Search and Destroy Chemical Warfare Defoliate Napalm Agent Orange Indiscriminate
Draw up a table to take notes as we investigate... Draw up a table to take notes as we investigate...
Apocalypse Now Apocalypse Now Search and Destroy
America decided to build safe, well protected military bases. They would then wait for reliable intelligence to identify Vietcong strongholds. They would then search for these strongholds using helicopters and destroy them with a surprise attack from the air. Violence was often used to interrogate suspected Vietcong soldiers. Soldiers had to send back reports of body counts. They would also often burn down the village at the end of the raid. This led to the raids being nicknamed ‘Zippo Raids’.
However the raids were often based on poor intelligence reports. However the raids were often based on poor intelligence reports. The soldiers were often inexperienced and walked into traps. Sometimes innocent villages would be attacked. Civilian casualties were very high. This all made the peasants hate the US and ARVN even more. It made them more likely to support the VC!
America also tried to destroy the Vietcong hiding places and their sources of food. America also tried to destroy the Vietcong hiding places and their sources of food. This meant destroying the jungle. The word for destroying leaves or foliage is to ‘defoliate’. This was attempted with two types of chemical weapons. - Napalm – a liquid explosive to burn the jungle.
- Agent Orange – a weed killer.
A mixture of high explosive and petrol jelly. A mixture of high explosive and petrol jelly. It exploded and combined with oxygen in the atmosphere to burn anything in its path. It would stick to a victim’s skin and cause terrible burns. Around 20,000 tons of napalm were dropped between 1965 and 1973. It’s indiscriminate – large numbers of civilians would be killed or injured.
A chemical defoliant (weed killer) sprayed on to the jungle. A chemical defoliant (weed killer) sprayed on to the jungle. 82 million litres were dropped in the 1960s. 4 million acres of forest was wiped out. Soil, air and rivers were heavily polluted. 1.3 million people were affected by the chemicals. An estimated 500,000 children have since been born with birth defects linked to Agent Orange.
They were indiscriminate in nature – they could not distinguish between Viet Cong and innocent civilians. They were indiscriminate in nature – they could not distinguish between Viet Cong and innocent civilians. Many innocent people died. The Viet Cong were rarely successfully targeted. Opposition in the USA increased as the human horrors became apparent from chemical warfare.
Complete your table with as much detail as possible. Complete your table with as much detail as possible. Read page 166 of your text book to find extra detail.
Innocent civilians had died in many wars before Vietnam. Innocent civilians had died in many wars before Vietnam. But in these wars the horror had been kept from the public. Censorship and slow media communications meant that the reality of war rarely reached the public back home. But Vietnam was to be different.
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