Geographic Conditions

In the Vietnam war, both sides faced many problems. There was extremely dense foliage that the soldiers couldn't see through, so they couldn't see their enemies until nearly face-to-face with them. Sometimes they even killed members of their own side because they couldn't see clearly enough, and thought it was an enemy. Also, it prevented aerial observations and allowed the enemy to move around withour detection and stage ambushes. The jungle was very tough to fight in, and the land posed other issues such as secret tunnels that the VC hid out in. They would be underneath the ground in their own private area and these would stretch on for miles and miles. If U.S. soldiers were instructed to go inside these for whatever reason, it was extremely dangerous because they didn't know the layout of the tunnels, and were easily surrounded by the energy. Also, the Vietnamese were very crafty in creating sinkholes and covering them up, so that U.S. soldiers would unknowingly walk over them, fall in, and potentially be stuck. In addition to this, monsoon season prevented the effective use of American aircraft, giving us a huge disadvantage from the start. Another problem was that there was so much land to cover with jungles and rice paddies which made it hard for the U.S. armor to move around.