Military History: Some bizarre & ingenious American ideas from the Vietnam war....

I am busy watching the dozens of Vietnam war documentaries that JoAn sent me. I really did not realise the varied things Americans did in Vietnam, and I must say a lot of it reminds me of what happened in Rhodesia.

I saw a number of things that interested me a lot.

o The US Marines took a beach and created an "artificial aircraft carrier deck" on a beach. They built a STEEL RUNWAY, with arresting "pistons" and wires exactly like you see on an aircraft carrier deck. And they did it in 26 days!!! And they used it as a base from which to control aircraft operations - complete with portable electronics!

Two items though that really caught my fancy and I've never heard of this before nor since and I'm really fascinated by this are:-
(1) The helicopter with the "man-sniffing" device on board. Apparently, they had some sort of "man sniffing" electronic device aboard helicopter gunships and they could fly above the trees and detect people below FROM SCENT ALONE. I'd love to know more about this. Was this a flop?
(2) DOGS... they had dogs with radio beacons on them and the dogs could move around. Any strange activity by the dogs was detected electronically. So... as I see it... dogs could be used to find the enemy in the dense bush. What happened to this idea?
(3) They had tree-clearing "platoons" of bulldozers which could cut down trees and clear out areas where the VC could hide. I think, in some areas, they cleared vast amounts of trees on either side of major roads in order to make it more difficult for the enemy to launch ambushes. Again - how good was this idea? How well did it work?

Other cool ideas: "The barracks ship". There were ships on rivers which could house a BATTALION of soldiers at a time!

o I am curious about agent orange and its effectiveness. I know in the modern day media you hear only a lot of whining about agent orange, but I'd like to know more facts about it.
o Napalm - I don't care what anyone says, napalm rocks.

o Another innovation I thought was utterly cool and I think this must still be in use is: helicopter borne ARTILLERY. Surely this is the best idea of the lot? I think, in action, this totally rocked.

There were stacks of really utterly cool and brilliant ideas in use in Vietnam, but nobody talks about it.

More on these and other ideas is most welcome. I'm fascinated.
Posted By: Jan
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Date Posted: Sunday 28-Mar-2010
Hi Charlemange,
hanks for writing in. Keep the comments coming. I live in the USA and support our troops 100%. I can agree with yourr thinking. S Africa has a lot to teach us regarding the path we are on now. I've worked with Jan for ten years now and have visited South Africa and Namibia. I don't know if you go to the African Crisis site, but if you do, read the comments on news articles. One, old female writes some very intersting history and you will see a lot of her posts. She is now 80, sharp as a tack and has lived their history during her lifetime and her memory is keen. Hit the Browse recent comments and you will see a lot of her work. Others contribute there too and it is very interesting.
Thanks again,
Your fellow American
JoAn

I agree that S. Vietnam lost the war, along with American politicians such as McNamara who wouldn\'t let the military manage the operations. The americans were hamstrung by ridiculous rules of engagement designed to keep us from winning. Nixon tried to get the Vietnamese to take more responsibility (Vietnamization) but the regime was corrupt and incompetent and obviously the people themselves didn\'t have the heart to defend their own country.

Reminds me of S. Korea. Another \"conflict\" we should have avoided. Why do we need to continue defending them seeing they are at such an advantage over N. Korea now? But yeah, we had some awesome warriors fighting over in Vietnam even if for a lost cause. But I\'m sad for the families of those lost in Vietnam (and Korea) because American boys should never have been sent there if we weren\'t going to annihilate the enemy.

Look at how we utterly defeated both Germany and Japan, both advanced and mighty world powers, simultaneously, in less than four years! But then we couldn\'t defeat N. Korea or N. Vietnam, piddling, backwards, poor third world nations? And we were in Vietnam for eight years? Mighty strange. Looks like the same thing happening in Iraq/Afghanistan. Probably for the same reasons too.

Charlemagne
Carlsbad, CA

Date Posted: Monday 22-Mar-2010
The most fascinating in this story are North Vietnam ground forces. They defeated consecutevely the French (1954), the Americans (1972), the Chinese 1979. Not speaking about the Southern Vietnam (1 mn soldiers BTW) in 1975 and Pol Pot khmers in 1978.

And it wasnt the wars of Israel vs the retarded Arabs. Northern Vietnam fought mostly against great powers.
The best soldiers ever. And the best recipient of the military aid Russia ever had.

List from Moscow
Russia

Date Posted: Monday 22-Mar-2010
BTW VietVet,
I was praising your army's achievements in Vietnam and you chew me out. Wow! Would you have preferred I called the US Army in Vietnam a bunch of clowns and idiots? Would you have prefered that?

Actually, I was praising their achievements because I was truly impressed.

I don't think I implied war was fun. But I was very impressed at what was achieved, and I want to write more about it.

Normally Vietnam is the war Americans would rather forget, but the reality is that there are many American successes that were forgotten.

I've been chatting to some officers I know who were there and asking them what went wrong in their opinions. They have some pretty interesting things to say which I will publish.

I looked at the whole thing and came to the conclusion that the South Vietnamese really lost the war. When the US Army withdrew the South Vietnamese had 1,700 aircraft, far more than the north, and much military hardware and even outnumbered the north... yet they ended up losing in no time. I reckon the South Vietnamese were the ones who lost the war.

Jan Lamprecht
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Monday 22-Mar-2010
So Vietvet1968,
Aren't you even proud about the achievements of your own army?

Jan Lamprecht
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Tuesday 16-Mar-2010
You idiot.....wish you would have been there to see how war \\\"rocks\\\"

Vietvet1968