Lesson objectives To be able to identify the key strategies used by the USA in the Vietnam War To be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the US strategies in the Vietnam War General Westmoreland ID: 742086
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Slide1
What tactics did the USA use to fight the Vietnam War?Slide2
Lesson objectives
To be able to identify the key strategies used by the USA in the Vietnam War.
To be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the US strategies in the Vietnam War.Slide3
General Westmoreland
Commander of the US troops in Vietnam until 1968.Slide4
What were the key areas of strategy for the US in the Vietnam War?
Bombing Campaign
Chemical Weapons
Land CampaignSlide5
What was Operation Rolling Thunder?
Operation Rolling Thunder was the main US bombing campaign in Vietnam. It began in February 1965 and was supposed to last eight weeks. It ended in 1968.
The aim was to target North Vietnamese factories. But there were few factories to bomb and countryside and cities were bombed instead trying to cut North Vietnamese supply routes to the NLF in the South.Slide6
How can Operation Rolling Thunder be seen as a success?
Supporters of Operation Rolling Thunder claimed that the bombing disrupted the supply routes from North Vietnam to the NLF in the South. However, it did not stop the NLF being supplied from the North.
The bombing campaign from 1970 to 1972 on Hanoi and Haiphong forced the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table.Slide7
How can Operation Rolling Thunder be seen as a failure?
The bombing campaign strengthened the North Vietnamese resolve against the US.
The bombing campaign did not stop the supply routes from north to south.
Many advised President Johnson that this was the wrong strategy as North Vietnam had few factories to bomb.
It was hugely expensive. For every Viet Cong fighter – the US launched 75 bombs, 400 artillery shells and paid $400,000.Slide8
Why did the US use chemical weapons?
The US could not handle the Viet
Cong’s
guerilla
tactics and wanted to fight them face to face. The US decided to use chemical weapons to destroy the jungle and countryside which acted as a cover for the VC.
The two main chemicals the US used were
Agent Orange
and
Napalm
.Slide9
What was Agent Orange?
Agent Orange was a defoliant – a very powerful
weedkiller
– which was sprayed in the jungle to kill off the vegetation so that the Viet Cong could not use the jungle for cover.
Agent Orange was used to destroy crops which helped turn South Vietnamese peasants against the US.
82 million litres of Agent Orange was sprayed across thousands of kilometres of Vietnamese jungle.Slide10
What was the impact of Agent Orange?Slide11
What was Napalm?
Napalm also destroyed jungle. It was a type of bomb that exploded and showered petroleum jelly called Napalm. This stuck to the skin and burns at 800 degrees centigrade. It caused horrific burns.Slide12Slide13
What was the key features of the US land campaign in Vietnam?
Strategic Hamlet policy
Body Count
Search and DestroySlide14
What was the Strategic Hamlet policy?
The first involvement of the US on the ground in Vietnam was in 1962 before the war with the Strategic Hamlet policy which was designed to secure the support of villages in South Vietnam vulnerable to the VC.
Strategic Hamlets involved entire villages being moved into fortified villages guarded by troops. 3,000 Strategic Hamlets were created but this cause huge resentment from the South Vietnamese who were forced to move as well as only moving Communist supporters to a new area to spread their
ideas
further.Slide15
What was the aim of the US land campaign in Vietnam?
The aim of the US land campaign was to
kill a
large number of the enemy and
gain
a high enemy ‘body count’. The problem with this strategy was that the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong were prepared to suffer high casualties
- unlike
the US public.Slide16
What was Search and Destroy?
The Search and Destroy strategy marked a more aggressive US approach. After securing US bases in South
Vietnam in the first year of the war, from these bases troops
would
launch
attacks on villages suspected of assisting the Viet Cong.
The tactics
involved using
helicopters to descend upon a village and destroying it. These raids became known as ‘Zippo Raids’ after the lighters used to set fire to the villagers huts.Slide17
What was the impact of the Search and Destroy missions?
Raids were often based on inadequate information and innocent villages were targeted.
Inexperienced US troops often walked into traps.
Civilian casualties were often high.Made the US and ARVN troops very unpopular.Slide18
US tactics anagrams
A Danger Gonna Man A Pelt
Hinged Ratio Roll Turn Open
A Aced
Drys
Hornets
Bounty Cod
Spacewoman
Chile
Castrate El Might
Well Greased
OrnamentSlide19
US tactics anagrams
A Danger Gonna Man A
Pelt – Napalm and Agent Orange
Hinged Ratio Roll Turn
Open –
Operation Rolling Thunder
A Aced
Drys
Hornets – Search
and Destroy
Bounty
Cod – Body Count
Spacewoman Chile – Chemical Weapons
Castrate El Might – Strategic Hamlet
Well Greased
Ornament – General WestmorelandSlide20
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US tactics during the Vietnam War