Weapons In Vietnam War Essay

What is the most crucial item that wins wars? Weapons. Weapons are what decide the victor in any war. Especially in the Vietnam War, many weapons were used such as Agent Orange, air to ground missiles, and machine guns. Agent Orange, used extensively during the Vietnam War, was a deforesting chemical used from 1961 to 1971 on the tree filled areas of Vietnam and parts of Cambodia and Laos. This chemical was a mixture between Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Once mixed the mixture created an acid called dioxine, which is very harmful to humans. Dioxine poisoning is still present in third-generation Vietnamese who have ingested or worked in areas where Agent Orange was sprayed. Dioxine poisoning created genetic deformities

The first tactical air to ground missile was created by the US navy in 1959, it was named Bullpup. The Bullpup was designed to “enable the attacking aircraft to make a precision attack from outside antiaircraft artillery range” (Carl Otis Schuster, “Air to Ground missiles: Vietnam War”). The early version was equipped with “a 250-pound warhead and were powered by a small solid-fuel rocket engine” (Carl Otis Schuster, “Air to Ground missiles: Vietnam War”). The Bullpups lacked in range thus not allowing them to be useful due to the longer range of the surface to air missiles used by the Viet Cong, or the North Vietnamese. In reaction to this the US built the AGM-45 Shrike antiradiation missile, which had the range, firepower, and speed to destroy the Vietnamese surface to air missiles. The US army also used air to ground missiles, specifically the French made AGM-22. This missile was used by UH-1 gunships for the majority of the war and is “credited with destroying North Vietnamese PT-76 tanks” (Carl Otis Schuster, “Air to Ground missiles: Vietnam War”). The success of the AGM-22 was incredible, during one of its first deployment in war it was credited with destroying 24 North Vietnamese tanks within 5