dropping down. A spear would be thrust through the slit. Items GIs liked to take as souvenirs were booby-trapped. Even coconuts were filled with explosives. Nowhere in Vietnam was safe. It was even rumoured that prostitutes in Saigon would booby trap their sexual parts with broken glass. Among the Australians there was talk of a young squaddie whose penis was sliced in two by a razor blade mounted on a cork inside a prostitute's vagina – though no one ever met the man or woman concerned. But bad things did happen. One young GI was bought a prostitute by his buddies for his birthday so that he could lose his virginity. After she had relieved him of it, she left a bomb under his bed which blew his arms and legs off. Marine fliers were not allowed downtown in Da Nang in 1965 after a booby-trapped cigarette lighter bought from the street vendor blew a Marine's head off. In another case, a toddler was booby-trapped with explosives so when a kindly GI picked it up, the two of them were blown to smithereens. The GIs got their own back, salting enemy ammunition dumps with doctored rifle bullets and mortar rounds that would blow up in the weapon. The idea was to wound the enemy, not kill him. The VC and NVA had limited medical facilities and an injured man put a lot of strain on their resources. It also bred in the enemy soldiers a mistrust of their own weapons.
Even without the booby traps, life for the grunts in the jungles was bad enough. It was full of blood-sucking insects and leeches that had to be burnt off with a cigarette. There are also 133 species of snake in the jungles of Vietnam – 131 of them poisonous. Some had venom that killed within hours. The damp rotted everything. Monsoon rains turned jungle tracks to mudslides, chilled GIs who had acclimatised to the stifling heat, gave them trench foot, rotted their kit, and turned C-rations into a greasy, cold soup. And twenty-four hours a day they had to be ready for ambush by an unseen enemy.
Conditions for the VC were even worse. Vietnamese peasants were used to life in the paddy fields and were no more at home in the jungle than Americans were, and they were less well prepared. Wearing sandals made them very vulnerable to snake bites. Thousands would have been saved if they had solid army boots. Antivenin tablets were issued, one to be swallowed; a second to be chewed and placed on the bite. However, the Vietcong had no defence against mosquitoes. More Vietcong died of malaria than of any other cause. Even those who survived were permanently weakened. With few medical supplies, Vietcong soldiers did their best with traditional remedies, but any wound almost inevitably resulted in a painful and lingering death.
Vietcong troops were constantly hungry. Twice a day they ate a small ball of cold rice made palatable with a few small chillies and occasionally a little dried meat, fish or salt. One chicken would feed up to thirty men. Most suffered from vitamin deficiencies. Bomb craters filled with water were stocked with fish and ducks. Otherwise they would eat monkey, rat, dog, and even tiger and elephant, which is, apparently, tough and tasteless. Some ate moths attracted by the flame of their lamps. The Vietcong would also scavenge C rations discarded by the ARVN and their American allies, until the GIs started booby-trapping them. Vietcong soldiers were in constant danger of discovery. Where a cooking fire was lit, an elaborate chimney had to be constructed to carry the smoke away into the earth. They also lived in constant fear of artillery and air raids. If they stopped for more than half a day, they would dig in.
In base areas, they lived below ground in tunnels. This was no picnic. The air was bad and what food they had rotted quickly. The tunnels were full of mosquitoes, ants, spiders, and parasites called chiggers that burrowed under the skin causing intensive irritation. Often dead bodies were dragged below ground to foil the Americans' body counts. But their
Even without the booby traps, life for the grunts in the jungles was bad enough. It was full of blood-sucking insects and leeches that had to be burnt off with a cigarette. There are also 133 species of snake in the jungles of Vietnam – 131 of them poisonous. Some had venom that killed within hours. The damp rotted everything. Monsoon rains turned jungle tracks to mudslides, chilled GIs who had acclimatised to the stifling heat, gave them trench foot, rotted their kit, and turned C-rations into a greasy, cold soup. And twenty-four hours a day they had to be ready for ambush by an unseen enemy.
Conditions for the VC were even worse. Vietnamese peasants were used to life in the paddy fields and were no more at home in the jungle than Americans were, and they were less well prepared. Wearing sandals made them very vulnerable to snake bites. Thousands would have been saved if they had solid army boots. Antivenin tablets were issued, one to be swallowed; a second to be chewed and placed on the bite. However, the Vietcong had no defence against mosquitoes. More Vietcong died of malaria than of any other cause. Even those who survived were permanently weakened. With few medical supplies, Vietcong soldiers did their best with traditional remedies, but any wound almost inevitably resulted in a painful and lingering death.
Vietcong troops were constantly hungry. Twice a day they ate a small ball of cold rice made palatable with a few small chillies and occasionally a little dried meat, fish or salt. One chicken would feed up to thirty men. Most suffered from vitamin deficiencies. Bomb craters filled with water were stocked with fish and ducks. Otherwise they would eat monkey, rat, dog, and even tiger and elephant, which is, apparently, tough and tasteless. Some ate moths attracted by the flame of their lamps. The Vietcong would also scavenge C rations discarded by the ARVN and their American allies, until the GIs started booby-trapping them. Vietcong soldiers were in constant danger of discovery. Where a cooking fire was lit, an elaborate chimney had to be constructed to carry the smoke away into the earth. They also lived in constant fear of artillery and air raids. If they stopped for more than half a day, they would dig in.
In base areas, they lived below ground in tunnels. This was no picnic. The air was bad and what food they had rotted quickly. The tunnels were full of mosquitoes, ants, spiders, and parasites called chiggers that burrowed under the skin causing intensive irritation. Often dead bodies were dragged below ground to foil the Americans' body counts. But their
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