Cold War Transition

Some time along the U.S military’s history it had undergone a transition from fighting conventional wars with clearly defined frontlines to unconventional, guerilla style wars with no clearly defined front lines. There were various reasons for this transition, most stemming from a fundamental change in the type of wars the world experienced and a different geopolitical climate. This transition altered nearly all aspects of the military. From the way it fights its wars to the way it operates internally, the military's doctrine was revolutionized for the new Cold War and post Cold War world.

The key political catalyst for this transition is undoubtedly the emergence of the Cold War. The Cold War had brought with it the concept of M.A.D, Mutual

It guaranteed that any conventional war between any two great powers would eventually result in a full nuclear exchange and a worldwide nuclear holocaust. This made conventional war between great powers completely impractical to achieve any sort of political war, and thus led to the emergence of proxy wars as the main way of superpowers to advance their interests . These proxy wars occurred in nations under the political influence of either the United States or Soviet Union. They featured the forces of the given superpower fighting against the enemy-backed forces of the invaded nation. In each conflict, the superpower hoped to advance their political interests and ideology by defeating the local army and putting the nation under their direct control. Famous examples of these proxy wars were the Vietnam War, the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and the Angolan Civil War. In these proxy wars, the invaded nation was typically much weaker militarily and technologically. They had to adapt to this by adopting a different style of warfare known as guerilla warfare. This type of warfare is where a small group of combatants conduct ambushes, raids,

In Vietnam, no longer did the U.S military face an equally matched opponent on an open battlefield. It now faced an enemy heavily concealed among the local civilian populace that was often unconcerned with following the international rules of warfare. In Vietnam. The Viet Cong’s hit and run and ambush tactics were specifically designed to drain the moral of American troops. They made U.S troops unwilling to fight and reduced the overall effectiveness of U.S forces. The Vietcong and NVA in the Vietnam War, deployed mines, punji stake traps, and conducted ambushes specifically to halt and slow the advance of U.S troops. They focused not on preventing the U.S from acquiring territory, but bogging down U.S troops and making it too costly for them to fight. The U.S responded to the new enemy threat with tactics specifically designed to reduce the effectiveness of guerilla war. Among the most important of these was population control. In Vietnam, the Viet Cong disguised themselves with civilians as much as possible to slow down U.S efforts to eliminate them. As the U.S was strictly bound by the Geneva Convention to limit civilian casualties, they could not indiscriminately bomb Viet Cong positions. As a result of this limitation, the U.S employed the tactic of population control. U.S forces extensively