The Most Terrifying Traps Used in the Vietnam War 

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I like the way you talked about the Sheath underwear being made of bamboo as you told about all the ways bamboo was used in deadly traps😂😂

My dad was in Vietnam (USMC) 67-68 He has a photo album and it’s amazing and horrifying at the same time. Rows and rows of dead Vietnamese soldiers/people. With soldiers just casually standing around smoking. He told me horror stories of what some of his friends in the pictures were like and I won’t repeat them but it’s nasty. I told him my son was going to join, which he did, and he almost cried. He was so nervous. Begging me to talk him out of it. His first words were “can Nathan stab someone in the eye socket and see his soul leave his body then go back for chow an hour later?” His next words were “either way, do u want him to be able to”.

Gotta say, I have to hand it to them. These were some extremely effective means to combat a technologically advanced foe.

I’ve know several Vietnam vets, including a relative…. None of them ever speak about the war. I know plenty of other vets, some served in the gulf war, some in Bosnia, some in Afghanistan, some in Iraq, most of them will mention their wars in conversations at some point that I’ve known them, but Vietnam vets always seem so unable to talk about it mentally.

Going from bamboo death traps to an ad for bamboo underwear was an interesting choice lol

This is what you get when you invade someone else's country.

Only Simon would talk about bamboo underwear just after punji sticks 😮

The draft should have been on this list.

Bamboo spikes, bamboo maces, bamboo whips and bamboo underwear. A little unintended awkwardness always makes it more interesting.

My dad volunteered to go to Vietnam twice. The first time he went he was in the first infantry but the boobie traps scared the crap out of him so he transferred to the 101 engineers and was a tank commander for the next 20 years or so.

The brilliance of the VC's traps is they were aimed more to maim than kill. An injured soldier ties up more resources than a dead one.

My grandfather fought in Vietnam and came back with a hearty fear of snakes. He was what they called a tunnel rat. The Vietnamese had many tunnels throughout the jungle and it was my grandfathers job to go in them (because he was small, this is also how he got the nickname Jack the giant killer) they would nail those venomous snakes to the walls of these tunnels so its totally understandable that he hated snakes

I’ve been on a guided tour of some of the Cu Chi tunnel complex in Vietnam (a beautiful country) and the uniformed guide who showed us around looked old enough to be a Vietcong veteran. He seemed extremely proud of how ingenious the tunnel networks and trap systems were, which indeed they were. Outside of the popular culture espoused by the Hollywood film industry, it is obvious when you visit there, that outside of Saigon and a few forward bases, the US never had control of a square foot of Vietnam. They may generally be small and diminutive, but they are an exceptionally determined and hardy people who seem to be able to take everyday privation in their stride without complaint. These traps may seem (and arguably are) cruel, but what do you do when your small almost medieval tech country is being invaded by a technologically superior and relentless foreign superpower? You fight with the weapons you have, which in this case is sharpened sticks covered in shit

Another grenade trap was a relatively obvious grenade on a stick, with its pin attached to a tripwire. Underground was a second grenade, with its pin attached to the stick. When the grenade on a stick was found and removed, the underground grenade would detonate.

i had a friend in school who's dad was in Vietnam. One day we was talking and i asked him that one day he would have to tell us what it was like in the war. He looked right into my eye's, into my soul and said. "No i do not and will not ever talk about it." so serious we all quit talking, that was the wrong thing to bring up. He went all dark inside from laughing to silence, just sat there staring at me with those dead eye's. I have NEVER asked a vet about that war again.

Cheap, efficient and an excellent morale killer. A lot of soldiers (especially Special Forces) are trained in booby-trapping in Western militaries. Or at least used to be. Very easy to learn as well. The name in Australia for the cartridge trap is foot-fucker. Usually using shotgun cartridges. Rarely lethal but often resulting in maiming. They have been used predominately on drug plantations to target cops, thieves and poachers.

I already admired the Viet Cong, but this is amazing. Reminds me of what my instructors kept drilling in. If you kill an enemy soldier you've taken one soldier out of action, but if you wound them you've taken three soldiers out of action. The casualty, and the two stretcher bearers. Plus now they have to evacuate the casualty, take them to a hospital, and spend vital supplies treating them. And helicopters are easy targets.

Dude that bamboo whip is absolutely horrific. Just imagine witnessing that...

The horrors of the Vietnam War were seemingly endless.

I was in from 2009 to 2018. I had the opportunity to talk to people from all different eras, from my psyched-out supervisor to old Vietnam vets who managed to survive to today. One major difference between the people in Vietnam and today is mental preparation. Today, every chair jockey and pencil pusher up to elite special ops guys have a ton of prep intended to help keep your mind together when shit gets dark. Vietnam vets were just shown which end of the boom stick the bullets come out and thrown into the war. The differences are stark. Despite modern wars having their own boobie traps, modern survivors have a (still way too high) much better rate of mental damage. There's nothing you can do to prevent PTSD, but you absolutely can give someone the tools to handle it when the time comes.

My dad did two tours in Vietnam... and that's all I ever needed to know.

On thr topic of grenade traps, they also replaced fuses with ones that would immediately detonate upon triggering, and also put live grenades underneath bodies so if the body was turned over the grenade would trigger

The Afghans (Taliban) were just as inventive with low-tech but highly effective traps. It's a common theme in counterinsurgency warfare.

I've got a severe aversion to snakes bordering on a phobia. I cannot imagine being a so called Tunnel Rat and having a bunch of vipers landing on you in such am enclosed space. I'm getting sweaty palms just typing this! And thats just 1 example of the guerilla tactics used. Very brave soldiers, very brave indeed. No wonder so many came back with PTSD, having to deal with all that.

These traps are genius. Brains over brawn on full display.

In a war with machine guns and explosives a 2% casualty rate from really simple booby traps is impressive

This guy is insane producing videos all day

I feel bad for what Vietnam War Veterans went through.

Yeah I don’t know that going from punji sticks to advertising bamboo underpants and then going back to the deadly bamboo whip was a great idea. 😂😂😂

Someone showed me how to booby trap multiple trees...takes a good while but holy crap, imagine walking through the jungle and you hear a crack...and then you realize all of the the massive trees around you are falling...i would think that the psychological effects of making your enemies afraid of trees in the jungle might slow them down also 😂

I love the voice over, Keep it Simon!👍

Man said he is wearing the sponsor, prove it! Need to fully sell the product, best way is to model them yourself surely.

If the politicians and power players ever understood just how unimaginably horrible war is, they might think twice before throwing their own citizens into them.

I entered service in 2000 and jungle boots with a layer of flexible sheetmetal in the sole were still being issued. We were also trained to move through wooded areas at night without setting off trip wires flixed to flash bangs.

We had a few dirty tricks up our sleeves also. Agent orange and napalm to name a coulpe.

This was one of your best videos ever. Much id never known.

I thought this was going to be lesser known ones. I'm pretty sure Simon has another list of these on one of his other channels.

Simon, whoever does the sound editing NEEDS to please knock it off with the distortion effect. It's really annoying, random, and distracting.

Thanks for sharing.

this is why the modern U.S. military loses so many wars. the people they are fighting have something to actually fight for, where as the US soldiers don’t even know why they are there.

I remember in Gate JSDF (basically good modern army vs Evil Medieval Empire) the modern army suffered some casualties when 25,000 medieval soldiers entrench themselves in a large forest (Marais) while the modern army expected ambushes they was still suprised by Vietcong like tactics... Then the modern army had enough and bombarded the entire forest with napalm, bombing runs and artillery.

A reverse of the grenade traps were helicopter grenades. Pull the pin, drop it in a jar, and drop the jar. Don't touch nothin'. That's still keepsake training today.

I've lost track of how many channels narrator is on lol

Part 2 please!

There’s an irony talking about bamboo pungy (pungie? Poongie?) and then having an ad about Sheath’s women’s bamboo underwear 😂 made me chuckle tho maybe not intended.

My dad’s older brother turned 18 right before they stopped the draft. He was lucky. Dad was just a little bit too young. That war seems to be the one that no vet wants to talk about. I’m sure most don’t want to talk about some of the things they saw but Vietnam vets don’t want to even acknowledge it. And that shows you exactly how brutal it was.

The parallels between the ad and the video subject killed me

That's a great look.

Simon segues from potentially lethal Vietnamese trap design to underpants and back like a pro, lol.

Terrifying and absolutely ingenious. And it helped a poor nation to expel the biggest military bully in the world. Ahem

when u said tiger traps I imagined a pit with tigers in it lol.

The disturbing part of all this is that much like landmines. These traps don't care who triggered them. Lots of fatalities on both sides including civilians. War just plan sucks.

Hey Mr Yank, we got medieval on your arses.

The swinging maces has to be the scariest

For all those soldiers that were injured in maimed but survived the war, they get to think the United States government for sending them to Vietnam for no good reason and not supporting them once they were there.

Oh my god. Horrifying that young men had to deal with the physical and psychological terror. My uncle fought in Vietnam and I could never talked to him about it because he was sprayed with agent orange and ended up with MS. He died a very long (decades) and painful death. My father said he came back and wasn't the same. That the war wasn't necessary-- and frankly illegal-- makes all of this so much worse. I see vets all the time at my work and this is what I'm going to think about now when I see them.

Punji stake is why my dad received a purple heart.

One thing they were resourceful sneaky little ground dewellers

The VietCong were defending their homeland from foreign invaders. Everyone has the right to defend their homeland.

Ingenious.

I’ve read about WW1 cartridge traps

After watching this I feel completely bamboozled

I'm surprised by the lack of mention roller traps

I nearly nearly was conscripted, then they cancelled the war. I was so lucky. Had to take a deep breath, and continue. But now, I would like to visit N. Vietnam. It is a very pretty place.

Bamboo traps either side of an ad for bamboo underwear, interesting strategy. 🤣

May I suggest Simon model a pair of Sheath next time?

I went to a war museum when I was in Vietnam and they never showed us any of this 😂 Goes to show you don't need fire power if you're smart, well organized, and use good strategy

Sg shell, rat trap, soldering iron fishing string

Bamboo underwear and punji sticks, a match made in heaven!

My stepgrandfather had a story where he was helping with salavaging a downed patrol. He was with the engineers. They were escorted by marines. They came upon the wreckage and no sooner did they get out they came under fire. For almost half an hour they hid taking fire till eventually they were able to call a napalm strike. The pilot screwed up the directions and dropped the flames behind them. Very quickly they knew they had to get out since the fire would take away their oxygen. All the soldiers piled into the trucks and my stepgrandfather was so scared asking how are they going to get out. His sergeant yanked him onto the bed of the truck and told the driver to "Get us the fuck out of here" All of the trucks drove through the flames and sped till they made it back to base. He did not sleep at all that night.

Very awkward sponsor Segway

7:21 So was one bite lethal or just debilitating?

The problem with the mud ball grenade idea is that it can only be used in the dry season.

Does Sheath also protect me from all these bamboo traps?

Got to watch the slopes…

So do they make Y fronts?

8:17 I mean; I know it’s war and the Americans weren’t exactly using Nerf guns, but these are just brutal. Is it worse the be a quick death or sit there and suffer and maybe survive?

There's a reason why Combat Engineers do not have the ego of infantrymen and Marines. We actually lead the way! Essayons!

8:45 I thought grenades allowed enough time for one to throw it before detonating. Surely if it were a trip wire: it wouldn’t go off immediately.

Nice that your sponsor has a "bamboo" line, considering the subject matter of the video.

You forgot the most dangerous trap of them all... RAMBO 💥

The over-use of the voice distorting is annoying.

These traps look very terrifying. The problem with most of these traps is that they look like they could only take out one person at a time. Whether a hole in the ground or swinging from a tree, or what have you.

Simon - gotta question the choice of “bamboo women’s line” in context of this video. Normally, you’d catch that.

SHEATH sound AMAZING for a Florida man!!!! You go out in summer and it feels like you peed ur pants! Separate beans and Frank would DEF help with that feeling!

Great video just thought I'd add a couple of minor points that it's customary for any country to attack an invading army like the US. And guerrilla weapons and tactics are just military weapons and tactics there is no difference.

Man a pit full of venomous snakes hidden by god knows what. Completley out of plain site is absolutely terrifying.

I was waiting for him to say that the snakes in the booby-trap were also covered in feces

I’d rather face any of these over that snake pit.

Those soldiers affected by the puni sticks would likely die later, or have a shorter life span after that: The survival rate for Sepsis is about 50%. The risk of secondary sepsis, or that sepsis moving to a place where it cannot be treated, is extremely high after the first instance of sepsis. Survive sepsis once and you are not out of the woods yet (pun not intended). If it gets into the blood, and it can form a biofilm or abscess somewhere, it is nearly impossible to get rid of, even with today's technology. Perhaps administering high doses of antibiotics right at the moment of injury might reduce the probability of sepsis, but it does not eliminate that risk.

And people think it was just for fun that we napalmed huge swaths of the forest.

i wish the editor would stop the annoying sound distortion. we're trying to enjoy some story time here and you're interrupting it. 6:39

I'm picturing the scene in Rambo where the guy gets his wee man cut off. You wouldn't notice unless you're watching for it.

1:10 - Chapter 1 - Punjin stick 3:05 - Mid roll ads 4:55 - Chapter 2 - Bamboo whips 5:45 - Chapter 3 - Cartridge traps 6:40 - Chapter 4 - Snake pit 7:30 - Chapter 5 - Tiger traps 8:25 - Chapter 6 - Grenades 10:20 - Chapter 7 - Don't capture the flag 11:00 - Chapter 8 - Swinging maces

First Blood deleted scenes show's Rambo passing a massive Rambo TURD. Then smeared it on the spikey bits as well as himself.

My brother received 3 Purple Hearts from Booby Traps.

6 feet or 2 metres, right, nevermind the rounding.

This narrator sounds just like my English neighbor in the Czech Republic.

The Vietnamese are geniuses!!!