Vietnam War tactics
BY GEORGIA JARMOLKIEWICZ
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER
Bombing campaign by US
Began Feb 4th, 1965-Oct 1968
First bomb, March 2 1965
In attempt to undermine North Vietnamese efforts to control the country and demoralize the people
US had to be careful not to start problems between the USSR and China too; limiting bombing space
End of 1965- failed attempts at the above meant the US moved their focus to supply lines from the North to the South, however still focusing on Hanoi and Haipong
cost to US: $600M
estimated damage:$300M
🔥🔥Napalm🔥🔥
- Used from 1965-1972
- plastic polystyrene+hydrocarbon benzene+gasoline=🔥
- generates temperatures 1,500°F to 2,200°F
- first used in flamethrowers by US troops hoping to clear the forrest in the guerilla war, and to clear out any guerilla fighters with them
- Later used in B-52 bombers
- 1 bomb = destruction for up to 2,500sq yards
- Insanely painful on skin, left most victims dead or with extreme burns
🍊💀agent orange🍊💀
- Used from 1965-1970
- Toxic Herbicide
- Used with the intention to kill off crops and leave the opposition hungry, malnutritioned and weak.
- 20M + Gallons Used
- 50 times more concentrated/stronger than normal herbicides
- Caused 4.8M deaths
- Caused 400,000 babies to be born with defects
- Due to violation of the Geneva contract, usage stopped.
🔥🔥Napalm🔥🔥
🍊💀agent orange🍊💀
napalm grenade
napalm bomb dropped
napalm victim
child born with birth defects due to AO
AO being sprayed
AO victim
AO being sprayed
AIRSTRIKES BY USAF
Many planes were used to either drop bombs as part of Operation Rolling Thunder, or to spray extremely dangerous chemicals such as Agent Orange
GROUND BASED SEARCH AND DESTROY TACTICS⛰🔫
- Tactic focused on hunting out the enemy, destroying them and measuring success by body count
- Began in 1965, when it continued to be the main US tactic until 1985
- It was the cause of the war failing, however it took commanders a long time how ineffective it was
- it was intended to be in the second phase of Westmoreland's three part plan
- The goal was to kill many people, however
Guerrilla tactics
- Guerrila tactics were based on this: retreat when attacked, raid enemy camps, attack when enemy is tired, and persue when the enemy retreats
- They did not wear uniforms - making it hard for the US to separate them from, and not kill, civilians
- No base, small groups, spent much time in the jungle = no easy target
- Aimed to wreck US morale, and the US soldiers were terrified of unexpected attacks or tricks - these caused 11% of the casualties
- 51% were from physical contact - close contact was good, because US troops wouldn't use guns out of fear of injuring their other men, and guns were something they relied on too.
- They stayed in tunnels underground, often below US bases, with traps to prevent invaders. These tunnels had access to everything they needed.
⚔GROWTH and support OF VIET CONG in the south ☠+ (SUPPORT OF THE PEASANTS IN THE SOUTH)
- Viet Cong was the peasant side of the conflict in the South
- As they were not under control of a government, they were ruthless when enforcing the peasants and residents of the area to support them, enforcing it with guns and violence
- This was similar to the Nazi tactic used: extreme violence and danger if anyone did not support them
- Money presented by Americans to rebuild new villages also caused resentment among peasants, convincing them to join the other side
- Viet Cong was the people's side. This encouraged the peasants to join as they knew thats the side that their familY and friends were on and would fight for.
- It made them feel unified and stronger together.
- It was also seen as the stronger side for much of the time - Americans didn't know how to handle the terrain or guerrilla fighters.
recycling of US weapons - 'finders keepers'
- The Viet Cong struggled to source guns and weaponry of course as they were a group of peasants mainly
- The Americans were not exactly careful with their resources and many guns were left with men who died, could be occasionally found when abandoned by a soldier during an unexpected guerrilla attack, or for example, dud bombs were often unexploded and could be used against the Americans by the Viet Cong
- This was a huge advantage to Viet Cong because they were fighting Americans with American resources - something Americans were not used to.
Soviet and Chinese support FOR NORTH VIETNAM
- Soviet support remained lukewarm through the 1950s and early 1960s. The USSR supplied North Vietnam with information, technical advisors and moral support but Nikita Khrushchev was less clearly supportive in order to not cause tension
MY LAI
The MY Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968.
Quang Ngai province, which was believed to be a stronghold of the National Liberation Front (NLF) or Viet Cong (VC) and was a frequent target of U.S. and South Vietnamese bombing attacks
Charlie Company of the Americal Division’s 11th Infantry Brigade received word that VC guerrillas had taken control of Son My.
Americans killed hundreds of innocent South Vietnamese people. Not one Viet Cong member was found, and only 3 weapons were found
Events were covered up for a whole year before it was found out and sparked outrage.
In 1970, a U.S. Army board charged 14 officers of crimes related to the events at My Lai; only one was convicted
My Lai in effect
VIETNAMIZATION 🙏🎉
Vietnamization was a policy created under Richard Nixon's administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops."
This was the US's way of backing out of the war as prestigiously as possible, and attempting to regain morale in their country, after one of the, if not the most unpopular American war involvement ever.
They saw it as that they had supported the South, and now it was up to them to use what they had been given.
tet offensive 💣
January 31, 1968, some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive
A coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam
Particularly intense fighting took place in the city of Hue, located on the Perfume River some 50 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone
^effects of tet offensive
📚bibliography📚
- Textbook
- PBS.ORG
- ALPHAHISTORY.COM
- MRALLSOPHISTORY.COM
- INFOPLEASE.COM
- HISTORYLEARNINGSITE.COM
- HISTORYNET.COM