Weapons and Tactics of the Vietnam War

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Weapons and Tactics of the Vietnam War

• 1965 to 1972

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VC/NVA Weapons

• The North Vietnamese Army and the southern
  communist Vietcong relied heavily on supplies
  sent from communist China and the USSR. AK-47 and
  RPG 7 were most common weapons supplied.
• The VC also relied on stolen weapons and ammo,
  first from the French in the 1950s, then in the
  1960s, from the Americans
• The most common weapon used by the NVA and VC was
  the reliable Russian designed AK-47 assault
  rifle. It was a cheap, easy to use rifle but
  inaccurate rifle which required little cleaning
  or maintenance Perfect for the wet jungles of
  Vietnam.

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VC Booby traps

• The communist guerillas in the south (VC) also
  became masters of digging tunnels and setting up
  mines and booby traps along jungle trails the
  Americans and ARVN would patrol.
• A common tactic was to sharpen bamboo sticks
  (called PUNJI sticks) dip them in feces and place
  them point up in pits along the trail. A GI would
  step on the punji sticks, get injured so he could
  not walk and have to be evacuated (evaced) to
  safety, thus reducing the men out on patrol while
  the VC never had to fire a shot!

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Common VC traps

• VC punji trap
• Spiked ball
• Toe popper made from a single bullet round

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Additional VC traps/mines

• Trip wires attached to a grenade pin
• Was a simple VC trap often using
• Captured US grenades!
• The VC would booby-trap anything they thought
  the Americans might pick up or walk by
• Traps were even set deep inside their
• Tunnels, causing even more casualties

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U.S. vs. V.C. Tactics

• When the Americans arrived in Vietnam in 1965
  they only really controlled the cities and towns
  along the coast , the VC controlled the interior
  mountains and jungles.
• Each night the VC guerillas would lay land mines,
  traps and ambushes along the roads and trails
  that connected those American held towns and
  cities.
• Each day the Americans would send out patrols to
  clear these roads and trails and they would
  conduct search and destroy operations looking
  for the enemy and trying to kill enough of him so
  they would quit (war of attrition strategy)

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Special Forces In Vietnam
Green Berets
Navy Seals with South Vietnamese
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US weapons

• To fight the VC (and the regular NVA who fought
  the US up by the 17th parallel), the US brought
  in overwhelming firepower including jets/
  bombers, (B 52s) napalm (jellied gasoline) to
  burn the VC out of their tunnels and jungles.
• We used lots of artillery and some tanks. They
  even used the chemical Agent Orange to destroy
  jungle plant life thus trying to deny VC hiding
  places near US held towns.
• US soldiers were at first issued with the heavy
  but reliable M-14 rifle then quickly switched to
  the lighter and highly accurate M-16 which
  required a lot of cleaning each day to make sure
  it fired

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Weapons the USA used in Vietnam
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Firebases/helicopters

• To fight the VC in the jungles, the US would use
  helicopters (most common ones Bell UH 1s
  nicknamed Hueys) in large numbers to fly out
  troops and equipment and set up fire bases on
  jungle hilltops from which they could send out
  patrols and shell the enemy with artillery fire.
• Vietnam was the first war in which helicopters
  were used not just as transports or for medical
  evacuations, but also were set up with machine
  guns and rockets and used for attack!

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US Equipment

• A Huey landing in a rice paddy field
• B-52 bombers would carry out huge bombing
  missions high over VC strongholds dropping tons
  of bombs
• M113 APC carried troops in semi safety around
  Vietnam
• Napalm strike

M 60 Machine Gun
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B 52s
APC
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A Napalm Strike
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US wins but loses?

• US never lost a major battle in Vietnam but due
  to constant casualties and protests at home the
  US was forced to withdraw all combat troops by
  1972.
• South Vietnam fought on until it fell to the NVA
  in 1975, remaining poor and communist to this
  day.

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Evacuation of US Embassy in Saigon
U.S. Embassy Saigon, April 29, 1975.
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Vietnam War Memorial