vietnam topic 3

battle of la drang valley

tried conventional warfare

lost 1800 NVA but US lost 240

US had better supplies - 33,000 shells + 700 rockets fired

ho chi minh trail + tunnels

15,000 km of tracks

got 2/3 of supplies through despite ORT

320km of tunnels under saigon - Cu chi tunnels

booby traps caused 11% of deaths

Westmoreland

1 year tour of duty

Body count as measure of success - civillian deaths

Committed to conventional military tactics

McNamara

secretary of defence under LBJ + JFK

Convinced LBJ to add 50,000 troops in McNamara memo

operation ranch hand

1 plane could spray 300 acres in 4 minutes

50% stronger than used on US crops

Agent blue killed crops

agent orange killed forest

77 million litres of agent orange

3,000 villages + 24% SV sprayed

150,000 babies born with birth defect

ORT

400,000 tonnes of napalm dropped

USSR aid rose from 210 million to 505 million 1965-7

1 million tonnes of bombs dropped

cost USA 400,000 to kill 1 VC

Search + destroy/ cedar falls

3,500 villages in iron triangle were burned

750 VC +450 US/ARVN killed

1st wave of zippo raids killed 1,100 VC + 100 US

short term success

US morale

3% of officers killed in vietnam were killed by fragging - 700 1970-71

in 1971 - 5,000 treated for injury + 20,000 for drugs

58,000 deaths

2 million of 2.8 million conscripted

503,000 instances of desertion

23,300 troops 1964 to 536,000 in 1968

Tet offensive

84,000 NVA troops fought

Filmed breaking into US embassy - credibility gap

1,500 US deaths + 45,000 NVA deaths

14,000 civilians + 3,000 ARVN died

Seige of Khe Sanh

6,000 marines surrounded by 20,000 NVA troops

January 1968

seige lasted 77 days

battle of Hue

held for 25 days

purges killed between 2800 and 6000 people