McNamara backed Westmoreland's demands, though warning that this would not ensure success. The Senate took a similarly gloomy view, with majority leader Mike Mansfield warning that the whole of Southeast Asia was a potential battlefield.
On the ground, things were going from bad to worse. A Special Forces camp at Khe Sanh, near the DMZ, came under fire from 120mm mortars, the first time the Vietcong had deployed such an awesome weapon. Meanwhile, the VC managed to kidnap US diplomat Douglas Ramsey. However, the Australians managed some success in a full-scale search-and-destroy sweep called Operation Crimp through the 'Iron Triangle', a Vietcong stronghold northwest of Saigon. The troops came up empty handed for the first few days until Sergeant Stewart Green saw what he thought at first was a scorpion on the jungle floor. It turned out to be a nail in a trapdoor. Under it was the mouth of a narrow shaft that led down to a tunnel. Green explored part of the tunnel, but the darkness and claustrophobia soon drove him back. They tried pumping coloured smoke down the shaft and found that it came up out of hidden openings all over the surrounding jungle. At last, they had discovered how the Vietcong could vanish so easily. They were standing on top of a huge complex of tunnels, much of which they destroyed, though they could not confirm a high body count.
The Vietnamese people had a special affinity with the soil of their country and their guerrilla armies had been using tunnels for centuries. Extensive tunnel systems had been used during the French Indochina War, but when the Americans arrived these were extended rapidly. Underground they had dormitories and workshops, hospitals, kitchens, headquarters facilities and supply depots. Some tunnel systems ran for hundreds of miles, from the Cambodian border to the gates of Saigon itself. They were dug by villagers in the laterite clay which set as hard as concrete and, where the water table permitted, were several storeys deep. Levels were separated by airtight doors and U-bends in tunnel floors filled with water to stop the spread of gases and impede the shock waves from explosions. Short tunnels often looked like they were dead ends when, in fact, a concealed trap door connected to a vast network. The tunnels were narrow, which suited the small Vietnamese soldiers, but not the larger Americans or Australians. And they were filled with booby traps: rigged grenades, tethered poisonous snakes and punji sticks, sharpened bamboo stakes. Pits of these stakes were concealed along jungle trails, deadly to anyone who stumbled into them.
Other types of punji traps sprang up, impaling the luckless grunt. Wooden or metal spikes would often be smeared with human excrement to give anyone not killed directly blood poisoning. Trails also concealed mines and grenades rigged to tripwires. These were often hidden under water in places where patrols had to wade through swamps. The VC also littered areas with 'toe-poppers,' upright bullets half-buried with the primer resting on a nail or firing pin. When a GI stood on one it would blow his foot off. Some 10,000 US servicemen lost at least one limb in Vietnam – more than in World War II and Korea put together. Grenades were attached to bamboo arches over the trails so that their shrapnel caused messy head and face wounds. The idea was to sap the morale of the grunts. It also had an added political bonus. An eighteen-year-old GI who had just seen a buddy mutilated by a booby trap was more likely to commit atrocities. Even experienced jungle fighters used local peasants as human booby-trap detectors, causing the Vietnamese people to hate and mistrust the Americans.
The entrances to tunnel complexes were usually surrounded by mines – GIs tended to avoid places where their buddies had been killed or wounded. The entrance shafts were often booby-trapped with a slit at about the level of the eyes of anyone hanging by his fingertips from the lip before
On the ground, things were going from bad to worse. A Special Forces camp at Khe Sanh, near the DMZ, came under fire from 120mm mortars, the first time the Vietcong had deployed such an awesome weapon. Meanwhile, the VC managed to kidnap US diplomat Douglas Ramsey. However, the Australians managed some success in a full-scale search-and-destroy sweep called Operation Crimp through the 'Iron Triangle', a Vietcong stronghold northwest of Saigon. The troops came up empty handed for the first few days until Sergeant Stewart Green saw what he thought at first was a scorpion on the jungle floor. It turned out to be a nail in a trapdoor. Under it was the mouth of a narrow shaft that led down to a tunnel. Green explored part of the tunnel, but the darkness and claustrophobia soon drove him back. They tried pumping coloured smoke down the shaft and found that it came up out of hidden openings all over the surrounding jungle. At last, they had discovered how the Vietcong could vanish so easily. They were standing on top of a huge complex of tunnels, much of which they destroyed, though they could not confirm a high body count.
The Vietnamese people had a special affinity with the soil of their country and their guerrilla armies had been using tunnels for centuries. Extensive tunnel systems had been used during the French Indochina War, but when the Americans arrived these were extended rapidly. Underground they had dormitories and workshops, hospitals, kitchens, headquarters facilities and supply depots. Some tunnel systems ran for hundreds of miles, from the Cambodian border to the gates of Saigon itself. They were dug by villagers in the laterite clay which set as hard as concrete and, where the water table permitted, were several storeys deep. Levels were separated by airtight doors and U-bends in tunnel floors filled with water to stop the spread of gases and impede the shock waves from explosions. Short tunnels often looked like they were dead ends when, in fact, a concealed trap door connected to a vast network. The tunnels were narrow, which suited the small Vietnamese soldiers, but not the larger Americans or Australians. And they were filled with booby traps: rigged grenades, tethered poisonous snakes and punji sticks, sharpened bamboo stakes. Pits of these stakes were concealed along jungle trails, deadly to anyone who stumbled into them.
Other types of punji traps sprang up, impaling the luckless grunt. Wooden or metal spikes would often be smeared with human excrement to give anyone not killed directly blood poisoning. Trails also concealed mines and grenades rigged to tripwires. These were often hidden under water in places where patrols had to wade through swamps. The VC also littered areas with 'toe-poppers,' upright bullets half-buried with the primer resting on a nail or firing pin. When a GI stood on one it would blow his foot off. Some 10,000 US servicemen lost at least one limb in Vietnam – more than in World War II and Korea put together. Grenades were attached to bamboo arches over the trails so that their shrapnel caused messy head and face wounds. The idea was to sap the morale of the grunts. It also had an added political bonus. An eighteen-year-old GI who had just seen a buddy mutilated by a booby trap was more likely to commit atrocities. Even experienced jungle fighters used local peasants as human booby-trap detectors, causing the Vietnamese people to hate and mistrust the Americans.
The entrances to tunnel complexes were usually surrounded by mines – GIs tended to avoid places where their buddies had been killed or wounded. The entrance shafts were often booby-trapped with a slit at about the level of the eyes of anyone hanging by his fingertips from the lip before
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