What were the US tactics

What methods were used by the US?

Why were they unsuccessful?

What methods were used by the US army?

1. What were the aims of:• Air tactics• Ground

tactics

2. Do you think the USA should have used these tactics?

Task: You work for the United

nations as a human rights observer and have been sent to Vietnam to report on the conduct of the war. Use the writing and Sources A and B to write a short memo to the Secretary General of the UN explaining the US use of bombing and chemical weapons and giving your views on what action should be taken.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the US military tactics

Policy Strength Weakness

Operation Rolling Thunder

Open Combat

Search and Destroy

Chemical Weapons

The USA had almost unlimited economic resources. The y could resource the most advanced technology as well as using the South Vietnamese forces. They used hi tech weapons and had control of the air. Helicopters etc could deploy this in a variety of ways including troop support, bombing and raids.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the US army tactics

This tactic was aimed at encouraging the Vietcong into the open to allow the superior air force to destroy them without exposing too many soldiers. The aerial nature of US warfare meant that they had fewer casualties than the Vietcong.

The dead were simply replaced by more volunteers from North Vietnam. The Vietnamese public were willing to make more sacrifices for the cause than the US public.

Operation Rolling Thunder damaged North Vietnams war effort and disrupted supplies, and caused damage to cities and towns.

However, leaving the troops exposed demoralised the soldiers, who realised they were being used just as bait.

Napalm cleared some areas, making it more difficult for the Vietcong to emerge safely. Many Vietcong sustained horrific injuries and death. There were also likely to have been psychological effects of using Napalm

The body count for the Vietcong was far higher than the American troops lost.

Napalm caused horrific injuries to the enemy, but also civilians. Agent Orange was a toxic weed killer that caused long term problems to health, but also destroyed peasants land.

Operation Rolling Thunder failed to stop supplies getting into the North from China. North Vietnam had few factories anyway. US bombing failed to destroy the morale in North Vietnam. If anything it increased their determination. The Bombing campaign and hi tech nature of warfare was hugely expensive

Search and destroy missions had many problems. It was difficult to tell civilians from Vietcong, so innocents were often arrested/killed. The destruction of food and homes caused huge resentment and anti-American feeling among the South Vietnamese peasants.

. During the search and destroy missions many Vietcong were killed/captured.

Web links and short films

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/weapons.html

Good web link with information about weapons.www.gettyimages.com has some very good short

films in their footage section of different weapons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4tpeN6pj4&feature=related

Short film (5 min) real footage montage of the US army made by an American in honour of American soldiers.

Can you survive Vietnam?

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/vietnam/thewarinvietnamrev3.shtml

• Use the link to find out whether you could survive the Vietnam War.

Task:You are a US journalist

reporting on the My Lai massacre.

a) What headline would you run in the newspaper?

b) Which details would think were significant needed to be reported?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html Weblink with detailed information about My Lai Massacre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgLlkjsg1uo&feature=PlayList&p=5A853E2965FF8C4E&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=31 Short film (3 min) on Agent Orange

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev2dEqrN4i0 Vietnam Napalm.(1.30) ITN report about Americans dropping Napalm on a village by mistake. Not a nice film.

A bit of Skills work:

1. What message is the cartoonist trying to get across in Source D?

2. Study source E what reaction would there be to this picture in the US?

3. What can you learn from Source F about the US army in Vietnam?

4. Look at Sources D, F and G. Which is the best representation of the US involvement in Vietnam and why? (use the detail on the cards and previous knowledge to help with your answer).