US and South Vietnamese armies. They used the natural camouflage of the jungle to great effect. With its dense foliage they were able to mask their movements and operations from the US. The jungle was the perfect tool to use against the US and the North Vietnamese seldom fought outside its protection. The thick canopy of the jungle effectively nullified the supreme edge that the United States held with its significant air power. The US Air Force was unable to see its targets due to the jungle obscuring its pilot’s vision and was therefore unable to effectively find and target North Vietnamese emplacements, troops and installations. However the Vietnamese could strike easily at the overhead aircraft, using concealed Anti-Aircraft (AA) batteries to easily bring down the US fighters and bombers. The jungle also prevented the US from effectively deploying some of its other decisive military edges, the use of its advanced heavy weaponry such as tanks and heavy artillery, which could not manoeuvre through the dense trees of the jungle. Thus the enemies of the North Vietnamese took away most of the technological edge its opponents had, forcing the enemy to fight the same way that they did, on foot with infantry. This gave them an edge in battle, as they were familiar with the lay of the land whereas the United States forces were not. This allowed the NLF and the NVA, who had a superior knowledge of the lay of the land, to easily set up booby-traps and ambushes along the routes of the enemy forces that proved to be extremely effective. With this superior grasp of the surrounding landscape the North Vietnamese were able to easily escape the enemy forces, blending in to the jungle to escape after an ambush or flee an attacking force.

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They also relied heavily upon concealment. The NLF and NVA reasoned that an enemy that could not be seen could not be destroyed. They went to great lengths to conceal their operations. The Viet Cong relied heavily upon the jungle and its dense coverage to conceal them but also went to great lengths to conceal themselves otherwise. They made most of their movements and assaults at night, where the dark would limit vision and concealing their movements was easy. The extreme loss of vision also put their enemies at a severe disadvantage, as they were unfamiliar with the terrain whilst ...

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