The Dau Tranh Strategy

War is the highest, most comprehensive test of a nation and its social system. War is a contest that not only tests the skill and strategy of two adversaries, but also their strength and will. Victory goes to the side which has the correct military strategy, which makes best use of the art of military science and which most successfully limits the war-making capacity of the adversary. (as cited in Pike, 1986)
Through the use of the dau tranh strategy, the North Vietnamese effectively leveraged all aspects of civil, political and military resources in order to defeat a militarily and economically superior force. By skillfully, conducting the various aspects of political dau tranh and armed dau tranh the North achieved their primary political goal of the reunification of the Vietnamese peninsula under the auspices of the Lao Dong Party.
The dau tranh strategy is based off the emphasis that in order to accomplish stated political objects, all efforts must be coordinated there by creating a single

The political aspect is much broader than Americans would likely conceptually envision. The political realm of dau tranh essentially encompasses all aspects of civil society to ensure full integration with everyday life. Additionally, the effects on enemy moral and the enemy civilian population become a strategic center of gravity that can at times be more important to control than winning battles against enemy combatant forces. Author Douglas Pike, who is view as the quintessential expert of the Vietnam War, noted in one of his books just how important political dau tranh was to the North Vietnamese. Within this text he discusses how post-war analysis has showed that during the time frame of 1965 to 1973, the Americans did not lose a single important battle but still lost the war due to the effectiveness of their political dau tranh initiatives. (1986,