TACTICS AND STRATEGIES – PACKAGES OF INFORMATION

1. North Vietnamese and NLF strategy: 1960-65

  • The North Vietnamese and NLF military strategy was to wear down the enemy’s morale by waging a prolonged guerrilla war, then deliver a savage military blow.
  • Their political strategy was to win over the rural population of South Vietnam, enabling the Viet Cong (VC) to operate freely in those regions. There, they would establish an alternative government.
  • This strategy was very effective during the early 1960s. Byearly 1965, the VC controlled 40 percent of South Vietnam. Victory seemed near.

2. US and South Vietnamese strategy: 1965-67

  • The arrival of US forces in 1965 put an end to the gains made by the VC and NVA.
  • The US strategy to win the war was three pronged:
  • Destroy the VC, by the application of superior firepower. This failed because the VC were able to replace the guerrillas who were killed.
  • Cut the supply of arms to the south by bombing the Ho Chi Minh trail. This failed because there were too many trails.
  • Drive the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table by bombing the North. This only succeeded in raising the enemy’s morale. It also led to international protest.
  • In the South, Westmoreland’s strategy was to launch search and destroy operations against the VC, who they hoped to lure into combat, where they could be wiped out.
  • The key weapons of the war were helicopters (which could outflank the VC), artillery and planes (to bomb the VC), defoliants and napalm (to destroy the jungle, thereby denying the VC any cover).
  • The measure of success in this strategy was the body count. The US assumed that if enough VC and NVA soldiers could be killed, the enemy would run out of men and victory would be achieved.

3. North Vietnamese and NLF strategy: 1965-67

  • The arrival of US ground troops in 1965 forced the communists to change their strategy.
  • The VC now pursued a strategy of controlling people rather than territory.
  • Militarily, they harassed the US and ARVN troops as they entered the villages, but avoided full-scale confrontations (which they knew they would lose).
  • The VC made extensive use of tunnels, and moved virtually their entire infrastructure underground.
  • The communists knew the American public would not tolerate a prolonged war in Southeast Asia. If they could hold out for three or four years, while simultaneously inflicting serious casualties on the US forces, pressure would build for an end to the war.

4. Reasons for theTet Offensive:

  • By the end of 1967, the US military believed it was winning the war. The generals thought the enemy was close to collapse. This prompted the communists to plan a spectacular attack – the Tet Offensive, in January 1968. They hoped to prove the generals wrong, thereby turning public opinion in America against the war.
  • They hoped the attack might provoke an uprising in the towns and cities, destroying the South Vietnamese regime, and forcing the United States to withdraw.
  • They expected that attacking South Vietnam’s cities would force the Americans to fight at close range, thereby losing the advantage of air support (since the US would not bomb urban areas).
  • Finally, they feared that their own forces were being wasted, as a result of the successful US bombing campaign. They decided it was better to lose them in a spectacular attack than by attrition.

5. The Outcome of the Tet Offensive:

  • During the Offensive, units of the NVA pinned down the US forces in their bases in the north of South Vietnam, while the VC launched a series of attacks on towns and cities across the country.
  • However, the campaign did not go to plan:
  • The urban population did not rise up against the Southern regime.
  • The US military did not fight hand to hand. Instead, it bombed those urban areas under VC control, doing enormous damage in the process.
  • The GIs had just been issued with new anti-personnel weapons (such as the M40 recoilless rifle) which vastly increased their firepower.These allowed the US to annihilate the VC.

6. The impact of the Tet Offensive:

  • The VC suffered terrible casualties during the Tet Offensive, and were driven from their positions after several weeks of fighting. 50,000 were killed and many others captured. This represented a third of the VC’s total numbers.
  • The US forces now had the opportunity to penetrate regions that had been closed to them to this point. It took the VC and NVA several years to rebuild.
  • However, Tet was also a serious political victory for the North Vietnamese and VC. It demonstrated that they were not on the brink of defeat in the South. Public opinion in America now turned against the war, just as North Vietnam’s leaders had hoped. Within two years, the US had begun to withdraw.