What were some difficulties and dangers faced by the soldiers fighting in Vietnam?

Answer 1

Some of the dangers the soldiers fighting on both sides faced were: "friendly fire," boobytraps, ambushes, malaria, and inexperienced officers giving the wrong orders.

Some of the difficulties they faced were: "crotch rot" or immersion foot, heat fatigue, boredom, guilt, hatred, experienced soldiers with little patience for "FNGs."

Answer 2

You've asked an important and interesting question. I knew some of these men and I will give you the answers from what they have told me.

1. They could not tell who was the enemy by lookinig at
a person. They were all Vietnamese. Sometimes the
Viet Cong woud live in a village of South Vietnamese
and the soldiers would not know if they were looking
at friend or foe.

American soldiers tend to be kind and friendly. But
Cong would wire a kid with a bomb and when an
American went to help the kid or be friendly, both
would be blown up.

2. The politicians put so many rules on the soldiers
that it became almost impossible to protect oneself.
For instance, when a Vietnamese approached a
military compound the soldiers had to call out three
times for the person to halt before they were allowed
to shoot. By that time, if the person approaching
was Viet Cong they were liable to have lobbed a
grenade over the fence before the soldiers could
defend themselves.

3. The fact that America was divided over the war
was a difficulty in terms of the morale of the soldiers.
They fought a difficult war, where the enemy couldn't
be identified by uniform, necessarily, and where
the soldiers couldn't know who was friend or foe
foe, often. They fought under physically difficult
conditions (tropical jungle) and they watched many
of their comrades die, and then they did not have
any sense that America appreciated their sacrifices,
but rather the opposite. This was very demoralizing.

Last, I want to talk of one of the dangers that I have seen
with my own eyes. The Viet Cong made booby traps in
the jungle--board that were studded with spiked sticks,
and if a soldier tripped one he was iimpaled on these
spikes. It was a horrible death.

If captured, the prisoners were not treated well, but tortured and deprived.

Oh, I'm going to add one more. The army made a lot of rank during the war, and a lot of people make a lot of money. The war was not fought to win it. It was drug out with the most ridiculous limitations on the soldiers and on what could be bombed and what couldn't. All the waffling on the part of congress and the people who were more concerned with what they could personally gain from the war certainly added to both difficulty and danger for the soldiers. But that was altogether direct. It was more of background causes.

Maggie

Answer 3

Bouncing Bettys on the plains, punji sticks on the jungle trails (a hole in the ground covered with grass and several feces covered and sharpened bamboo sticks puched into the ground waiting for some unsuspecting GI to step into the hole) and the most ingenous was the Deuce and a Quarter Roller Coaster, better known as the One Way Trip to Beaula Land, a hand grenade with the safety pin pulled and the release handle held in place by a rubber band and dropped into the gas tank of a 2 1/2 ton troop transport truck about an hour before it was due to leave the compound.

Once 20 troops were on board and the truck started jostling on the dirt roads, the rubber band would melt, releasing the release lever on the grenade and KABOOM!!!.

To this day, Disney has never been able to duplicate such a thrilling ride.

Answer 4

You couldn' t tell friend from enemy. A beautiful young woman would make love to me in the evening and throw a grenade into my hooch at night.

Answer 5

for me, it was the NVA 2nd Division, which tried mightily (but vainly) to kill me.

malaria didn't help, either.