Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Evidence: According to Lester Grau in The Bear Went over the Mountain, the Russians
used large scale offensives against Mujahideen strongholds, which temporarily cleared
those sectors and killed many civilians in addition to enemy combatants. The killing of
civilians further alienated the population from the Soviets, and in turn fused more
support for the Mujahideen. Americans used napalm bombs and defoliants like Agent
Orange, to clear forests and lessen impact of VC. Also large-scale carpet-bombing
through Operation Rolling Thunder and Christmas Bombings of 1972. Such methods
were extremely destructive, which similarly also alienated the population, increasing
support for the guerrilla fighters.
CC: The US were different than the USSR in that they also used soft methods to win
over Vietnam with the Hearts and Minds Program.
CCC: However, the program was ineffective as well as McNamara wrote: We failed, as
well, to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people
from a totally different culture.