The effects of technology in the Vietnam War?

Answer 1

The Vietnam War was fought with the COLD WAR aircraft, tanks, artillery, and infantry rifles (the M-14), that were developed during the 1950's, which were in turn influenced by the results of the Korean War which just ended in 1953. For example: the M-14 rifle replaced the M-1 rifle which had been used in WWII and Korea. The M-46 Patton tank replaced the M-26 Pershing tank which had been developed at the end of WWII, which together replaced the WWII Sherman tank. Although small numbers of Shermans were used in Korea, the M-46 Patton tank was "the" Korean War tank. The WWII M-1 rifle, along with ALL other WWII infantry weapons were also used in the Korean War. The Korean War F-86 Saber jet fighter, was replaced by the F-100 Supersaber jet fighter which would later fight in the Vietnam War. The M-46 Patton tank of the Korean War, was replaced by the M-48 Patton tank which would later fight in the Vietnam War. For the first time in military history, the common rifleman of the infantry would have a fully automatic weapon. Prior to Vietnam, from WWI (possibly WWII) onward, it was common to have one "fully automatic" man assigned to at least a squad (12 men) or platoon (40 men) level. The "fully automatic" infantryman might be armed with a machingun, or more commonly a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle). The BAR was invented during WWI, and carried in combat in WWII, Korea, and for a time, Vietnam during the early days. The fully automatic M-14 rifle was used and intended to replace the BAR, but was NOT totally satisfactory. Ultimately the M-16 rifle was used and accepted. This rifle (the M-16) gave full automatic acceptability. Now every infantryman had "rock 'n roll" capability, and the old time tradition of assigning a "fully automatic" man to the squad/platoon was NO LONGER necessary. After Vietnam, the army found out it was wasting ammunition (3,000 rounds used to produce one enemy casualty) so the NEW fully automatic M-16's were converted to shoot only "short bursts" instead of full "rock 'n roll". The helicopter had more than proven it's worth. Because of Vietnam, today nearly early law enforcement agency in America used helicopters for enforcing the law. Nearly every hospital in America utilizes the services of helicopters as medical evacuation aircraft, BORN FROM THE DUST OFF PILOTS from the Vietnam War.