Vietman War Essay, Research Paper

The Viet Cong were experts at the use of several unconventional battle tactics, namely, Guerilla Warfare. This is how they won many of the battles in the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong, during ground battles used small arms, some of which they had made themselves. Another technique they used was psychological warfare. This kept their enemy off guard. They also had a few fighter jets, and tanks, but the USA’s were far superior to those of the Viet Cong. But some of there best weapons were booby-traps.

The Viet Cong were masters of Guerilla Warfare. They learned it from the Chinese, who developed it in order to “drive Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists out of China to the island of Formosa (today’s Taiwan)” (Lawson (2) pg. 6) It was a technique developed to allow armies with fewer men and less firepower to win wars. The techniques of Guerilla Warfare were hit, run, and hide. They would seek up on the enemy, shoot at them, and then run and hide before their enemy had a chance to retaliate. This allowed minimum casualties and maximum kills, which is just what you need to win a war. The Viet Cong had plenty of time to master it, while the Americans did not. Also, this was the “home field” of the Viet Cong. They knew how to get around in the forest and they knew where all the good hiding places were. This gave them a great advantage. This is why the Viet Cong had the advantage going in to the war. There were plenty of jungle areas for them to hide in. This allowed them plenty of places to hide. (Lawson, pg. 6)