The Conflict in Vietnam Between 1956 and1968

What Different Tactics Did Both Sides use in an Attempt to Win the

Conflict in Vietnam Between 1956 and1968?

Both sides used different tactics and had to adapt strategies in

response to the conditions they had to meet.

Vietnam has some of the harshest conditions possible in which to

fight. From the swamps, paddy fields and the Mekong delta in the

south, to the mountainous jungles in the north; it was all alien to

the Americans. The geography in Vietnam was so different to what the

American soldiers had been trained in, that they found it difficult to

exploit the landscape and make good use of it. The Vietcong, however

were on their home soil and made optimum use of the landscape to the

disadvantage of the U.S forces. The monsoon rains also proved to be

problem for the Americans. It transformed the ground into sticky clay.

The Vietcong and the NVA had no problem with these conditions as it

was their home. So right from the beginning the Americans were at an

immediate disadvantage.

At the beginning of the conflict the U.S were cautious about bombing

North Vietnam. President Johnson needed an excuse to initiate an air

campaign in North Vietnam. This came in the form of the attack on the

American base at Plieku. President Johnson now had the full support of

the U.S electorate and on 11 February 1965 operation Rolling Thunder

began. It attacked key military and industrial targets in North

Vietnam; such as bridges, railway lines, army barracks and support

depots. The U.S, however did not bomb North Vietnam's largest cities

for fear of jeopardising relations with the USSR. This selective

targeting had very little success and the flow of men and materials

from the north continued to grow. As the war intensified, the

selective targeting was replaced by saturation bombing (dropping bombs

on anything and everything in sight) to try to bring the Vietnamese to

their knees and sign a peace treaty in 1966. The huge B-52 bombers,

which flew at over 15,000 metres high were first used for this purpose

and used three times as much tonnage of bombs on North Vietnam as the

allies dropped on Germany in World War Two. The long air raids only

raised the morale and tenacity of the Vietnamese to resist. The North

Vietnamese used three main methods to combat this:

· Anti-aircraft guns. Were very effective and shot down most of the

U.S aircraft which crashed to the ground in North Vietnam.

· Surface-to-air missiles. Supplied by the Soviet Union, were new and

high-tech but not as effective as the older anti-aircraft guns.