How was the Vietnam War fought?

How does this picture make you feel?

Where the war was fought The Vietnam War was fought in a jungle environment in Vietnam, south-east Asia. The Americans were fighting alongside the anti-Communist South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese communists who were trying to take over South Vietnam. This was because USA’s campaign to bomb north Vietnam into submission had been unsuccessful.

How the Vietcong fought The Vietcong, a group of communist fighters in South Vietnam, used guerilla tactics to achieve success. This meant that they launched surprise jungle attacks on the enemy. Since they had the support of most of the local population, they could easily be absorbed back into village life and they were given help to build underground tunnel systems to run away and hide from the Americans. They also dressed similarly to Vietnamese civilians and so it was hard for the Americans to identify their Vietcong enemy.

How the Vietcong fought This photograph shows a Vietcong soldier being dragged out of his trench by US soldiers. If he had not been caught, he may have ambushed or set a booby trap to catch the Americans and anti-communist natives. Since the Vietcong had the support of the locals, there was a ‘wall of silence’ when the Americans asked for help from the local people.

How the Americans fought At first the American involvement was limited to giving advice and to supplying weapons. But after North Vietnam had attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin President Johnson ordered the American airforce to bomb major targets in North Vietnam. These targets included towns, naval bases, air fields and army camps. Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder. If the Communists wanted war he said America would give them war. American power would destroy the Communists. This tactic failed. Despite dropping more bombs on Vietnam than they did on Germany in World War2. The Communists did not surrender.

How the Americans fought As the Vietcong could easily hide in the jungle, the Americans decided to carry out a policy of defoliation (destroy the jungle) in order to help find the enemy. They did this by spraying a strong chemical weed killer from the air called Agent Orange. This killed the leaves on the trees and destroyed crops which the Vietnamese relied on to survive.

How the Americans fought This was the first helicopter war. US troops could be picked up and moved to anywhere in the country ensuring that they could be in the right area at the right time. They could also pick up casualties much quicker and get them out of further danger. Helicopters could also be used as a form of reconnaissance to spot where the enemy maybe (except of course when they were hiding underground or deep in the jungle!)

How the Americans fought This famous photograph shows Vietnamese children running down a road after a South Vietnamese aircraft accidentally dropped its load of napalm on a local village. Napalm is a type of petroleum jelly that burns fiercely and sticks to the skin. It was dropped by the Americans and South Vietnamese in order to set fire to villages or burn jungles.

Fighting tactics used in Vietnam VietcongUSA / South Vietnamese How well did they deal with the jungle environment? What types of weapon / warfare did they use? How effective were the weapons / warfare?

Fighting Tactics used in Vietnam The types of weapons the Vietcong used were ____________________________________________ _______________________. They deployed tactics such as _________________________________ _______________________________________________________. These were / were not effective because… _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ The negative points about the Vietcong were that…_________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ The types of weapons used by the Americans were ________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Their tactics were that they ___________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ The negative points about the Americans were that..________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Overall, I think that the __________________ were more suited for fighting a war in Vietnam. I say this because… ____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________