Fighting the War in Vietnam - Chapter 22 Section 2

1. Ground fighting in Vietnam was difficult:

a. sweltering heat, mosquitoes, sharp jungle grasses, leeches, and rainy seasons

b. marching through flooded rice fields and on muddy trails

c. land mines were a constant threat – page 739

d. The enemy was everywhere and no where.

2. Guerilla warfare – fighting by small, independent groups using tactics like sabotage and sudden ambushes.

a. The Vietcong knew the terrain and had the support of the peasants who liked the communists’ struggle

against the invading outsiders or who feared terrorism.

b. hit and run tactics

c. Vietcong used their knowledge of the jungle terrain to move secretly in and out of the general population.

d. The Vietcong used a vast network of underground tunnels.

e. Their tunnels were built to withstand air strikes.

f. From tunnels the Vietcong could launch surprise attacks and then suddenly disappear. See page 738.

3. There were only a few ways that the US felt they could win against the guerilla tactics.

4. One way was to intensify air-strikes. If the Vietminh could no longer supply the Vietcong, the VC might be defeated.

a. The air war grew as the US bombed supply routes, roads, railways, factories, and homes in South

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

b. Planes dropped Agent Orange to kill the jungle plants.

1. If the plants were dead, the VC would have nowhere to hide.

2. Plants died within two to three weeks after spraying.

3. This dioxin poison moved up the food chain and caused cancer, birth defects, and genetic

damage to plants, animals, and humans.

4. The chemical stayed in the soil three years or more.

5. In some areas, there were no plant roots left to hold down soil, so it washed away, eroding in

monsoon season.

c. Other planes dropped napalm (fire bombs) to destroy jungles and villages so the VC had no hiding places.

1. This gasoline-based bomb had disastrous effects on the environment.

2. This was an attempt to expose and eliminate VC tunnels and hide-outs.

5. Another way to try to fight the guerilla tactics was through the “battle for hearts and minds.”

a. To stop the Vietcong from gaining support in the country-side, the US army tried to improve the lives of the

people, so that they would not turn to communism.

b. “Just remember this, communist guerillas hide among the people. If you win the people over to your

side, the communist guerillas have no place to hide.”

c. The US may have tried to help, but frequently had to move villages rather than improve them.

d. Civilians that may have had ties to the VC were uprooted.

1. The US would try to move the village to a new location, but frequently, the villagers ended

up in cities or in refugee camps.

2. 3 million people became refugees in the South during the war.

3. Usually, the villagers resented the US because they weren’t safer or living better.

4. Resentment grew as the US burned villages and killed livestock.

5. Read page 740 – “Sinking Morale”

6. Eventually, success in the war was measured in enemy body counts, not by territory gained.

a. This is a War of Attrition – or a gradual wearing down of the enemy by continuous battle or harassment.

b. The US used the concept of body count – tracking the number of Vietcong killed in battle, hoping

that as the number of them went down, it would lead to surrender.

c. The US did not count on the VC being so well supplied.

d. But high VC casualties did not stop the fighting because the Vietnamese saw the war as a battle for survival.

7. The biggest mistake of Vietnam was that US military planners thought the Vietcong would be defeated quickly.

8. When the victories weren’t quick in coming, the US civilians began to question the war in Vietnam.

a. The economy suffered, as Johnson had to cut funding to his own Great Society programs to fund the war.

b. “Living Room War” – combat footage appeared nightly on the news.

1. The government kept talking optimistically about a quick war, but the news showed body bags.

2. 16,000 Americans died between 1961 – 1967.

3. Credibility gap

4. By 1967, Americans were evenly split over supporting or opposing the war.