What challenge did the geography of Vietnam pose to American soldiers?

Answer 1

Geography is always part of the formula for war. It used to be called METT (Mission, Enemy, Time, and Terrain with terrain being the Geograpy portion). Therefore Vietnam was no different than any other war in regards to geography. If anything "geography" was no longer an issue...the helicopter took care of that. For the first time in man's history, he could now do battle anywhere anytime all the time! Thanks to the mobility of the chopper.

Answer 2

Example: Korea is a peninsula. When war commenced there, the US Navy was able to isolate the enemy (communists), since the USN commanded the seas. Enemy re-supply had to cross the Chinese Communist border into North Korea, or they had to run the USN blockade (and face destruction if they tried).

Vietnam (North or South) is not a peninsula. Communists could infiltrate thru neutral nations, such as Laos or Cambodia (which they did). Theres only one way to isolate the enemy supply route(s): Invade Laos/Cambodia and occupy those nations. This obviously would widen the war from Vietnam to Laos/Cambodia; and during the cold war days, Red China & the Soviet Union (Russia) would certainly have upped their DEFCON posture had the US done that. The US wanted to isolate the Viet War and end it...NOT MAKE IT BIGGER!

The next option, the next best option (by far not the best solution) was to bomb the heck out of it (Ho Chi Minh trail). Which was done. And didn't work anyway.

Answer 3

A major problem about going to Vietnam was because the entire country is jungle and at that time, the US. didn't have very much experience in jungle warfare. Plus the heat and humidity was also a big factor.