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By 1968, military containment was proved as no longer successful as a cold…

- - - - The aim of the Strategic Hamlets was to isolate South Vietnamese peasants (who were especially susceptible to the influence of communism) from the Vietcong.
        
        Peasants were forced out of their ancestral homes and moved from rice paddies and moved into fortified villages where they starved
        
        Ultimately this failed as it was an unpopular move from the US, undermining their attempts to 'win hearts and minds,' - additionally, the peasants weren't ultimately isolated from the Vietcong
  - - - The invitation included a depiction of a Vietcong solider surrendering, encouraging Vietnamese communists to defect to their nearest South Vietnamese base, where they were offered a reward of $2000 dollars, and kind treatment
        
        CAVEAT: The US government claimed that they achieved a defection rate of 1.5 million people
        
        The efforts on the part of the US to win 'hearts and minds,' was ultimately unsuccessful and made counter-insurgency a major flop
        
        HOWEVER, ultimately analysts argue that less than 22% of these defections were genuine. Most of such defections were Vietcong soldiers seeking temporary respite from conflict and financial reward
- - - - CAVEAT: The Tet Offensive was technically a military success for the Americans, and quite a disaster for the Vietcong, whereby
- - - - CAVEAT: The Americans were always ultimately ahead in technological advancement, the Vietnamese never utilised helicopters that often..operation rolling thunder was arguably quite successful
        
        Overall however, guirella tactics on the part of the Vietcong such as 'grab them by the belt,' meant that US were never able to adapt to jungle warfare
  - - - In 1968, the My Lai massacre marked an American war crime whereby innocent civilians were killed during a search and destroy mission
    - - Americans dropped agent orange onto the Vietnamese jungle with starved villagers. Napalm was also dropped which burned civilians.