Tactics During Vietnam

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Tactics During Vietnam From the beginning of the war the NFL realised that in order to win they must win "the hearts and minds" of the peasants. This way they could be provided with shelter, food and such like, also they would be able to enlist more fighters for their cause and above all else the peasants would see that communism was the way their country should be heading. To do this they operated by a special code when dealing with the peasants: "(1) Not to do what is likely to damage the land and crops or spoil the houses and belongings of people; (2) Not to insist on buying or borrowing land that people are not willing to sell or lend; (3) Never break our word; (4) Not to do or speak what is likely to make people believe that we hold them in contempt; (5) To help them with their daily work. These rules ensured that the peasants would support the NFL and help them at any opportunity. As well as these gestures of kindness towards the peasants they would also educate them as to why they were so poor and, of course explain how much better communism would be to them. The Americans on the other hand although realising to some extent that the war was only going to be won with the support of the peasants were far less active in their approach to helping, and indoctrinating them. On the news and publicly they were seen to be helping them but the soldiers were far less willing and the peasants were already prejudiced against the USA involvement in the war. An example of the Americans focussing on the peasants was the "Strategic Hamlet" programme (although technically an ARVN tactic it was masterminded by the USA‚s CIA). Under the guidance of the CIA they uprooted whole villages and took the peasants to an enclosed area and kept them under guard. The idea was to stop the peasants being influenced by the NFL. This was understandably a very unpopular tactic and probably turned more peasants against the Americans than it did win support. The Military tactics used by each side were also very different. America used high technology weapons that were capable of destroying practically anything. They were particularly keen on using their advanced planes and bombs. For example "operation rolling thunder" was a bombing campaign that was put over the North of Vietnam in 1964. It was originally set up
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to last about 8 weeks but in actual fact it continued for over 3 years.The NFL had no such armaments and technology, so relied on using Guerrilla tactics. Originally adapted by Mao Zedong for use by China, Ho Chi Minh exploited Chinas tactics very carefully. The hit and run tactics were designed to put small holes in the enemy that eventually amounted to winning the war. The NLF‚s resources from the beginning were stretched, not necessarily manpower but weapons and other such resources were scarce. So the NLF used unexploded bombs to produce traps such as "bouncing bettys", mines that ...

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