To what extent did guerrilla tactics of the Vietcong enable them to achieve victory?
Ben Dunn
To what extent did guerrilla tactics of the Vietcong enable them to achieve victory?
Its critical strategic position in south east Asia bordered by China, Cambodia and Laos made Vietnam of great significance to Western and Communist powers. France conquered the country between 1858 and 84 and it became part of France's Indo-China empire which included Cambodia, Laos and Annam.
In June 1940 Hitler defeated France and conceded to Japanese demands to have soldiers in French Indo-China (Vietnam), the French were in no position to disagree. In July 1941 the Japanese invaded southern Indo-China. Between 1940-45 French Indo-China was occupied by Japan.
Vietnamese nationalists were very frustrated by Bao Dai's collaboration with foreign imperialists and Ho Chi Minh became leader and established the Vietminh (Independence) League which was committed to ridding the country of the Japanese and French.
At the end of World War ll, France struggled to reassert control in and to restore Bao Dai. This led to bitter fighting and the final defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu. The Vietminh were nationalists and communists, who treated the ordinary Vietnamese people with the respect they hadn't received from their French or Japanese colonial masters and also promised a fairer distribution of wealth, power and national freedom.
Apart from Ho Chi Minh, another key figure in the Vietminh as General Giap, who had met Ho in 1940 and shared a hatred of the French. Between them they built up groups, 'cadres' of dedicated people who shared their beliefs and by 1944 Giap had trained several hundred cadres, who were well practised in hiding from the French in the jungle and surviving on insects and roots. From 1944 Giap commanded the Vietnamese Liberation Army and forces of around 5,000 and at the time was on good terms with the Americans who armed him with weapons to use against the Japanese. After the Japanese defeat he continued to improve the Democrat republic of Vietnam army's armaments and in 1946 the Vietminh declared war on the French.
Giap's tactics for defeating the French began with guerrilla warfare designed to demoralise and confuse the enemy, it was completely revolutionary style of warfare to French whose experience was based on methods employed during World War l and ll. Giap's next phase was the move to set piece battles as his army grew in strength.
The Vietminh received a great boost both practically and in terms of morale when Mao Zedong took control of China in 1949 and made it a communist state which provided ideological support, armaments, advice and safe haven in time of trouble.
This sounded a warning bell for the United States. In February 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy whipped up the country into a state of anti-communist hysteria. When communist North Korea mobilised against South Korea, the US persuaded the United Nations to intervene to stop the spread of communism. They feared this was the thin end of the communist wedge which could eventually turn the whole of Southeast Asia red.
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The structure of Giap's army was also revolutionary. Army divisions were each supported by porters who carried supplies and ammunition over the difficult terrain. All were united ...
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This sounded a warning bell for the United States. In February 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy whipped up the country into a state of anti-communist hysteria. When communist North Korea mobilised against South Korea, the US persuaded the United Nations to intervene to stop the spread of communism. They feared this was the thin end of the communist wedge which could eventually turn the whole of Southeast Asia red.
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The structure of Giap's army was also revolutionary. Army divisions were each supported by porters who carried supplies and ammunition over the difficult terrain. All were united by a longing for freedom which meant they were able to endure hardship and survive in hostile terrain. A psychological approach was also used which gave soldiers clear guidelines on how they should deal with civilians. It was important to keep them on side. In addition the policies of land redistribution, health care and education helped to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. Things were very different in France where people had endured a vicious war and for most Indo-china was no more than a place on the map many miles away. The final battle was not far off.
Not long before the French chose Dien Bien Phu for their stand against the Vietminh President Eisenhower had given the French huge amounts of armaments in return for the promise to grant greater independence to Indo China. There was also great debate in the US on what degree of involvement it should commit to. On one level the US felt it should support its WWll ally, so soon after the end of the war but was hesitant about supporting a colonialist master retain control of its colony. However, Eisenhower felt as did many in his administration that the strategic position of Vietnam meant there had to be a measure of involvement particularly as the French were fighting a communist enemy, although so soon after the end of one war, there was a reluctance to commit more troops to another. When the French position at Dien Bien Phu became increasingly desperate Eisenhower sent US bombers and 200 American technicians who were to become the first Americans to be involved in Vietnam.
Dien Bien Phu was a strange place to choose for a last stand and the French "preparation" for battle was a little unusual as the garrison was equipped with such comforts as 18 prostitutes and 49,000 bottles of wine. The garrison was located in a valley and from the surrounding high ground, the Vietminh were able to rain down fire on the French.
Arguments for and against American involvement raged in the US. On one side the Communists were potentially in control of a major strategic area and the domino theory was terrifying to them. Against this was the feeling that there were no really convincing military objectives and importantly would mean a serious diversion of limited US capabilities. For Eisenhower there was the political risk of committing troops to another south east asian theatre having recently withdrawn them from the Korean confrontation. In addition there were no troops readily available.
In 1954 the Geneva Conference on Indo China took place. Stalin had died the previous year and there was move among Soviet leaders to try and reduce Cold War tension. On 8th May 1954 delegations from France, Bao Dai, the Vietminh, Cambodia, Laos, the US, USSR, Peoples' Republic of China and Great Britain met in Geneva to resolve the future of Indo China. The previous day the battle of Dien Bien Phu was over with the red flag of the Vietminh raised in victory.
The outcome of the Geneva Conference was that there would be Communist rule in North Vietnam, north of the 17th parallel from which the French would withdraw and the south would be ruled by Bao Dai and his president Ngo Dinh Diem. The Vietminh agreed to withdraw to the north of the 17th parallel. No other treaties could be made with other countries and there were to be democratic elections for a single Vietnamese government in two years time. The French were to stay in the south only to help prepare for the elections.
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However, the Americans were reluctant for elections to take place knowing that if they did Ho Chi Minh would have a landslide victory. Diem felt the same and turned his back on the French choosing to ally himself with the Americans in direct contravention of the Geneva Conference. Although the aim was to create a stable state, Diem was completely incapable and introduced some patently ridiculous measures such as repressing Buddhism and trying instead to force Catholicism on the unwilling people and refused to reform and allowed nepotism to flourish. He failed to empathise with the people, in contrast to the Vietminh who related well to the people.
America meanwhile was continuing to pour money into the country, to give advice on policy and to mount covert operations against the Vietminh such as recruiting fortune tellers to predict doom under communism. They also arranged for a million mainly Catholic refugees to move from the north to the south which backfired because although it initially increased support for the Catholic Diem, it alienated the mainly Buddhist population.
Between 1955 and 1961 America poured $7 billion into Vietnam to support Diem and create the illusion of a successful state, which could conceivably worked if better managed. But Diem was simply incapable.
During the Kennedy presidency, Vietnam became more high profile. His commitment to the defeat of communism saw US troops invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs emergency and he was acutely aware of the communist threat in Vietnam. Throughout there were constant ongoing battles between the north and south, although the US was not directly involved in direct action. In January 1961 there were under a thousand American advisors in the country. Kennedy himself visited and recommended more troops should be sent to intervene, more equipment and advisors followed. By 1962 there were 12,000 advisors in Vietnam.
This was the time which produced some of the most powerful images ever of Buddhist ritualistic suicides where monks poured petrol on themselves and set themselves alight. All this was alienating the people.
Diem was overthrown in November 1963, around the same time as Kennedy's assassination.
President Johnson wanted to continue Kennedy's policies, partly because he was aware that he did not have the mandate personally and was in a sense carrying out Kennedy's wishes.
In August 1964 American battleships The Maddox and The Turner Joy were attacked by what were apparently North Vietnamese gunboats. For some time America had been mounting covert operations along the coast where boats went on espionage missions in North Vietnamese waters. The outcome was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave Johnson power and unlimited funds to wage war in Vietnam.
The Vietcong were infinitely more able to fight on their own terrain than the American invaders. The guerrilla tactics they employed were a key to their ultimate victory.
The Guerrilla tactics employed by the Vietcong were the perfect tactic to use. They could not wage an open war due the fact the far economically and technologically advanced Americans had more and better weapons. The Americans also had other equipment that the Vietcong did not, - such things such as Helicopter Gunships (Air cavalry), Fighter planes, B-52 bombers, Battleships and Tanks. The Americans also outnumbered the Vietcong: at their peak in December 1968 there were 543,000 troops.
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The Vietcong operated in a completely different way, their structure was based on "cells" of 3-10, this ensured that if they were spotted or captured the Vietcong would not lose or uncover a large number of troops. This also allowed for easy communication throughout such a small unit and enabled them to move around relatively unnoticed due to the fact that they would not leave many tracks etc. The Vietcong Cells would range around the intense jungle setting booby traps, raiding American installations and picking off enemy units then melting away into the jungle before any American reinforcements could arrive to mount a firefight. The Vietcong would be sure not to engage enemy units if they felt that they could not be victorious. This was to ensure that they did not lose valuable numbers of troops unnecessarily. The Vietnam War is notorious for booby traps - they set traps everywhere, from pathways to paddy fields to random ration cans. This meant that the Americans had to be ultra cautious or they would be blown up or impaled.
The Vietcong traps were particularly vicious or well designed (depending on which perspective you see it from). The viciousness was such that in one of their legendary traps, the hole in the path with sharpened wooden stakes wedged at angle and then covered with leaves and debris etc. This meant that if a Marine was unfortunate enough to fall victim to one then the stakes would piecee his leg and would not be able to be removed quickly without ripping off flesh. This random picking off of Americans for not obvious big losses from the Vietcong destroyed the morale of American troops. The fact that they could never feel safe scared an awful lot of them and in response a large number of Americans became drug abusers on such substances as Marijuana and Heroin.
The Vietcong had a strict code of conduct on how they treated South Vietnamese peasants. Their commander General Vo Nguyen Giap set down the code of conduct for which all Vietcong Guerillas were to follow. This included rules were as follows "Be polite; be fair; return everything borrowed; do not bully; do not fraternise with women; try not to cause damage and if you do, pay for it. These rule may seem obvious but were something that the American troops never managed to grasp. This was part of General Giap's successful programme to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese peasants.
More to follow..................
