You forgot how pretty he looked, and in the commander and chief advisor to the military, as well. The chief aspect of the strategy that most americans know about was surge and destroy, it is sending out u. S. Forces into the lands of vietnam to pin down and destroy the enemy forces, being the North Vietnamese or the viet cong. The first main battle of the vietnam war was in the last lecture, about the battles fought in november of 1965. And it was indicated that we had technological advances that would enable us to achieve some startling victories. First off, the helicopter which is one of these images of the vietnam war, it provided us with a maneuverability. Anywhere the viet cong were found, we could hunt them down. Once we lost them in the battle, we had the technological advances to destroy them, airpower and artillery, usually used around the countryside. And it had worked so well in 1965, you remember we were talking about that, that battle involved at the most one u. S. Battalion and often times just little bits and pieces. They would go into battle and an entire enemy regiment, maybe two of them, this little force though they were vastly outnumbered, the artillery would come in and the helicopters, they had landings hopefully you remember that this is covered well in from joe galloway, the news correspondent, in the movie. But that Little American force fought that big North Vietnamese force. The numbers are always iffy in vietnam. It depends on how you look at the battles, how much you believe the body count, things like that. It is ok to estimate. The enemy lost about 2000 in that battle, we lost about 250. It was indicated to west moreland that is tactics, once fully implemented, would cost the bad guys, the viet cong, so much that if he replicated the valley a couple of times, they would give up. The butchers bill would be so high, that the North Vietnamese would give up. In 1967, that was the year to test it. 1966, they were bringing in American Forces and by 1967, the efforts after was built. The infrastructure was built. It was time to search and destroy and make this a oneyear war. And it would wind up causing them to in the war. End the war. The war in 1967, had been broken down into four separate wars. Up here, the northern part of south vietnam, along here we have the dmz. In that area, the Third Marine Division will be located. Down here in the southern provinces, the first marine division. And also there are two main divisions, first and second, and during the year as the war ramps up, we will see more american troops devoted to this area. This is a war in of itself, unlike the other wars in south vietnam. You are facing across the border, you are facing three divisions of the North Vietnamese. 35,000 regular troops. And there are troops based in areas along the trail the ho chi minh trail, that could threaten from the west. One of the troops one of the things troops refacing, a threat from the court. And what are they have, right across the border . Right across here . That is when you answer the question with something profound and correct. I will give you a hint. Artillery tubes. Hundreds and hundreds of their own artillery, so here is a conventional war where we do not always have the edge with firepower. Oftentimes, they have overwhelming firepower, and most of these will be the seized by enemy artillery fire the siege by enemy artillery fire. So the numbers can get high in the battles fought near the dmz. And we are facing an enemy with almost equal fire support, but they do not have equal air support. And the second war, what they are looking at, this is the central highlands. This is a war of the jungle, the rain forest, and uninhabited parts of the country. The enemy here we face is a mixed enemy, there are these areas base areas, the north Vietnamese Forces coming across the border. Sometimes, there is artillery support, but most times not. And in the mountains, often they have special forces camps with troops helping them. So what we have is often a situation in which troops come across the border and take the camps, resulting in a battle. And also viet cong troops that are living in the area, providing more of a guerrilla war. Most troops are on the coastal areas and they react to whatever threat they face coming across the border. But in many ways it was a reactive war, it was a mixed war, that involves both conventional and unconventional warfare. And this is a war entirely his own its own. Here is saigon. And as you can probably figure out, this one was going to be really important. Saigon is the headquarters of the u. S. Forces, a governmental area for the south vietnamese, and it must be kept safe. They cannot be threatened. And this area is abounding with threat. And this is what we talked about last time, an enemy based area. You see right there, this is the command structure for the viet cong. It is located in or right outside war zone c. And here is the Enemy Division. Sometimes they were two of them, that could slip across the border, or go back to cambodia for a safe haven. It was a direct route to saigon. And this area, d, it is not connected to the trail or a supply network from North Vietnam. So look out close that is to saigon, and it is a viet cong base, it has battalions from time to time. And definitely the last time we talked about this, the triangle. Also, a base area. We talked about the war that was father, this was an area that was shot through with tunnels, the area in which a lot of the planning took place, and essentially this is in the suburbs of saigon. So you can see where in 1967, the war zones, the 3 corps is an important part and it will become the focus of the war for at least the beginning of the year. Three operations are run around the iron trying to, in an effort to pacify the area. In many ways, they would see those tunnels remain until we decided to plow them under. Also, as you know, we discussed that they had to pause and she had to present this again, it was a free fire zone. Americans can assume anything moving in that area is an enemy force, and everything in that area is deserving of american firepower. This is a very fought over area. But it remains in many ways under enemy control, at least until 1969. The biggest area for 1967, in the saigon region, is war zone c. We run one of the biggest operations of the entire war, from the operation junction, that is worth looking at, maybe underlining it for your test. It was an 82 day operation beginning in february come in 1967. February, 19 67. 30,000 u. S. Troops, plus at least another division, go to war zone c from both sides. They are trying to pin down the Enemy Division that lives in the area, it is on the ninth viacom 9th viacom division. Viet cong division. Unlike attleboro from the year before, the had the viet cong had gotten away, but this time we were not going to let them get away. Paratroopers come in and they tried to seal off the border to cambodia, which is the only escape route. So this operation is going to be what tacticians call a hammer and anvil operation. Airborne troopers will be the and bill, invading anvil, and the 30,000 forces will be the hammer and we will smash the enemy forces. Maybe 23 operations like this could in the war end the war. You tell me though, do we pin down the ninth division, or do they make good on there is good to cambodia . The viet cong will be desperately hard to pin down. They know the area, they lived in this area. They know the ways in and out. The anvil breaks and the viet cong getaway. That is not mean that there is not fighting. In the couple months during this operation, we kill about 3000 enemy forces and we lose about 300. So what is this . A crushing victory that they had hoped for . No, the enemy got away. Still, a good victory. In the number of folks we killed. But it was not a crushing victory, yet. The enemy is elusive and they get away with pretty great regularity. We are most concerned about today, this area. This is the mekong delta, the area south of saigon, if you go all the way back to the previous matt. The southernmost map. The southernmost area of the not. Of vietnam. And it is bordered by one of the mightiest rivers. By the time it goes to south vietnam, it is beginning to stagnate and it flows slows, and it becomes nine rivers, and the mekong delta dominates this area. What does it mean for the mekong itself. It was flat. If you are driving around louisiana, same thing. There is waterways everywhere. So the ground and a landscape is flat. This is 40,000 square kilometers of wetlands. Those that have been tamed by the vietnamese population. And you can see it reasonably well on the map, there are 600,000 kilometers of rivers, streams, you cannot go anywhere in the area without having to close cross a stream or river. So what does this do for the area . It has highways everywhere. A great transportation network. You have plenty of rivers floating around. And second, it gives me a vietnam their most productive soil in the country, the best farming area in the country. Dotted with rice paddies, villages that meander on the banks of the river. And one of these ambiguities of the code is that one of these rice paddies in vietnam. It attracts most of the people, 8 Million People live in this area in 1967, and that is roughly half the population of the country. It produces almost all of their rice, but it is really important to keep them fed. And the fact that the dense population, over 200 inhabitants per square kilometer. That is the same density that massachusetts had at the same time. So what this means, this is the most valuable real estate in the country. It is a population center, whoever has this area will have the edge in the war. And the viet cong certainly knew this. The rivers give them a way to supply themselves with ease. They can move around as quickly as they like, as long as they are floating. And the population gives them a wonderful place to hide. Hide in plain sight among the people, swimming among the population like the fish would in the ocean. This is a perfect set up for a viet cong war, a different war than what they would need in other see in other sectors of the is not. Of south vietnam. Viet cong designates thousands of troops in this area. But not all of those 81,000 troops are fighters, some of them are second line fighters, semipolitical operatives, carrying supplies around, some of them plans landmines. Plant landmines. And do not forget, they lived in this area a long time. Some viet cong lived in the area before that word was invented. Some of them had been men who fought the french and japanese from this area, so they have long connections to this area. They have builtin advantages. The enemy has advantages. The south vietnamese know that this is an important area, so they devote three Infantry Divisions to this area. 40,000. So even before the americans turn up, this will be part of the country where the most difficult, the war once runs deep. And we cannot really get into this but there is also a kind of different kind of trip troop here, from the army of vietnam. Do not forget, this out of enemies have what we would south vietnamese would happily call the regional guard. They protect provinces, the south the emmys version the vietnamese version of a state. And those that protect villages and let hamlet. So what are these National Guard guys . We will talk about them later. They are worth noting for a second. And in the hearts and minds of the people, these of the troops that live among the people, they form from the people. It is an important thing. For a war without front lines, and if you have heard anything about vietnam, they did not have front lines. They were all frontlines. They were bobble, they lived vulnerable, they lived in the villages. If you look at who loses the most dead in the war on the allied side, it is the regional forces. They would be a huge it would be a huge advantage to build them up. That will be another lecture. But too often they are poorly supplied, poorly fed, poorly trained and motivated. Perhaps this would have been another way that the war could have been one, but perhaps giving them a bit more opportunity. So what we have are forces contesting the countryside, and what does it mean . In reality, in 1967 again, the numbers are swishy, but the americans believe that the viet cong controls 25 of the people. They are threatening the rice harvest, the shipping of the rice to saigon, and this is a situation they cannot have. This is a situation that could spell the end of the war, and not a very good and end for us. So we decide to intervene in 1967. We go to river warfare. If you have a vision of what happens in the war, you have that vision. American troops arriving in battlefield on helicopters. Well, the delta is too wet to land helicopters and it has its own highway system. What these guys will do is take ships into battle. They are based the ninth Infantry Division is reactivated and specially trained to operate in the watery environment. And the second problem, giving them a place to live. Every dry piece of ground in the delta has People Living on it. And running enough of them out of their to build an American City with an Infantry Division is a good way to get people to not be on your side. So, a bunch of big brains got together, they got some of the biggest in the world, but them in the river, and they made new land by dredging up mud and putting it on to the countryside. They created a town. It is a wonderful place for the americans and south vietnamese to get on the same page. The ninth Infantry Division is looking at a big piece of mud, and they have to build a base on it. And eventually, it becomes a much more advanced base later. Troops from that base, and also from the mobile phase, sometimes those troops were on chips ships, the best way to get them into battle where these ships, they were armored troop carriers. Those who rode in them said that they were tango votes baots. Boats. That is how they get from where theyre going to start, to where they finished, hopefully a battle somewhere. This is who the navy ships belong to. Their job is to pick up the ninth Infantry Division troops, use the waterways to get the viet cong no matter where they are. Remember, you can get them anywhere across the delta, lock them into battle and destroy them. By the way, these on their own are pretty well armed. They have a 20 millimeter on, sticking out. And machine guns, so these things have a little bit of a punch. Usually, the operating groups of four. They would get them, find intelligence, say that the viet cong is located here. The troops would come off and they would begin to search the countryside for the viet cong they heard were located in that area. Then they would remain around, because again in the delta, there is always another river to cross. If you do not find an enemy here, they will pick you up and moving to the next. And move you again. If you wound up any battle, they provided fire support, supplies, and they were also places to take the wounded. So they played a big role. Also along with these, you had the marine force, this is a gunship. This is the firepower. If you look at it, you can see it carries to m16 machine guns, and a cannon in the rear. In the middle, there is a mortar. And a 40 milliliter cannon. If you got locked in a battle with the enemy, this is what would turn the side in your favor. And downriver, barges that would have artillery on them. The mobile troops get their own artillery. They were significant firepower support. That is what we are doing. What is the enemy doing . To go back to what we remember, if you find American Forces that are too far away, what happens . If you are standing off from American Forces and they could call in the firepower, what happens . You are dead. Aircrafts come in and vaporized you, the other artillery comes in, and kills you. Do they have any artillery support of their own . This is as far away from North Vietnam as you can get. So what do they have . Small arms. The enemy is always going to be outgunned in the delta. So the first thing that is part of their plan, trying to get as close as possible. The viet cong call this hanging onto american belts. If you can find them for 50 feet away, and they call an artillery and air support, you make this a man on man, rifle on rifle battle, if you can. Second thing, you can see a well on the map on this picture, the enemy wants to get into the battlefield. You prepare it. This is a standard looking picture from the mekong delta. All over the delta, rice paddies. And they have bunkers. It will be wet, but you will have a bunker. Treelined is a really good place to have the bunkers. So they prepare the battlefield and they have had years to do this. The entire mekong delta is a prepared battlefield. When you are in american going through the area, oddly enough, they do not go on that dock itself, you tended to go through the rice paddies. Any one of these could be an enemy ambush. You always had to be ready. For instance, using this as an example, the enemy is in the treeline, when do they want to fire on you . Here . When you are there. That is when they had a place where you cannot move or call on supportive fire. Say they are over there, and he moved that way. And you move that way. Will they fire on you . Probably not. You do not know whether there is a bunker system there. You do not know if it is occupied. Even when you get past it, you do not know. Quite often what we will see in the delta, the enemy will only open fire with a have advantages in place, they have secured the battlefield and the americans are in the wrong spot. Otherwise, they hold fire. And also in the delta, maybe a couple of snipers will fire on you and slow you down. Are they trying to kill 100 of you . No, to give the mess to give the rest of the forces an opportunity to fight another day. When it is more in their favor. So, sniper fire. Small contact, that is something you will see a lot of. And also, what can you run into in these rice patties . What can you run into all too commonly . Boobytraps. They are everywhere. They had a chance to get the entire battlefield ready. Of the american casualties in the delta, 65 of them are caused by mind and boobytraps. You are walking through and somebody has a leg blown off. Does that for you down . Quite a lot. You call a medic, a helicopter, and the whole time you are slowed down and the enemy is using it as a chance to get away. So in the me