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Confrontation in the Vietnam War, Escalation 1964-68 » The Jungle War and Search and Destroy

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A4, Key topic 3

How the Vietcong fought in the jungle: ambushes, booby traps and tunnels
What Search and Destroy was, and how helicopters and body counts were used
Why Search and Destroy failed to win the war
How to answer a 'Describe TWO features' question

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The Vietcong's way of fighting

When large numbers of American combat troops arrived in 1965, they met an enemy who would not fight the kind of war they were trained for. The Vietcong were guerrillas, small groups who fight by surprise instead of in open battle. They were lightly armed, they lived among the local people, and they chose when and where to fight. Fighting in forest, swamp and rice fields, they used the ground to help them.

Ambushes: small groups attacked a patrol on a jungle track, fired for a short time, and then slipped away before American firepower could be brought in.
Booby traps: hidden devices that hurt or killed soldiers who triggered them. Examples were grenades fixed to tripwires and pits lined with sharpened bamboo stakes called punji stakes. They were cheap to make, hard to spot and made every step on patrol a danger.
Tunnels: the Vietcong dug networks of underground passages. The best known are at Cu Chi, north-west of Saigon. They held sleeping areas, stores, kitchens and hospitals, and they let fighters hide, move and appear where the Americans did not expect them.

Key terms:

Booby trap: a hidden device set to harm someone who unknowingly triggers it.
Search and Destroy: the US tactic of sending troops into the countryside to find enemy fighters, kill them and destroy their bases and supplies.
Airmobility: moving soldiers around the battlefield quickly by helicopter instead of on foot or by road.

The American answer: Search and Destroy

Westmoreland's strategy was attrition, and Search and Destroy was how it was carried out on the ground. Patrols and larger units went out from their bases to look for the enemy. When they made contact, they called for artillery, aircraft and more troops. They then tried to destroy the enemy's camps, tunnels and food stores, and returned to base. Some operations in 1967 involved tens of thousands of men.

🚁 Helicopters

There were few roads in the jungle. Helicopters carried soldiers into landing zones close to the enemy, took away the wounded and brought in supplies. The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrived in 1965 and fought the large battle of the Ia Drang valley in November that year, which Westmoreland took as proof that his methods worked.

📊 Body counts

As in Westmoreland's attrition strategy, success was measured by the body count. Commanders were expected to report high figures, and units were compared with each other. This encouraged inflated counts.

Why Search and Destroy failed to win

The enemy chose when to fight. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese could avoid battle when they were weak and attack when they had the advantage. Many of the clashes were ambushes planned by them.
The enemy came back. The Americans destroyed a base and left. The Vietcong returned when the troops had gone, so the land was never held for the South Vietnamese government.
Losses were replaced. Men and supplies kept coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and North Vietnam was willing to accept heavy losses. The enemy's losses never became greater than its new recruits, so attrition did not work.
The jungle protected the enemy. Tunnels and thick forest hid the Vietcong from aircraft and made American soldiers feel they were always under threat. Booby traps wore down morale.
Firepower could not find an enemy who would not be found. The US had far more weapons, but the war became a stalemate, with neither side able to win.

The result was a war of rising American effort with no clear progress. In 1967 many Americans were told that the war was being won, and this made the shock of the events of early 1968, covered in a later lesson, all the greater.

Common mistakes

Writing that the Americans lost because they were badly armed. They had far more weapons than the enemy. They failed because the tactics did not suit the war.
Mixing up Search and Destroy (soldiers on the ground, helped by helicopters) with the bombing campaign. The bombing of the North is a separate topic.
Giving a feature as a bare label, such as 'tunnels'. Say what the feature was and add a fact or detail.

Exam-style question

Describe TWO features of EITHER Search and Destroy missions in Vietnam OR Johnson's role in the escalation of the war. [6 marks]

Model answer

I will describe Search and Destroy missions. One feature was the use of helicopters. There were few roads in the jungle, so soldiers were flown into landing zones close to where the enemy was thought to be. The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), which arrived in 1965, used this method in battle in the Ia Drang valley that November, and helicopters also took out the wounded and brought supplies.

A second feature was that the aim was to find and kill enemy fighters and destroy their camps and supplies, as part of Westmoreland's strategy of attrition. Success was measured by body counts, which commanders were expected to report. However, the troops usually returned to base afterwards, and the Vietcong came back to the areas they had left.

What lifts it to the top level: it gives two clear features, and each is explained with accurate supporting detail, not just named.

Exam tip

You only choose one of the two options, so pick the one you know most about. Then write two separate paragraphs. Start each with the feature, then add two facts, such as a date, a name or a place. One feature alone can score no more than 3 marks.

Recap

The Vietcong fought as guerrillas in the jungle, using ambushes, booby traps and tunnels such as those at Cu Chi.
The US answer was Search and Destroy: finding and killing the enemy and destroying bases and supplies, using helicopters for speed and body counts to measure success.
It failed because the enemy chose when to fight, returned after the troops left, replaced its losses and sheltered in the jungle and tunnels.

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