I live a few miles from downtown of Hanoi, Vietnam; my house is only a few miles from the famous Hanoi prison where many American service members were held prisoner during the Vietnam War. Today, Hanoi is a bustling city home to millions of people, yet they continue to find unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs throughout Hanoi.

It is estimated that at least 350,000 tonnes of bombs, or about 5% of Vietnam War-era bombs, remain in Vietnam. At the present clear-up rate of the explosives, it will take at least 300 years to remove the unexploded ordinances from Vietnam’s landscape.

Table of Contents

• The U.S. Dropped Millions of Bombs On Vietnam
• What Types of Bombs Were Used In Vietnam During the War?
  • Dumb Bombs Or Unguided Bombs
  • Guided Bombs or Smart Bombs
  • Chemical Weapons
• How Many Bombs Are Still In Vietnam?
• Related Questions
  • Do I Need A Visa To Travel To Vietnam?
  • How To Search For Your Vietnamese Family Tree?

Recently, the U.S. Embassy sent a notice to all Americans that an unexploded Vietnam War-era bomb had been found on a construction site not more than 1 mile from my house. This shows that even today, they are still finding unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs in the center of Hanoi.

The U.S. Dropped Millions of Bombs On Vietnam

Between 1965 and 1975, 10 years, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7 million tons of bombs on or near North Vietnam. Many of these bombs also ended up in the neighboring country of Laos.

The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Curtis Le May, who served under President Lyndon Johnson, famously said this about America and why we dropped so many bombs on Vietnam.

General LeMay wrongly believed that the war would be over if the U.S. Air Force bombed the heck out of North Vietnam. He believed America should “bomb Vietnam back to the stone age.”

Military air bombing campaigns like Operation Rolling Thunder were a 3-year bombing campaign from 1965 to 1968. In this 3 year period of Operation Rolling Thunder, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam, and 900 U.S. Aircraft were lost. To put this into perspective, here are some facts:

• During Operation Rolling Thunder, 214,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped each year for the three years, and 300 aircraft and their pilots were killed or captured.
• During this three-year period, 17,861 tonnes of bombs per month were dropped on North Vietnam, and 25 aircraft with their pilots were killed or captured.
• Or you can say that 595 tonnes of bombs were dropped each day in North Vietnam for a 3 years period. Almost 1 U.S. aircraft and pilot a day gets shot down, captured, or lost.

Operation Rolling Thunder was unsuccessful and did not stop the war; the United States continued its massive bombing campaign.

Here are some statistics of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam during the 10 years of the Vietnam War (from 1965 to 1975).

• 7,078,032 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Vietnam between 1965 to 1975; an average of 1,967 tonnes of bombs were dropped per day on North Vietnam for a 10-year period. In other words, a bomb or two was dropped every minute for 10 years in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
• During the Vietnam War, America dropped about 1,000 tonnes of bombs on every man, woman, and child in Vietnam.
• There were 3.5 times more bombs dropped on Vietnam than all the bombs dropped during World War II. (Europe had 2,057,244 tonnes of bombs dropped on it during World War II, compared to Vietnam’s 7,078,032 tonnes of bombs)

What Types of Bombs Were Used In Vietnam During the War?

The U.S. used mainly three kinds of bombs during the Vietnam War. The bombs were called Dumb Bombs, Guided Bombs, and Fuel Air Explosives.

Dumb Bombs Or Unguided Bombs

Dumb Bombs are also known as Unguided Bombs, free-fall bombs, gravity bombs, or iron bombs. This kind of bomb does not have any guidance system, so it would drop and land where it lands. The United States used about 18 different types of Dumb Bombs during the Vietnam War.

Guided Bombs or Smart Bombs

Guided bombs are also known as smart bombs or guided bomb units. This kind of bomb was a precision bomb. It is, as the name implies and a bomb that was guided. The U.S. used about 20 different types of guided bombs used during the Vietnam War.

Chemical Weapons

The most devastating explosives used during the Vietnam War were chemical weapons or napalm, also known as Agent Orange. There have been many questions about the lingering effects of the Vietnamese on the ground and U.S. Soldiers who handled these substances. But there is no doubt that napalm was one of the most devastating substances used in Vietnam.

How Many Bombs Are Still In Vietnam?

It is estimated there are still 350,000 tonnes of bombs in Vietnam. Many of these bombs were dropped on the Vietnamese-Laotian border.

About 5% of all tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam during the Vietnam War remain somewhere in Vietnam. That is a massive amount of bombs, especially considering that it has now been about 46 years since the war with Vietnam ended and the U.S. bombing of Vietnam stopped.

There are still unexploded bombs here in Hanoi. The unexploded bomb I learned about recently was 1 mile from my house and 1 mile from downtown Hanoi.

The unexploded bomb was in the ground and was only found as construction started on the site. This is not the first unexploded bomb found in Hanoi, and I suspect with 350,000 unaccounted bombs still left in Vietnam, there will be many more.

I am not necessarily antiwar, but I can see the lingering effects a war can have on a nation. Today, Vietnam is a bustling, vibrant place to live and work; Vietnam does have 350,000 unexploded bombs somewhere on its soil. Even though the Vietnam War has long ended, the unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs’ will continue to linger as a problem for hundreds of years.

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Related Questions

Do I Need A Visa To Travel To Vietnam?

Any visitor coming to Vietnam must organize and look at a Vietnam travel visa before entering Vietnam. There are several ways to obtain a Vietnamese visa 1) through the Vietnamese Embassy, 2) online through an agent, or 3) a visa at the border. In some circumstances and for some nationalities, Vietnam also offers visa-free exemptions.

You can discover more by reading our blog Vietnam Travel Visa, What You Need to Know Before You Go by clicking here.

How To Search For Your Vietnamese Family Tree?

Genealogy has been important to the Vietnamese, as it is an integrated part of Vietnam’s society, culture, family, and clan life. The Vietnamese have a long history of keeping records of their families. But even with all these genealogical records, it may be difficult for those doing genealogical research on their Vietnamese lines to find the records they need; it is challenging to discover your Vietnamese family tree.

To discover more you can read our blog on Vietnamese Genealogy – Searching For Your Vietnamese Family Tree by clicking here.