US tactics 1965 - 1972.
• Feb 1965 – Us launch Operation Rolling
Thunder = intensive bombing campaign.
• Targets = military and industrial in NORTH
Vietnam (bridges, radar systems & weapons
dumps).
• List grew to inc towns and cities in NORTH &
SOUTH Vietnam.
• More bombs were dropped on North Vietnam
than the whole of WW2 on Germany/Japan.
• However – air power could not defeat the
Communists – just slow them down.
• Communists were still able to launch
attacks on the south.
• Air war costs were horrendous –
communists shot down 14,000 aircraft.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
• Powerful weapon = AGENT ORANGE – highly
toxic ‘weedkiller’ (took leaves off trees)
• Used to destroy the jungle where Viet Cong hid –
US used 82 million litres of it!!
• NAPALM – burned skin down to the bone – many
soldiers & civilians were killed – a petrol jelly that
stuck to skin
• Cluster bombs – exploded in small shrapnel pellets
You tube clips
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev2dEq
rN4i0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJxb7C
Y13uc&feature=fvst
• US Commander General Westmoreland
developed the idea:
• Est. secure and heavily defended US bases
– descend on a village (by Helicopter) and
destroy any VC forces. (body count
reported back).
Search and Destroy
• PROBLEMS –
1. Raids were based on inadequate
information
2. Inexperienced troops walked into traps
(1/5 chance of being killed).
3. Innocent mistaken for VC
4. Body count was high – average of 6
people killed for every VC weapon
found.
5. Made US and South Vietnamese very
unpopular.
• Destroyed US morale – soldiers started
smoking marijuana, shooting heroin, stealing
and being racist to one another (18% AWOL=
"absent without leave" or "absent without
official leave")
• However – air power could not defeat the
Communists – just slow them down.
• Air war costs were horrendous – communists
shot down 14,000 aircraft.
• North Vietnamese hit back, using Soviet
supplied anti-aircraft guns, SAM (surface-to-
air) guided missiles and MiG (Mikoyan-I-
Gurevich) fighter planes