Ia Drang Tactics

The Vietnam War is the longest war fought in America’s history (1954-1973). The Vietnam War occurred because North Vietnam followed Communist ideas and the United States followed democratic ideas. The North wanted to interfere with the South into becoming Communist but the U.S did their best to reduce or eliminate the North interference in South Vietnam. The Vietnam War was the first ever war to be shown on television. Although the U.S won the battle, the T.V exposed the horrors and struggles of the war. It seemed like the U.S was just killing random people for no reason. It made a lot of people question whether the U.S was the good or bad side. During the war, there was a theory “Domino Effect/Theory, that basically meant that once one fell under communism than the others would fall too. This war was extremely difficult because they were fighting in a forest. There were trees and bushes and everything would block the sight of the soldiers. So there was Guerilla Warfare which meant unconventional fighting, surprise attacks and ambush. Helicopters were extensively used. It was a fast in and an easy out. After the Tet Offensive, people started to distrust the government and increased the number of protests. There were war-hawks and doves. They were two completely different groups. One was anti-war and the other was pro-war. The war made a drastic impact in American Culture. Especially with the American people. The Vietnam War created division. (History.com)

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

First, they had similar war strategies. In my notes, it states that Vietnam’s war strategies included using

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

The Vietnam War is known as the longest battle in American history (Mintze). It is also one of the first to end in defeat for America and to be

The strategies and tactics used during this war were described in detail. The more important thing described, however, is not the actual strategy, but who made these strategies and what the other leaders thought of them. When General Lee decided to attack the enemy head on instead of going around them, not everyone agreed with the plan. Longstreet, for one, thought that they should have gone around the enemy and hit them from the back. These conflicts were great to see because it showed that everything was not going in perfect unison. It showed that these strategies we not always etched in stone. These plans had the potential to be changed many times. No successful strategy has gone uncontested and unchanged.

This was the first battle between the U.S. Army and the People 's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) of North Vietnam. This two part battle occurred November fourteenth through the eighteenth of November 1965. The location was at the Landing Zone X-Ray and Albany in La Drang Valley. Although ample casualties on both Vietnam and U.S. side, each side adduced the battle was a victory of their own. The action of La Drang Valley was considered essential as it set the layouts for approaches for each side during the conflict. The U.S. troops continued to depend on air mobility and arms fire to acquire their combat zone objectives-achievement of the so called “body count”. Viet Cong learned by quickly engaging their combat forces close to the antagonists (while at close range) the could abrogate American advantages. The battle of La

Vietnamese army had a major advantage over the U.S; they knew the forests well, and had

against South Vietnam and the U.S. forces situated there. It was not only a psychological

Likewise, the Vietcong received weapons, supplies, and heavy armaments, such as tanks, from the Russians and Chinese which made the resistance even greater than the U.S. and its allies' forces put together. This was evidenced clearly during the Korean war when the U.N. and U.S. forces arrived to Korea and forced the North Korean forces back to the 38th parallel and were even about to take North Korea as well, but as this was about to occur, the "human waves" created by the Chinese soldiers were introduced into Korea, retaking North Korea and forcing the allied forces out of Korea absolutely. Correspondingly, when the U.S. introduced its forces into Vietnam, the Vietcong received much support from Russia mainly but also from China, which turned the tide of the encounter and lead the communist Vietnamese to victory. On a more detailed level, during the mid of the conflicts, there were also several similar points. Operations on behalf of the U.S. had similar results, such being the case with "Rolling Thunder" and "search and destroy" tactics during the Vietnam war and the attack on North Korea after having taken the 38th parallel during the Korean War.

The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley was the first major battle of the Vietnam War that engaged regular forces of the United States Army ushering in a new era of combat. Air Assault of Artillery and Close Air Support used together for the first time in Vietnam allowed an agile small force to be successful against a much larger enemy contingency. Operation Silver Bayonet pitted the Third Brigade of the First Cavalry Division: 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Cavalry Regiment, against a much larger Vietnamese force to include the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong guerilla fighters. The fighting lasted from 14 November to 18 November 1965.

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.

They had proper strategic analysis with adequate information were available at the end of the First Indo-China War in 1954. However, there was a combination of factors that caused the leaders to dismiss the analysis including lack of understanding of Vietnamese nationalism. Unfortunately, the Vietcong had a far greater appreciation for these factors than the U.S leaders, that resulting in the communists forged a far more effective strategy for the achievement of their goals. In order to do so, they enforced some extremely burdensome and potentially lethal constraints. In 1956, the North Vietnamese communist party called for the organization of a mass-based party infrastructure in South Vietnam whose purpose was to provide three things: intelligence, manpower and logistical support for mobile military forces through the Lao Dong Party (working class). The Lao Dong party’s primary concern was to secure North Vietnam from invasion. Then they appealed through the extensive global propaganda system of communist, socialist and other leftist organizations’ influence public opinion against US. With extensive support from the U.S.S.R and China, the Vietcong was able to build a modern military capable of regional power projection to defeat the U.S and overthrow the Vietnam

Some major battles of the Vietnam War are was in October and November of 1965. It was the battle of La Drang it was the first battle between regular U.S. and the people's army of Vietnam. The battle was in November at the Landing Zone and Albany in La Drang. Both of claimed thebattle was there victory not the others victory. American troops relied on their mobiles and artillery so that they would win the war and the other side wouldn’t. Win they won the war they did they called it the ‘’body count’’.

Prior to the start of Second Indochina war, the United States had been teaching the South Vietnamese armies tactics in order to defeat the North Vietnamese guerillas. They would use these military tactics while executing search and destroy missions as well as clear and hold missions. Search and Destroy mission would involve South Vietnamese troops along with United States troops covertly entering into a Vietnamese village, searching for the Vietcong. Once they found the suspected Vietcong, they would “destroy” them then retreat back to base. The clear and hold method was very similar except they would drive the enemy forces from the village then occupy it afterward. Both of these tactics were a part of an overall campaign named Strategic Hamlet.