What Was The Most Effective Tactics During The Vietnam War

The Americans used many tactics during the Vietnam War in an attempt to combat and defeat the Viet Cong and NLF fighters. These tactics included strategic hamlets, napalm, search and destroy and defoliants as well as several others. Some of these tactics were viewed as successful for combating the VC but others were not as most were not effective against guerrilla tactics.
The first tactic used by the US to try and stop VC support was strategic hamlets. These were guarded villages that were used to try and move South Vietnamese peasants away from VC and NLF influence. The South Vietnamese were forced out of their homes and made to move into these hamlets that were guarded by American forces and the ARVN in order to try and prevent more people
Napalm was a bomb which exploded and showered surrounding victims and area (up to 2500 square yards) with burning petroleum jelly. It would stick to the skin and burn at 800 degrees centigrade melting the flesh with the only way to put it out being to smother it as trying to wipe it off only spread it around and expanding the burnt area. However, during the War napalm was made impossible to smother when the solution was improved by adding polystyrene. The wounds inflicted by the napalm bomb were so deep that they could not be healed and had a devastating effect on those in Vietnam. On the other hand, napalm was also viewed as being unsuccessful as dropping it from an aircraft was not accurate so resulted in a large number of innocent civilians suffering injuries. It was also ineffective against the VC tactic of ‘hanging onto the belts’ of the US soldiers as it could not be used near any US soldiers in case they were hit or injured by accident. This made it ineffective against guerrilla tactics in Vietnam but still had devastating effects when dropped and napalm became the most feared weapon of the
The aim was to kill off any VC fighters housed in the village and then destroy the village as punishment for helping the VC forces. The soldiers often called these Zippo raids, after the lighter they would use to set thatched roofs on fire during the missions. Although the Americans would sometimes find several VC fighters, the casualties were more often civilian. Sometimes the US would receive incorrect information leading to innocent villages being destroyed which also meant that the US and ARVN troops became very unpopular with the South Vietnamese who often then turned to supporting VC. Inexperienced soldiers often walked into booby traps hidden in villages and often many civilians were killed whilst having no/little VC contact. An example of this was the search and destroy mission of My Lai which is viewed as a massacre of the Vietnamese. This was when the Charlie Company were sent into a village they were told was full of VC so they went into the village shooting and killing innocent old men, women and children without finding any VC troops. Survivors were then thrown into a ditch and fired at, it is estimated that there were 350 civilians who were killed in this massacre. This massacre had occurred because in the weeks leading up to it the Charlie Company had