Tanks.

This is coolbert:

During the Vietnam War, there WERE a number of retired military men ["experts"] that were against U.S. involvement in the war.

[Active duty military men would have had by law to hold their tongues. To speak out would be a violation of Article 88 and 134 of UCMJ.]

And their main objection to U.S. involvement is that it [the war], "was not our kind of war". By this was meant that the U.S. military was designed and equipped to fight a Soviet enemy in western Europe. And was equipped in such a manner [tanks, heavy artillery, bomber aircraft] that precluded a successful campaign in southeast Asia. Factors that precluded a successful campaign by U.S. forces would include the terrain [jungle, mountains, Mekong delta], the weather [monsoon], and the nature of the enemy [guerilla, light-infantry].

A common refrain of these "experts" was, "you can't use tanks in the jungle".

Is this true??

Yes and no!!

Tanks and heavy artillery, mechanized infantry, all these DO have a hard time, or a very hard time, operating in jungle or mountainous terrain.

[Many areas of Vietnam were both jungle and mountainous. That only makes the situation that much more difficult.]

However, the U.S. military DID make use of tanks in Vietnam. Armor as used for convoy escort and those tanks organic to the armored cavalry regiments gave a good account of themselves during the Southeast Asian conflict!

[Tanks were also used for base camp perimeter defense. A mobile pill box. Tanks firing an anti-personnel round combined with organic machinegun fire of the tank made for a formidable defensive weapon. Mobile too!!]

[During the siege of the Admin Box in Burma during the Second World War [WW2], British forces, consisting of an ad hoc unit besieged in mountainous jungle covered terrain, DID make use of Lee tanks as mobile pill boxes with great effectiveness against a numerically superior Japanese force. Use of these tanks DID contribute greatly to eventual British survival and victory.]

It should be noted that the perceptions of the American "expert" regarding the use of tanks in Vietnam seems to have been seriously mistaken.

At the end of the Vietnam War, both in 1972 and in 1975, the communist forces, during their "grand offensives", DID make use of massed formations of tanks. This was something NOT even the lavishly equipped American forces had even CONTEMPLATED!! The communists WERE NOT inhibited from using tanks en masse. Mountains and jungle DID NOT stop the North Vietnamese from using tanks ala Soviet fashion. Massed formations of tanks supported by massed formations of heavy artillery sealed the fate of lightly equipped South Vietnamese military units, not prepared for such an onslaught!! What was supposedly NOT possible in Vietnam, according to American "experts", WAS possible. And in a big way!!

[The South Vietnamese military was designed, equipped, and trained to fight the enemy the U.S. Army had fought in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese light infantry army. The South Vietnamese, in both 1972 and during the final climactic assault of 1975, were totally unable, through no fault of their own, to handle and defend successfully against massed tank and heavy artillery assault.]

South Vietnamese defeat in 1975 was NOT due to corruption, indifference, cowardice, or anything of the sort. South Vietnamese defeat in 1975 WAS due to massed formations of North Vietnamese tanks and heavy artillery, operating where they supposedly COULD NOT operate!!!

That communist forces were able to employ, successfully, massed formations of tanks where they SHOULD not have been able to, should have NOT come as a surprise to the "experts".

There was a precedent for this. A precedent that the "experts" should have known about and taken into consideration!!

At the very end of World War Two [WW2], in August 1945, the Soviet army obliterated the Manchurian based Japanese Kwangtung Army. Spearheading the Soviet offensive was the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army. During THIS "grand offensive" of the Soviets, the 6th Guards Tank Army WAS able to force a passage of the Great Khingan Mountain Range. The Great Khingan Mountain Range IS one of the most desolate and rugged mountain ranges in the world, and one thought to be impassable to tanks, WAS NOT impassable to tanks, much to the consternation of the Japanese!! Through a proper combination of planning, determination, motivation, and equipment, the Soviets were able to do what was thought be be impossible!!

Once the 6th Guards Tank Army forced a passage of the Great Khingan Mountain Range, Japanese defeat in Manchuria was a mere formality!!

Attacks by massed tank formations, supported by massed heavy artillery, created, both in 1945 and in 1975, a shock effect [physical and mental shock] that was exacerbated by the use of tanks and artillery WHERE THEY SUPPOSEDLY COULD NOT BE USED!!

To those "experts" that knew better, PHOOEY!!

[I would believe that the "experts", both American and Japanese, would have conceded, that, yes, tanks COULD be used in Vietnam and the Great Khingan Mountain Range in numbers. But NOT in the fashion with which they WERE used. That would have NOT been a plausibility to the "experts".]

[Suvorov states that in case of war between the Soviets and NATO, the 6th Guards Tank Army, at the time still in existence [we are talking here 1970’s], was tasked with advancing upon unguarded NATO territory through Austria, Bavaria, and the Alps. Mountainous terrain. It seems some old traditions of the Soviet Army died hard!!]

coolbert.