Tactics used by both sides in the Vietnam War.
Tactics used by both sides in the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War was between the Vietcong: who came from the north, and the US and the South Vietnamese. Both sides in the war used different tactics to exploit their advantage and their opponent's disadvantages. The Vietcong used guerrilla tactics to exploit the difficult terrain, whereas the American used conventional warfare to take where their technological superiority gave the considerable advantage.
The North Vietnamese army, known as the Vietcong, were badly trained and badly equipped. On the other hand they had a large number of troops and good knowledge of the terrain. The American army however were highly trained, used advanced technology, helicopters but limited knowledge of the terrain and more over were not used to fighting guerrilla warfare.
The Vietcong chose to engage the US forces in a guerrilla war, this meant that they would launch small attacks against the US forces, then retreat into hiding. Because of there knowledge of the jungle terrain, they were able to escape quickly. The Ho Chi Mihn trail this enabled them to move quickly and move round the US forces. The Vietcong invented a trail that would allow them to get in South Vietnam with engaging the Americans on the way and to allow them to transport weapons and supplies. The trail was named the Ho Chi Mihn trail after the Vietcong leader. The trail travelled through nearby friendly countries and it had hundreds of different ways, so that if one trail was found or blown up then the Vietcong could change to the next trail.
The one exception to the Guerrilla war was the Tet offensive in 1968. The Tet offensive was a change in the tactics used by the Vietcong, from guerrilla warfare to conventional warfare. The Vietcong simultaneously launched an attack on every major city and town in the south of Vietnam that were held by the American troops. Although they lost thousands of men and caused little casualties to the Americans, the
Tet offensive would still be one of the main reasons why the American withdraw. By attacking every city in the south at the same time the Vietcong were trying to trick the Americans into believing that they were more powerful than they really were. It worked, the Americans became extremely concerned that they would not be able to defeat such a large and powerful force, without heavy loses.
The Vietcong also used mines to halter the American advance. The mines were planted by the Vietcong to injure or kill any soldiers that step on them. More often than not, they were designed to not kill; the reason for this was because the mine would act to scare the Americans who saw what happen to their friend, into not want to fighting.
After the Americans began Operation Rolling Thunder, the Vietcong started to dig under ground to escape the bombs. The Vietcong built all there supply depots, weapons factories, and homes under the ground. This ...
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The Vietcong also used mines to halter the American advance. The mines were planted by the Vietcong to injure or kill any soldiers that step on them. More often than not, they were designed to not kill; the reason for this was because the mine would act to scare the Americans who saw what happen to their friend, into not want to fighting.
After the Americans began Operation Rolling Thunder, the Vietcong started to dig under ground to escape the bombs. The Vietcong built all there supply depots, weapons factories, and homes under the ground. This worked to great effect, the American were unable to destroy there under ground bunkers from the air. It also meant that when a bunker was found it was extremely hard to do anything about it. Because the bunkers were built so that dropping grenades down would not have done much damage. The bunkers also had enough food to last weeks, and had wells, which lead to under ground rivers. The bunkers also had many secret entrances, which meant that if one entrance were discovered, then the Vietcong would be able to escape out of others.
Furthermore booby traps placed near entrances to the bunkers. These were scattered about near the entrances of the bunkers. There designed to be camouflaged, so that the American could no see them. When there were triggered, it would trigger a falling log, or a trap door below their feet, which was laden with spikes. The main purpose of these booby traps is to maul the American so that he would not be able to fight. Many traps were designed to cover themselves over again when they had been triggered, so that they could be reused.
To create havoc in the south, the Vietcong also carried out terrorist acts. They planted bombs in places were US forces were known to go these included restaurants, Whorehouses, Cinemas and shops. The aim of this was to create havoc and destroy the morale of the US, by destroying their entertainment.
The US had gone into the war on the grounds that they were stopping the spread of communism- the domino theory. The US army is one of the best trained in the world; they have the best technology, and are well equipped. However they are used to conventional warfare- head to head fighting, and they had poor knowledge of the terrain and the condition in Vietnam, e.g., the monsoons.
The aim of Operation rolling thunder was to destroy the Vietcong's weapons depots and factories. They aimed to do this by "carpet bombing" from planes entire areas, to destroy anything in that area. Operation thunder in its earlier days had great success, large number of weapons, supplies and troops were destroyed. Without American lives being lost. However the Vietcong dug under the ground, making their entire factors underground. This meant that operation-rolling thunder became useless, as the bombs had no effect of the Vietcong bases. The US also adapted another technique, which used "mother bombs". These were extremely large bombs that were dropped of specific targets, such as weapons depots. There however were also rendered useless because of the Vietcongs movement under ground.
Another use for planes in the war was defoliant. Defoliant was a substance such as Napalm or Agent Orange that would destroy all of the plants in a large area and destroyed places for the Vietcong to hide. This also allowed the US forces on the ground to move in open spaces, But with agent orange was later found out to be a factor that helped bring on cancer. It effects both the Vietnamese and the US force. Nevertheless it was successful in its aims.
Additionally Search and destroy tactics were employed to scare the South Vietnamese- who were on the US's side, form turning to the Vietcong. The US troops used famously "Zippo" lighters to set alight to the South Vietnamese villages. There are also many accounts of US soldiers attacking, killing and even raping the villagers they found, if they suspected them of helping the Vietcong. Search and destroy was not very successful as the South Vietnamese who had not help the Vietcong started to because they began to think that there would be better off helping the Vietcong than the US, after the US had just burnt down their house and raped their daughter.
Another point that needs to be stated is that the US had been conscripting men to fight in the war in Vietnam. This was because although their army was available, the US government was reluctant to send a lot its highly trained forces aboard, when the US government believes heavily in a threat from Russia. Conscription lead to massive riots, marches and demonstration in the US and over countries. Mainly from the student population who made up the bulk of the conscripted army. This was the single one fact that caused the US to pull out of the war.
The final tactic used by the US was "Vietnamastion". The US trained the South Vietnamese how to fight so that they would be able to defend themselves. The US did this before they were going to pull out of Vietnam because they wanted to save face. The South Vietnamese were well equipped but despite US training they were still not very good, lacked experiences and was outnumbered. The North Vietnamese were experienced, as they had been fighting the war for more than ten years. When the US left the final city in South Vietnam, Saigon in 1973 the South Vietnamese was massacred the North and was able to win the war.
In conclusion the Vietcong were able to exploit the US's inexperience to fight a guerrilla war. The were not able to use the fall force of it's technological advantage, because of the difficult terrain, e.g. tanks. The Vietcong's tactic of borrowing also meant the US airforce was unable to do much to help the war effort, as they could no cause damage to the underground bunker. The Vietcong also made use of they knowledge of the terrain by using the Ho Ci Mihn trail, which allowed them to attack as they pleased.
The US was not able to use most of there technological advantages, but they made a lot of mistakes that did lead to there down fall. The search and destroy tactic succeeded in turning friends into enemies. Agent Orange killed a large number of US troops during and after the war. The one major advantage that the US did make us of was Helicopters. Helicopters enabled the US to leap frog forward to the front line and take the injured back quickly.
The US and the Vietcong both used different tactics in the war, but the Vietcongs proved to be more successful an in 1973 won the war. As a result of more than eight years of these methods of warfare, it is estimated that more than 2 million Vietnamese were killed, 3 million wounded, and hundreds of thousands of children orphaned. It has been estimated that about 12 million Indochinese people became refugees. Between April 1975 and July 1982, approximately 1,218,000 were resettled in more than 16 countries. About 500,000, the so-called boat people, tried to flee Vietnam by sea; according to rough estimates, 10 to 15 percent of these died, and those who survived the great hardships of their voyages were eventually faced with entry ceilings in the countries that agreed to accept them for resettlement.
In the Vietnam War U.S. casualties rose to a total of 57,685 killed and about 153,303 wounded. At the time of the cease-fire agreement there were 587 U.S. military and civilian prisoners of war, all of whom were subsequently released. A current unofficial estimate puts the number of personnel still unaccounted for in the neighborhood of 2500.
Less measurable but still significant costs were the social conflicts within the U.S. that were engendered by the war-the questioning of U.S. institutions by the American people and a sense of self-doubt.1
"Vietnam War," Microsoft(r) Encarta(r) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
History coursework: Tactics used by both sides in the Vietnam War
Page 1 of 3 By Mark Stern
