Technology's Role In The Vietnam War

Introduction
Technology and war are closely related as it shapes the strategies adopted by nations and also influence the outcome of the war . Technological advancements are also driven by war due to the perceived needs to stay ahead and stay relevant in the new era so as to provide a technological edge against potential adversaries2. Although technology employed during war does provide an advantage against potential adversaries, however, it does not always result in a decisive advantage or victory in war. As demonstrated during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the US who are armed with far superior technology advantages over the Viet Cong (VC) forces had failed to capitalise on it to win a decisive war. As a result, the US fought a long and costly

Nations who possessed better technology does have added advantages such as air power, firepower, precision and mobility over their adversaries. Equipped with far superior technologies in air power and fire power as opposed to the VC forces, the US managed to inflict heavy casualties on the communists during the Vietnam War. An example of the advantage of technology used during the Vietnam War was that the US made good use of its helicopters for launching large troop insertion into the theatre of operations that allowed them to reach faster to areas that are inaccessible by foot or vehicles2. In addition, the helicopters were integral in providing troops with good close air support with their heavy machine guns mounted on the

One such challenge of using technology during the Vietnam War was that the US could not fully utilise the tanks to their advantage as the terrain in the Vietnam jungle was too muddy and soft that hinder the movement of their tanks.3 Thus, the tanks were not fully employed and hardly played a huge role in combat during the war.

The US were also overconfident and underestimated the capabilities of the well-trained VC in guerrilla warfare who were very familiar and knowledgeable with the terrains and challenging environmental conditions that caused challenges for the US to engage them. VC forces were very effective and elusive by hiding underground through their extensive network of Cu Chi tunnels to evade the US forces and air bombardment. Through non-conventional warfare such as the guerrilla tactics employed by the VC, it made it harder for the US forces to call in air power to bombard the VC forces as they fought very closely against the US and thus, rendered the US air power advantage