Asymmetric Warfare < Guerrilla/Unconventional Warfare >

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Asymmetric Warfarelt Guerrilla/Unconventional
Warfare gt
vs.
Conventional Operations Tactics
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Asymmetric Warfarelt Guerrilla/Unconventional
Warfare gt

• Case Study
• North Vietnamese/Viet Minh Strategy Tactics

General Vo Nguyen Giap
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General Vo Nguyen Giap

• Chief of the Viet Minh forces fighting French
  colonial rule and later the Americans Architect
  of Vietnamese strategy and tactics

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Giaps Three Stages of Struggle

• 1) Building the Base
• 2) Guerrilla Warfare
• 3) Mobile Warfare

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Stage 1Building the Base

• Situate headquarters in mountainous, difficult
  terrain for meetings, supplies and refuge
• Viet Minh win hearts and minds of peasantry
• Beat/Assassinate landlords/tax collectors
• Redistribute land holdings
• Education/literacy campaigns
• Help with farming
• Viet Minh gain
• Taxes
• Supplies
• Intelligence
• Porters

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Stage 2Guerrilla Warfare

• Pin-prick attacks meant to frustrate the enemy
  and incite overblown reprisals
• Guerrilla Pin-Prick tactics
• Sabotage (road cutting, damage to vehicles,
  poison)
• Traps (homemade bombs, trip wires, pungi sticks,
  pit traps)
• Terrorism (attacks on civilian targets, RR
  sites)
• Camouflage (local vegetation, holes, tunnels)
• Reprisals confirm VM propaganda and drive
  civilians to VM for support and guidance,
  increasing their popularity and strength

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The biggest tunnel systems were in the Iron
Triangle and the Cu Chi District, only 20 miles
from Saigon. This map gives an idea of the
extent of the tunnel system at Cu Chi--the orange
lines represent major tunnels. The base area at
Cu Chi was a vast network, with nearly 200 miles
of tunnels
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Note the row of rocks on top of bridge beam at
the foot of the bridge.typical of the warning
signs used by the VC/NVA to warn of their mining
activities.
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Stage 3Mobile Warfare

• By 1949, China is equipping the Viet Minh with
  automatic weapons, mortars, howitzers, trucks
• Allows for more conventional, regular forces
• Guerilla infrastructure allows for
• Viet Minh to move
• more quickly and
• more stealthily to
• carry out open warfare

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Stage 3 cont. Mobile Warfare

• Ho Chi Minh Trail

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Conventional Operations Tactics

• Offensive Forms of Maneuver
• Envelopment
• Turning Movement
• Infiltration
• Penetration
• Frontal Attack

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ENVELOPMENT
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TURNING MOVEMENT
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INFILTRATION
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PENETRATION
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FRONTAL ATTACK
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The Operations Process
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Full Spectrum Operations
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The Operations Process