viet cong tactics

• The Viet Cong were on paper at least less powerful than forces like ARVN and the US Army
• Viet Cong tactics


  • Effective guerrilla hit and run tactics to fight back
  • Used simple traps such as punji sticks and bungee traps
  • Used light weapons so they could move quickly and quietly
  • Dressed like ordinary Vietnamese people
  • Used propaganda and gave talks in villages
  • Some actually lived in these villages
• Booby trap


  • Breakaway trap door with metal spikes that would clamp around the leg
  • Nails often rusty or smeared with excrement to cause infection
• Punji trap


  • Sharpened bamboo often smeared with excrement to cause infections or designed as man traps
• Viet Cong fighters could rest and recover safe away from American and ARVN's search and destroy missions in their tunnel complexes
• Viet Cong tunnel complexes

  • Well protected, deadly and effective
  • Had trap doors and dead ends to make infiltration difficult
  • Had flooded sections to prevent tear gas spreading
  • Had dispersed kitchens to disguise smoke
• The Viet Cong decided they needed to get the support of the people and to terrorize the enemy with surprise hit and run attacks and ambushes
• How the Viet Cong gained support and terrorized the enemy

  • Killed unpopular government officials
  • Sabotaged roads, bridges and ambushed ARVN
  • Stayed close to US troops so planes couldn't bomb them
  • Built networks of tunnels to hide in
• The US and ARVN struggled to deal with the Viet Cong's guerrilla tactics, often using an imprecise and destructive response that might in fact turn the Vietnamese against them
• The Viet Cong couldn't take on the US and ARVN forces on equal terms so they developed hit and run guerrilla tactics instead