The Costly Failure of American Tactics in the Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War strategies and tactics became the main foundation of the battles. There were many ways both sides fought, and also many changes the way they fought.

The American's first tactics consisted of various methods of war.

One method they used to help them win the war was to control the skies, this meant watching over their battle ground, which was in the county side, and bombing suspected hiding places in which they thought that the Vietcong were hiding. This was called Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation was a costly failure that wasted a lot of time as it lasted 3 years as opposed to the original 8 weeks stated. It was also expensive because of the cost of the bombs. This waste of money had to be paid by American citizens who were generally not too happy.

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Another tactic the Americans tried to use was to try and re-educate the South Vietnamese people. The main purpose of this re-education was to stop the South Vietnamese from helping the Vietcong forces in such ways as a hiding place or giving them food supplies. Although this method was effective, it did not manage to for fill its main idea. So for a quick to their problems, they used the Strategic Hamlets Policy, which forced the South Vietnamese to be moved, and South Vietnamese leader Diem also demanded that they had to pay for their movement. This caused commotion amongst the South Vietnamese people.

The Americans tried to use their more advanced technology to their advantage by using advanced weapons such as M60 machine guns, MP40 sub-machine guns and B52 Bomber aircraft (That was used in Operation Rolling Thunder)

Americans also used Zippo raids named after a common American cigarette lighter.

During these raids the US forces, set fire to the homes of farmers and other peasants.

A way in which the US forces tried to get the Vietcong forces from internally was to put Agent Orange into their water supply. This caused many cruel diseases, deformities and deaths. It also affected the ability for innocent farmers to grow crops. The affect of Agent Orange still lasts today as some deformities are said to have been caused by the same thing.

The Vietcong on the other hand had a different and more basic form of warfare. They used such things as tripwires and bouncing betties to badly injure the US troops. Although basic, they were extremely effective as many people fell for them.

One of the most effective tactics in the war was guerrilla warfare. This was groups of Vietcong troops ambushing a small group of American soldiers. This was their main tactic during the whole war as they did not have as much sheer power as the US.

They used the jungle to their advantage and laid mines and booby traps to injure the American soldiers. This made the US troops more fearful when they went out searching for the NLF

A more psychological tactic that the Vietcong used was their morale. The Vietcong had far more morale than the US soldiers meaning they were more willing to take risks and die if it was necessary. Their main display of morale was at the battle of La Drang in 1965 in which they conceded many deaths but they did they did not let it get them down, which was almost the opposite of what the Americans were like. This tactic helped them though out the whole war.

Chi Chi tunnels was the main survival tactic the Vietcong used. They supplied shelter from attacks, a place to store food, water, weapons and even to navigate through their battlefield.

The Vietcong also had support from other communist countries such as Russia who provided them with SAM missiles which were used to take down aircraft. This helped decrease the amount of bombs dropped from the air.

Both sides of the War changed tactics around the late 1960s meaning that the War could go both ways at that point depending on whether the countries tactics changed for the better.

A new tactics that the Americans used was to try and cut of the Ho Chi Minh trail as it was the method the Vietcong were using to get their supplies. It was a failure as the trail had so many different routes.

The My Lai massacre was also a strategy that they thought would take down many NLF troops, but instead they caused commotion amongst both the US and the Vietcong as most people just thought of it as a disgusting and cruel massacre of helpless and innocent peasants. This along with the Tet offensive, A surprise attack from the NLF, was making the War now seem in favour of the Vietcong as the citizens of America were now angry about the fact that America had gotten into a War that they were both losing and murdering innocent people.

Former well respected news reader stated that the war could not be won, and as he was well respected, it brought down many hopes of a communism free Vietnam.

For the Vietcong on the other hand, their morale seemed to increase and also they seemed to be dealing some serious damage to the image and troops of America. The Tet offensive was an attack on the Vietnamese New year on June 8th 1968 that was meant to have no combat during that time. This tactic paid off and caused heavy casualties for the Americans.

The Vietcong also used a Saigon suicide squad to mostly damage hopes of winning rather than cause physical damage, although it did cause a lot of casualties.

Both sides had their ups and downs in tactics, but the determination, morale and thought of improvement caused the Vietcong to be victorious over the Americans. Their victory was down to many factors of war. One reason was because the Americans did not take the Vietcong seriously and thought that it was a battle that would be easily one with sheer power. They were wrong. The way the NLF changed tactics after learning that they could not face America head on at La Drang is an improvement that maybe won them the battle. But overall, it seems that it was what they were fighting for that made the largest difference between the two sides. America fighting to prevent communism spreading, and the Vietcong fighting for their freedom.

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