Indochina’s weather, insects, and animals posed serious problems for American troops deployed across the South Vietnamese countryside.  However, it is difficult to quantify how, specifically, Vietnam’s climate and creatures affected America’s ability to wage war.  Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the country’s heat, humidity, heavy rains, malarial mosquitoes, parasites, snakes, and large rodent population harmed rather than helped the U.S. war effort.

South Vietnam’s heat plagued the Americans. During the dry season, which lasts from early February to the end of April, daytime temperatures along the south central coastal plain, the lowlands in and around Saigon, and across Mekong Delta regularly rose into the 90’s Fahrenheit.  American troops, who had been acclimatized to the temperate climate of North America, had difficulty patrolling in such extreme heat. Heavy cotton fatigues (issued in the early years of the war), cumbersome rucksacks, steel-plated flak jackets, and steel helmets only worsened the effects of the heat. Under South Vietnam’s unbearable mid-day sun, G.I.’s became lethargic and dangerously overheated. Trooper Bill Brocksieker his unit’s first month in-country, “We didn’t have no jungle boots or no utilities. Everybody, we drank a lot of water. We were dehydrated easy trying to get adjusted to the heat, a lot of people fainting, a lot of confusion that first thirty days or so.”[1] Continue Reading »