Vietnam War Analysis

The Vietnam War took place took place in Southeast Asia from November 1, 1955 through April 30, 1975. After World War II, Vietnam was divided into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, and the Republic of Vietnam in the south. The United States of America’s involvement in this conflict was to help contain the spread of communism. The U.S. learned many lessons from this conflict, from political limitations on warfare, gaining and losing public support, and fighting against a guerrilla insurgency. Also of note was the development of modern aviation platforms, in both fixed wing forms and especially the use of the helicopter. However, one overlooked part of the Vietnam War is how the United States and her allies were pitted against
With help from the Soviet Union, air defense guns were emplaced in major urban areas in whatever positions they would be most effective. At the beginning of the Vietnam War there were approximately seven-hundred anti-aircraft guns positioned around North Vietnam. However, the high altitude threat still remained. B-52 bombers stationed in Guam could take off, fly to North Vietnam, release their munitions, and return to base virtually unrestricted. The North Vietnamese needed to develop their integrated air defense network, and assistance was once again requested from the Soviet Union. In the spring of 1965 it was discovered that a surface-air-missile program was beginning to be developed in North Vietnam. The most significant assistance came in the form of the SA-2 (Crabtree, 1994).
The SA-2 Guideline was invented by the U.S.S.R. as a radar controlled surface-to-air missile system. Its high operating altitude from 3,000 to 60,000 feet was the piece of the puzzle that the North Vietnamese were looking for to defend against the American airstrikes. Development of the SA-2 began in 1953, and by 1957 the Soviet Union had operational battalions armed with the system. The gained notoriety when on May 1, 1960 it was used to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union. Another U-2 was downed over Cuba in 1962 (Cullen
Originally developed in 1959, it was pushed to the Vietnam War by the Soviets in 1972. While rudimentary in its design and technology, the SA-7 used infrared guidance to home in on its target, and this proved to be very effective against low flying aircraft. The SA-7 had some limitations, one of which was how it had to be fired at the back of a retreating aircraft. Even with these limitations, during the Easter Offensive of 1973 alone, it is recorded that 528 of these missiles were launched and a total of forty-five aircraft were destroyed (Cullen & Foss,