The
Vietnam War:
Significance and Strategies
Strategies
1) The Vietnam War was mainly a civil war where the enemy attacked on
its own initiative in small groups. Which meant that the enemy was simultaneously
nowhere and everywhere.
The Vietnam War marked a turning point in the history of modern conventional warfare in both in the extent of guerrilla and anti-guerrilla combat involved and in the increased reliance in helicopters, which afforded mobility in a difficult terrain. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Vietnam War was essentially a people's war; because guerrilla fighters were not easily distinguished from non-combatants and because most civilians were mobilised into some soft of active participation, the civilian populace of Vietnam suffered heavily, in unprecedented numbers. The extensive use of napalm by US forces maimed and killed many thousands of civilians, and the employment of defoliants to destroy heavy ground cover devastated the ecology of an essentially agricultural country.
2) It was difficult to measure success or progress of the war in Vietnam
because there can be now way to set detailed plans of where to capture
that day.
