Guerrilla Warfare Vs Vietcong

find answers about the future movements of Americans. The Vietcong played mental games with these

To a large extent, the Viet Cong tunnel system did contribute to the defeat of the Americans during the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1969. This was so because of the many problems that were facing the US forces when fighting the war in Vietnam. It could be possible that one of the problems was the fact that the Viet Cong were fighting using guerilla tactics. However, it led to a great lack of trust among the Vietnamese and the Americans as it was difficult to distinguish between the real Vietnamese civilians and the Viet Cong soldiers in disguise. This essay will aim to discuss the Viet Cong tunnel system and how they contributed to the Americans defeat and we will have close reference to this essay.

The United States battle tactics did not fare well against an unseen enemy, who rarely presented himself in a full-scale battle, but rather picked at units one by one. A conversation between a colonel in the U.S. army and a colonel in the Vietnamese communist army summed up the guerilla warfare tactics used: "You know you never defeated us on the battlefield," said the American Colonel. The North Vietnamese Colonel pondered this remark for a moment. "That may be so," he replied, " but that is also irrelevant." The revolutionaries in Vietnam used hit and run attacks. They would assault small groups of soldiers, by sneaking up on them. This worked well, because it allowed the Viet Minh to avoid bigger battles, which they were not trained for. They knew that the U.S. soldiers were unfamiliar with the battlegrounds and jungles, so they used this weakness to their advantage, by being able to move more quickly and stealthily than the U.S. troops. They also knew how to

The Vietnam War started on the 1st November 1955, however full U.S military involvement was not until over ten years later in 1965 following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in which a U.S Destroyer was reportedly fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. Once again, as with the Korean War five years previous, the North part of the country was the Communists and the South part was the Capitalists. The Vietnam War was a lot more forthcoming than the Korean War, given the ten year period in which military advisers resided in Vietnam before the outbreak. Despite this build up the interest in Vietnam by war correspondents was at a minimal level. It is reported that even in 1963, just two years prior to the full involvement of the U.S military, there were only enough full-time correspondents to fill a table at a restaurant . The lack of media personnel in the country until 1965 shows that despite the indications shown in Korea for the USA to protect their interests, there is not much pull unless there is a full military involvement. The number of correspondents around in Vietnam before 1965 was at a measly eight. However, signifying the size of the war, the peak number in March 1968 hit 645 correspondents in Vietnam . Amongst this number saw a large quantity of female correspondents make their way to Vietnam. In all 467 women were accredited to being correspondents during the war, the most ever in any war . This may have been as a result of the

During the time the United States was in a war, the American public was sharply divided creating another war among its people. The war had transformed America to a different place with its defeat. It had far-reaching consequences and impact on most aspects of American life from the economy, culture to domestic politics and foreign policy. The Vietnam war created a time of uncertainty because so many had lost their trust in the government. With the end of the Vietnam war, the United States left with a humiliating defeat and shockingly high casualties.

The Vietnam War lasted longer, bloodier, and more hostile than any U.S. President or American citizen imagined. Lyndon Johnson faced many other enemies during the war such as the duration, the immense number of deaths, and for the first time in most American’s history, failure. Through deep evaluation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policies as President during the Vietnam war, failure was a recurring outcome, as he faced military and political difficulties over having complete authority over political decisions made leading to the misuse of his respective power, receiving split support through torn Americans at home, and his accord to deport so many troops into combat in Vietnam.

According to Tim O 'Brien, the Viet Cong 's and United States ' fighting tactics were a waste of people 's lives. The Viet Cong used guerrilla warfare tactics which resulted in Americans being killed and in turn caused innocent civilians to die. The Viet Cong planted mines along the paths and in the jungles to injure American soldiers. The Viet Cong were never out in the open and had the sympathy of the Vietnamese living there. Many young Vietnamese children and women planted mines, spied, and killed American soldiers. The American soldiers could not tell the difference between the enemy and the innocent, so the soldiers indiscriminately killed everybody. The American strategy was to find the Viet Cong and kill them. The American soldiers walked from village to village in search of the Viet Cong. As they went from place to place, soldiers would

“You could never tell who was the enemy was … therefore you treated everyone with suspicion”- Thomas Giltner, US Soldier “Contested Spaces”The foreign US soldiers had no knowledge of the geography of Vietnam (jungles, mountains, rainforests, and climate) but the VC did, and used it to their advantage. The US, by engaging in massive firepower, killing many non-combatants, destroyed the US credibility in the minds of the people. The VC sympathised with the people’s hardships and this was effective as they won the people over. The VC had extensive knowledge of guerrilla warfare, it was their war, and the US fought tractional conventional warfare which did have some effected, but eventually the US ran out of will. The military operations were

Kara Hinson The war in Vietnam started in 1955 and lasted until 1975. Many Americans believed it was a pointless war that had no meaning. The United States became involved in the Vietnam Warbecause they wanted to stop the spread of communism. This war took 50,000 lives and wounded 300,000 American men. Due to the My Lai massacre which killed hundreds of innocent and unarmed Vietnamese civilians, protests about the draft start all over the country, because of draft dodgers and draft deferment, and the government misleading people back home, this was known as the credibility gap, Americans are turning against the war in Vietnam. This leads to anti-war protesters, known as doves springing up across the United States demonstrating their opposition to the war.The Vietnam War is one of the most known wars in history, many innocent people were killed that had no involvement. United States soldiers came up with strategies to kill off the Vietcong, but occasionally the United States was not sure who were Vietcong and who were not. Napalm was a jellied gasoline that explodes when dropped in large canisters the napalm was usually dropped on villages. When the napalm was dropped on the villages, the Vietnamese houses and vegetation were destroyed. Napalm burned men, women, and children who were in the villages the clothes would burn completely off their bodies. Agent orange another substance used this was sprayed by an aircraft over the jungle. Agent

The United States of America, one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time, was completely unprepared for the war that it had joined in Vietnam. The terrain was unlike any we had ever fought in. From mountains to jungles to rice paddies, it was wet, hot, cold, and completely unforgiving. To say that the political situation was tenuous would be a drastic understatement. Not only could officials not make up their minds, neither could the general populace. The media had an influence in this war that was heretofore unseen. All of these factors were a great obstacle in and of themselves and then we put into play the greatest obstacle of all: the enemy. This was an enemy like we had never seen. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Vietcong (VC) were fast, agile, adaptable, and extremely unpredictable. The VC hid among the common populace and fought like demons. The NVA were well supplied, well organized, and did not restrict themselves the way many large armies do. This forced us to have to rapidly adapt and develop new tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in order to counter all of these obstacles. Due to these needs and the rapidly advancing technology and versatility of helicopters, the Air Cavalry was born. The Air Cav was composed of several types of airframes including transport aircraft, attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft. The reconnaissance aircraft were also known as Aeroscouts and were known for their boldness, audacity,

“If the tiger ever stands still, the elephant will crush him with his mighty tusks. But the tiger does not stand still. He lurks in the jungle by day and emerges by night. He will leap upon the back of the elephant, tearing huge chunks from his hide, and then he will leap back into the dark jungle. And slowly the elephant will bleed to death.” This quote by Ho Chi Minh emphasises his belief that Guerrilla tactics would be what would result in a win for the Vietcong. The Vietcong made use of tunnels, known as the Cu Chi Tunnels , which was a network of underground tunnels that the Vietcong resided in, and used to store supplies and care for the sick and injured. The use of underground hiding places meant that the US was unaware of the Vietcong’s whereabouts from ground level, allowed them to be

In 1961, during the early phases of the Vietnam War, United States and South Vietnamese soldier could not see how they were getting trapped and attacked by the enemy. The thick wilderness brush in Vietnam was the ideal environment for the North Vietnamese Army to cover themselves from U.S forces. The U.S reacted by making a new weapon called Agent Orange, an herbicide that Air Force planes planned to release above the treetops. This created fields of fire thus, leaving the enemies nowhere to hide. This bio-chemical was very powerful, and the United States utilized it for a long time.

The North Vietnamese Communist leadership's ability to reassess and adapt during the Vietnam War was reflected in how well they combined guerilla and conventional operations to achieve their strategic goal of unifying Vietnam under communist rule. Throughout the conflict, the Viet Cong (VC) were employed to conduct guerilla operations while North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and VC "main force" units were used to transition to conventional operations. Guerilla operations enabled Hanoi to inflict a steady flow of casualties on US forces which increased anti-war sentiment in America. NVA and VC main force conventional operations reinforced the US Army's conventional approach to the fight which caused the Americans to alienate the people of South

Vietnam’s population is very small compared to the United States population. Vietnam’s population consist of approximately ninety point seven million people compared to United States three hundred eighteen point nine million. Vietnam use to be a very poor country but they have changed there economy from a centrally planned to a market one and as a result have transformed the country into a lower middle income one. Vietnam’s GDP from two thousand fourteen was one hundred eighty six point two billion in United States dollars. The poverty headcount is seventeen point two percent in two thousand fourteen compared to two thousand and ten when it was twenty point seven percent; so the poverty in Vietnam is definitely getting better as the years go on. From my time in

Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam War Ho Chi Minh can be presented as passionate nationalist who just wanted his home country of Vietnam to be free from outside rule. Others present him as a savage man who was not afraid to deteriorate anything that stood in his way, including killing majority of his own people. The presentation of Ho Chi Minh differs throughout sources because they were written in different time periods by different people. The article was written in the by one writer present day of those events happening, there was no filtering of information. The textbook was written after the fact with outside influence and multiple people involved.