ina, was know for his enthusiasm, and for always having good news from the front lines. Westmoreland commanded over 500,000 troops at the peak of the war, and was still unable to crush the Viet Cong, as hoped by most of Washington. 3 But there were many factors that contributed to our startling defeat on the ground in Vietnam.The first and foremost was the difference in tactics between the Americans and the North Vietnamese. The VC were ruthless soldiers, who, even though sometimes poorly trained, fought with as much drive and enthusiasm as the best trained soldiers in the world. The VC used something called guerrilla tactics. They would recruit children, tie themselves to trees, use babies as bait for booby traps, and other 'unethical' things. American soldiers stopped accepting the drinks offered to them by young Vietnamese boys after a few unfortunate GIs found out the ice was really crushed up glass. These and other fighting techniques such as strapping explosives to kids and having them run up to soldiers, were a few of the toils U.S. soldiers had to deal with. Also on the tactics side, the entire U.S. offensive consisted of a myriad of 'search and destroy' missions. S & D missions involved a patrol, (usually 10-35 soldiers), going out of the base and finding (then killing) the enemy. Unfortunately, the booby traps placed by the VC and the fact that they knew the land and could hide, meant the S & D missions were like throwing soldiers away. In fact, more U.S. soldiers were killed from booby traps than any other cause of death in Vietnam. Weapons were another problem in Vietnam. Again going back to World War II, the massive armored assaults that won the war for the allies were useless in the dense jungle. U.S. armor was limited to using M113 troop carriers with machine guns on them, instead of using the more effective M60 tanks and artillery. 3 So Westmoreland was forced to rethink tactics, as well as use weapons and strategies unt...
