Counterinsurgency lessons learned no. 68: Viet Cong base camps and supply caches, 20 July 1968.

Fortified base camps are the pivots of Viet Cong (VC) military operations. Local force units tend to place reliance on numerous small base camps dispersed throughout their area of operations. The camps are usually extensively booby trapped and protected by punji stakes, mines and spike traps. Main force base camps are not usually so well guarded. Years of labor and immense amounts of material have gone into building a complex network of base camps throughout the country. A semi-guerrilla army cannot survive without its base camps. However, remote and concealed, the base camps cannot be easily moved or hidden indefinitely. To find and destroy these camps is a prime objective of the military effort. Produced by U. S. Army Section, Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG).