U. S. Marine Disinterested in the political aspect of the war, the U.S. Marine was usually armed with the M-16 rifle which he never fully trusted, and occasionally the Remington 12-gauge shotgun. His dark green jungle utilities wore out too quickly and he had doubts as to the effectiveness of the flak jacket, especially as it was extremely uncomfortable to wear and cumbersome to move in. His individual initiative combined with the skill and experience of his NCO's made him the equal and in some respects superior to the NVA Regular. North Vietnamese Army Regular An intensive polilical indoctrination gave the regular an unwavering faith in the ultimate victory of his cause, although by 1968 he had doubts concerning his personal chances of survival to celebrate it. Armed with the reliable, but heavy AK-47, he wore a simple, durable dark olive two-piece uniform and canvas and rubber shoes. No insignia was worn, but a rank badge was earned with his identity card and papers in an inside jacket pocket. Carrying far less field equipment than American or ARVN troops, he had excellent tactical mobility, but this did not always compensate for his lack of strategic mobility. Aggressive in attack and dogged in defense, he lacked tactical initiative, but would still fight and die well. ARVN Ranger Lacking the political consciousness of his opponents, the ARVN Ranger fought for a variety of reasons that defy generalization. American Military Assistance provided him with his helmet, fatigues, boots and field gear, and a sign of his elite status was the M-16 rifle which replaced the M-1 carbine. Contrary to the low self-esteem of many ARVN units, the Rangers flaunted their sense of esprit with colorful unit insignias displayed on both shoulder patches and helmets. By 1968, the Ranger was being led by competent, experienced NCOs and his officers were becoming more interested in military rather than political affairs. He could stand and slug it out with the NVA on an equal basis. U. S. Marine North Vietnamese Army Regular ARVN Ranger More Tet Offensive Tet Offensive: Introduction Tet Offensive: US and North Vietamese Strategy Tet Offensive: Battle for Hue Tet Offensive: Soldiers Tet Offensive: Tactical Organization and Equipment Tet Offensive: Maps: Battle for Hue (very slow: 329K) Back to Conflict Number 6 Table of Contents Back to Conflict List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 by Dana Lombardy This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com