The Plans for the Vietnam War

US Strategy The United States employed a “Limited War” strategy in Vietnam  the idea is to win the war with as little cost in terms of life and property  this showed that the US believed that the North Vietnamese were not serious threats to the US (if we thought they were threats we would go all out)

Operation Rolling Thunder The first US plan was called Rolling Thunder  starting in 1965 US launched massive bombing campaign  bombed strategic locations to destroy NV ability to fight  also wanted to destroy NV peoples will to fight Rolling Thunder goes from March 1965 – Nov  this does a ton of damage but it does not end the war

Must destroy NV Ability US needed to destroy NV and VC abilities in SV  major idea was to destroy supply trail for NV NV used Ho Chi Minh Trail to supply troops in SV HCMT is mostly a small footpath and it can be rebuilt if destroyed (makes it hard to destroy)  HCMT hidden in the jungles of Vietnam  HCMT ran into neighboring Laos and Cambodia where US was not supposed to be able to fight  US spent focused on destroying HCMT but it could not do so

Search and Destroy US had major problem identifying the enemy because of the VC (civilians) VC would use local villages and they blended in so US could not figure out who was who  some villages wanted to help VC and some did not US had to use Search and Destroy strategy  find the VC (villages) and then destroy them  very hard though because they could move from village to village

Agent Orange Started with Operation Ranch Hand in 1961 Lasted until 1971 Was meant to start out VC and take away their ability to hide Very effective as a defoliant Later discovered to be contaminated with extremely toxic Dioxin compound Military who with chemical have been found to have increased cancer rates and nerve, digestive and respiratory defects  Gov. has always settled out of court for these claims

Vietnamese Strategy North Vietnamese military leader was named Giap  Giap studied Washington’s strategy to defeat the British during American Revolution Giap implements Washington’s strategy Draw war out to make it cost US in men and money  make US people sick of the war  make US give up Strategy was to use hit and run tactics Purpose was to NOT LOOSE