How Did Weapons Influence The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War had a tremendous effect on the world, especially the United States. Not only did the war affect people in battle, but also left permanent effects on people all over the world. Over 57,000 U.S. citizens died and over 140,000 injured in battle. Multiple Americans were impacted by the war, vast amount of people died but more were injured. North Vietnam won the battle against South Vietnam and their allies. The Fall of Saigon in 1975 was the end of a gruesome war. The war had multiple long-term effects on the soldiers who fought for America.

The Vietnam war was a long, costly Armed war between America and Vietnam, that was an attempt to stop the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Vietnam Cong, up against south Vietnam and America. The US Troops used napalm in 1965 – 1972, (essentially an inflammable liquid used in warfare.) This mixture creates a jelly-like substance that when lit, sticks to anything within range of it for 10 minutes, the effects of napalm on human skin is devastating, It can kill anything or burn down any object that sounds in its way, A survivor Of the napalm strike called Kim Phuc once said ‘Napalm is the most terrible pain you can imagine’ the fire from napalm can burn up to 2120 degrees, Kim was one of the only people to

(INTRODUCTION) In August 1964, Vietnamese DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. President London B. Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Shortly after the incident, U.S. congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson war-making powers, and U.S. planes began regular bombing raids (Reference http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history ). In Vietnam, the US enjoyed virtual air supremacy. Nevertheless, Air Defense Artillery (ADA) units were able to distinguish themselves and prove their versatility by providing fire support to ground forces. ADA earned more than 450 medals for valor, receiving more than 1000 Purple Hearts, and one Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to SGT Mitchell Stout (Reference http://www.usc.edu/dept-00/dept/armyrotc/branches/air_defense.html ). Despite there being no confirmed aerial engagements, Air Defense Artillery played a vital role in the Vietnam War, and were at times crucial to battle success, proving their versatility, adaptability, flexibility.

The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States

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,

Anais Moss The Vietnam War was a very devastating war. There were many negative aspects that came along with this tragedy. Figuring out whether or not your against or for the war. The war on vietnam started in 1954 and ended 1975.For the United States of America the Vietnam War lasted for 11years. The United States originally got involved to help stop the spread of communism. Can you believe it saw two presidential terms? During this war the Civil Rights Movement was going on full force. African Americans were volunteering to go fight for a country that wasn’t even willing to give them basic rights. Such as getting de-segregation abolished, non- discrimination, and the right vote. Despite how America felt they were still willing to risk their lives. There were many aspects that came along with this war. A lot of people supported the war out of ignorance. They didn’t know the full intentions and actions that were taking place. Violence was a major downside to the war, many lives were lost during this period. With the Guerilla Warfare tactics that were taking place--the dropping of Napalm on the Vietnamese civilians was devastating because this toxic chemical was being dropped regardless of if there were men, women, children or enemy soldiers being involved. The use of unrestricted force and violence, gave Lyndon B. Johnson authority to do as he pleased when passing the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The amount of American Soldiers lost to this war is an unimaginable number. Young

The production team also made sure the weapons and vehicles were historically correct as well. To me, those are two of the things I would notice when it comes to viewing historically re-enacted war movies. I have seen too many movies where the weapons or vehicles that are from the wrong era ruin the movie and therefore destroying its historic value. However, in this movie, the production team hired a company called Cinema Weaponry who furnished and restored some 250 weapons for the Air Calvary soldiers including M-79 40mm grenade launchers, M-60 machine guns, 45-calibur pistols and M-16E1 assault rifles. The Vietnamese used anything from French and Russian surplus rifles including the MAT-49 submachine gun and PPS-43 rifles. Since few actual AK-47 were around, they made custom replicas of the Ak-47s. Over all, the costume and prop departments for this movie did an extraordinary job to simulate and recreate the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965.

The technological advancements, especially aviation advancements, in the Vietnam War have changed warfare as a whole. Weapons became more complex; tactics became more gruesome, bombing became much more frequent and utilizing larger radiuses. Attack and medical helicopters came into play, environmental killers, and more medical advancements.

During the time of the war the Vietnam came about war a different way than the Americans. The Americans used the same strategy they used in WW2 which seemed to be very successful for us and the Vietnamese used an all out, no grudge strategy known as guerilla warfare. This strategy had no petty on mankind. A group of people sprayed trees, houses, grass and etc with a chemical called herbicides. They sprayed over 19 million gallons of it across about 4.5 million acres of land.

Disorder, destruction, and death became the description for the Vietnam War. This war affected the soldiers more than any other war, even before they would ever go. As American soldiers left to fight the disorderly and deathly war, Americans were going through one of the most confusing time periods in American history: families being split by the draft, the fear of the communist domino theory, and the search for a new soldier to find oneself in the midst of all the chaos. The invention of the television affected American citizens more than any other war. The television became popular to American households in the 1950s, so when the Vietnam war began, anybody who owned a television gained the ability to stay updated and informed on the progress of the war. The Vietnam War was not just a time of fear, confusion, and change for the American soldier, but also for the American citizens back home, fearing what could happen to their families and their country.

It all started in 1965 Americans fought with different weapons and markers of success, consequences than previous wars. The military was using 4.6 million tons bombs to bomb the others. They lost military soldiers because they hoped to defeat North Vietnam though massive bombing Campaign, “Operation Rolling Thunder.” American Commanders wanted to demoralize the Communist soldiers and Compliment

During the Vietnam War, a proxy war fought primarily between North Vietnam and South Vietnam with the support of the US, the deployment of new technology is seen by some to have a pivotal impact on the nature of warfare. The Vietnam War does however highlight how other factors may have been equally influential as despite America’s large preponderance in the sense of technology, weapons and ultimately economic wealth it was counteracted by the intense motivation to win and leadership shown by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong, provoking their victory. As a result, it raises the question if new technology alone influenced the nature of warfare in this period or if it was a combination of other aspects including public support, organization,

In late 1961, America took physical force in the Vietnam War. War is a complex series of political events that leads to physical involvement in the form of armed combat. Technology is a major deciding factor in war, along with the battle tactics used, terrain, experience and professionalism of the opposing forces. By 1961 both the United States and Vietnam had developed a broad array of guns and weapons to fight off one another. Coupled with battle tactics this provides a deadly and extremely hostile environment.

“The failure of the United States against North Vietnam was due to their inefficient use of military machines” (Gibbons, 2014:107). These tactics used by the US soldiers included bombs that the soldiers did not use efficiently, because if they used the military advantage that they had, this would have been a victorious war for the US. However, due to their use of these military machines inefficiently, they were left in humiliation. “The US threw bombs on Vietnam and was equipped with every existing kind of weapon, engaged in the longest and most brutal war” (Buttinger, 1977:169). The US army should not have bombed strategic routes of the Viet Cong because they wanted to get back at them, but they should have attacked with bombs and weapons on the battle once the Viet Cong had started attacking. Their lack when to use their tactics led to their failure. “One of the US’s mistakes which led to their defeat was the bombing of Laos when they launched the defoliant Agent Orange which destroyed homes” (Kaiser, 1973:412). Due to this action, the US lost not only the support of Laos citizens but also the rest of the Vietnamese people, because this was evidence that the only important factor for the US soldiers was to win the war against the Viet Cong and not the lives of the Vietnamese