US Army’s Strategies in the Vietnam War

started to fire at the villagers, burnt homes and crops; though it soon became clear that there were no Viet Cong troops they did not stop. Women were raped, children, and the elderly shot even though they were all innocent. The final body count came to 300. As this was the first war the media and newspapers got involved in the public in the USA eventually became aware of this tragedy. Many in the US believed that the war had become a symbol of defeat, confusion, and moral corruption. Protests started all around the country and many of them were led by students; they included chanting ‘Hey, Hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today?’ and burning the American flag which is a criminal offense.

In November 1969, 700,000 protesters turned up in Washington DC, it was the largest political protest ever. Because of all of this, the calls to end the war were strengthened as the US had received a serious blow.

Defoliation

To destroy towns and villages the US army developed a system called Defoliation which consisted of spraying chemicals over them. They were used to burn jungle and town areas where the Viet Cong could be hiding and make sure the traps they made were also destroyed. These Chemical Weapons were known as Napalm and Agent Orange. Agent Orange was originally used as a weed killer though the US army used it to destroy the jungle was the Viet Cong was hiding.

By spaying thousands of square kilometers of jungle, the US army used about 82 million liters of Agent Orange. The reason for doing all this was very simple: to stop the Viet Cong

from transporting supplies and personnel around by foot. It did what it is was designed for though the soldiers were not able to control where exactly it landed; because of this, it was claimed that about 5 million people were victims to this method. If you were exposed to it, it could cause cancer and genetic problems which meant many children born were also severely affected.

Napalm was the other main chemical weapon used by the US. Each container of napalm held 130 gallons of gasoline with six percent of napalm in it. They also created a device that could cover a surface with flames that were 270 feet long and 75 feet wide. It was so powerful that it would burn right through clothes and burn skin until it reached the bone.

As this was the first war to be televised many people in the US saw the effect of napalm and the famous images of it being sprayed over people were published. Possibly the most famous image from the war was the photo of ten-year-old Kim Phuc (Image 1) who had been caught in a Napalm attack and all her clothes had been burnt off and it was so bad her skin was beginning to peel off. Amazingly she survived though is left with terrible scars from the attack. Her story shows that the US army did actually attack innocent villages and people. Over the war, 400,000 tones of napalm were dropped and many said it felt like a burning hot shower. The use of napalm caused carbon monoxide to form in the air meaning people who had not been burnt or hit by the

attack were suffocated.

The agricultural affects in Vietnam meant that even today some areas are still not safe to cultivate on as the toxic chemicals are still found in the soil.

Conclusion

Even though the US military tactics were effective so that many of the Viet Cong were killed they often were given wrong information which lead to innocent civilians being killed. Their methods also did not adapt to the Viet Cong’s methods as they would send out inexperienced troops who would just fall straight into their traps. In my opinion, the US did what they were sent there to do though they did so by using unnecessary methods which killed too many innocent people because they did not have a specific target but just a vague guess on where the Viet Cong would be. Even though there were so many problems and mistakes South Vietnam grew stronger which eventually meant that US troops could go home.