Tactics-Vietminh/cong(VIETNAM) Flashcards
Guerrilla Warfare
> Vietcong would hide in their surroundings then attack and ambush US soldiers, making them constantly paranoid
52% of casualties were caused by Vietcong ambushes
no uniform made them hard to be identified
30% of US soldiers became addicted to drugs such as Heroin
Hanging Onto Belts
> When Vietcong would stay close tp US troops so they couldn’t use artillery or air weapons without harming their own troops
Also created paranoia for US troops
Tunnels
> 300Km of tunnels protected Vietcong from air attacks such as bombing campaigns, Rolling Thunder 1965
also being hidden from the US made it hard to find them
Booby Traps
> Punji Sticks- pointy sticks with human feces on them hidden in ditches that would cut and infect US soldiers if stood on
venomous snakes hung from trees so they would bite and kill US soldiers
Bouncing Betty- National Liberation Front mines. this made over 10,000 US soldiers loosing limbs
over 10% of US deaths were from Booby Traps
Equipment
> was not a set uniform= hard to identify
AK-47 supplied by the USSR- light-weight gun & easy to use, reliable &accurate
carried a shovel and blades- used to make Punji Sticks
90% of weapons the Vietcong used were weapons previously owned by the US and ARVN
Vietcong soldiers had weapons stored in over 400 houses in Saigon ready for a battle in the capitol
Ho Chi Minh Trail
> around 60 tones of supplies and weapons are estimated to have gone through the Trail each day
Trail was about 15,000Km of pathways
Travel time from the North to Saigon was 6weeks
supplies were delivered by bike, horse or by hand
Peasant Support
> the policy of aiding and supporting peasants on farms enabled the Vietcong to use the villages to hide from the US
This created paranoia in US troops as they didn’t know who was their enemy
As a result, the US would launch search & destroy missions on these villages
this resulted in the killing( and massacring(My Lai) ) of innocent people
US media would report these, creating more opposition for the war in the USA
This also gave support to the Vietcong as the US looked like the ‘bad guys’
