![]() On January 31 1968, the Vietcong changed tactics from their usual guerilla warfare strategy. The Vietcong and North Vietnam were supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and China who supplied money and weapons. However, they were often booby-trapped with spikes and grenades. It would be the job of US ‘tunnel rats’ to search these tunnels. These tunnel systems could hide thousands of Vietcong which helped them fight their guerrilla war. There were hospitals, armouries, sleeping quarters, kitchens and wells underground. The Vietcong had a hidden system of tunnels stretching over 200 miles. It was difficult for American troops to know who was a Vietcong and who was not. They would offer to help them in their daily work and also promised them land, more wealth and freedom under Ho Chi Minh and the communists. The Vietcong won the ‘hearts and minds’ of the South Vietnamese peasants. They used the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which stretched from North Vietnam to the South, to keep their forces supplied. ![]() ![]() The Vietcong had experience of doing this while fighting the Japanese and the French after World War Two - they were very familiar with the terrain and the climate. Guerrilla warfare is the art of using knowledge of the landscape to avoid open battle with the enemy and to launch raids and surprise attacks, before disappearing back into the undergrowth. The Vietcong used a number of tactics to help them do this. Despite having no aircraft, tanks or artillery of their own, the Vietcong managed to hold out against the Americans until the USA left Vietnam in the 1970s.
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