Totally Confused about Vietnam War

I actually wrote a paper in college about the role that the USS New Jersey played in Vietnam, and the information I found was staggering.

As anybody who's studied the conflict in any depth knows, disrupting the north's logistics network was always like punching sand. Bombed bridges turned into people carrying stuff across rivers. Caves were safe from those same bombs because the mud absorbed the impacts, and so on.

The New Jersey was brought in to put an end to that, at least along the coast. And it's impact was massive. Those 16" shells beat the crap out of the supply lines, bunkers and so on, and did so with basically the closest thing to stealth in those days. Since the shells travelled faster than the speed of sound, they'd impact before the sound wave, so they basically came in silent. No warning. No telltale roar of a jet engine overhead, etc. And the oomph allowed it to knock out bridges and other infrastructure that bombs had trouble with.

I've read testimonials from (I think it was) Marines on the ground to the effect of the New Jersey's presence basically making the coastline peaceful for the time it was there.

Ultimately, it was so effective that the North Vietnamese demanded the Navy remove it from the theater as a precondition to peace talks.

In 1967 the US strategy was to engage the NVA in the countryside away from the populated areas so that "secure" zones could be brought under RVN government control and the VC infrastructure eliminated thru various programs. Many of the "big" battles of that time were out along the borders of the DMZ at "the Rock" and Khe Sanh, and areas along the Cambodian and Lation borders such as Dak To. Others were "Search & Destroy/Sweep & Clear" operations in areas such as the "Iron Triangle" closer to Saigon intended to remove the NVA/VC from areas that threatened the capital. But small unit patrol action firefights could occur anywhere, 'from the Delta to the DMZ'. Plus all the clandestine cross border operations. There is plenty of good reading and model building to be done in regards to the Vietnam War.

What confused me was that I always thought ground combats occurred near the DMZ, far from Saigon, in '67 & '68.  Anyway, I cannot put down the book.  I just ordered a copy of "When Thunder Rolls."

It was US Army/USMC vs VC anywhere in the south, and USA/USMC vs the NVA more traditional set piece battles, when the NVA could be brought to battle, usually in the outying regions of South Vietnam where they had established strongholds.  Both sides fought a war of attrition to tire out the other, while trying to capitilize on their own strengths and minimize that of their enemy's. Add in the condtions of safe havens for the communists where ground forces could not pursue and engage, and the specter of Chinese or Russian ground forces intervention if the US escalated beyond some point that was never known by the civilian leadership.

Chrisk-k

Now I understand. So, it was not like the US Army vs. the North Vietnam Army per se. It was more like the US Army vs. a group of Vietcongs who would pop up anytime anywhere.

Now you are getting it

Now I understand. So, it was not like the US Army vs. the North Vietnam Army per se. It was more like the US Army vs. a group of Vietcongs who would pop up anytime anywhere.

Hercmech

Chrisk-k:

Although I've been interested in WWII for my entire life, I've only recently got interested in the Vietnam War.  I'm reading a book (Days of Valor) about what happened in '67-'68 (before the Tet Offensive) and I am totally confused!

The area of operation by the 199th Light Infantry Brigade described in the book is just above Saigon.  I know that Saigon fell in '75. So, was the North Vietnamese Army so close to Saigon in '67? Does it mean that most of Vietnam was controlled by the Vietcong in '67?  I always thought that in '67-'68 the front line was around the DMZ in the middle of Vietnam.  

 

Your last sentence says it all...there really was no front line. To say the U.S. "controlled" any territory is a bit of a stretch.

US troops really controlled the piece of ground they were standing on (usually), out to the max-effective range of an M-16 (460 meters, or as far as they could see, which was about 25 meters in the bush), along with the ground inside the wire... Everything else was Victor Charlie's AO (prior to the '68 Tet Offensive)...   When you stepped outside the wire and went into the bush, out of sight of the wire, you were in Charlie's yard... 

The DMZ was basically the border between North and South Vietnam as a result of the French Indochina War, roughly running just South of the 17th parallel, and was supposed to be off-limits to all military personel (hence the name), North and South (The NVA ignored that part)... 

the fighting would just "pop up" almost anywhere in the country at any given time

Da Nang or Chu Lai could get a rocket attack,,,,,then a day later after that was defeated,,,,,,an outpost close to the Ho Chi Min trail would get hit,,,or farther south

if you think of how Montana would be attacked by 1,000 people while being defended by 100,000 troops,,,,,,that was about how the attempt was made to end the civil war in VietNam (sort of a reverse of the movie "Red Dawn")

the fall of Saigon was different than most of the war before that time period,,,,,that was a traditional "large force advances on a goal" type of fight,,,,,,without the US participating in the attempt to halt it

Chrisk-k

Although I've been interested in WWII for my entire life, I've only recently got interested in the Vietnam War.  I'm reading a book (Days of Valor) about what happened in '67-'68 (before the Tet Offensive) and I am totally confused!

The area of operation by the 199th Light Infantry Brigade described in the book is just above Saigon.  I know that Saigon fell in '75. So, was the North Vietnamese Army so close to Saigon in '67? Does it mean that most of Vietnam was controlled by the Vietcong in '67?  I always thought that in '67-'68 the front line was around the DMZ in the middle of Vietnam.  

Your last sentence says it all...there really was no front line. To say the U.S. "controlled" any territory is a bit of a stretch.