Daniel Ellsberg, former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers exposing the Vietnam war lies, says “The current administration can not defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) even if the United States (U.S.) deploys ground troops” (Koeppel). Many politicians and retired military generals have compared the Vietcong guerillas to the ISIS insurgents. U.S. tactics to fight ISIS up to this point in time are not succeeding. The U.S. needs to improve its tactics and by doing so they will have to look at a similar guerilla group in the Vietcong and learn how to apply the Vietcong to ISIS. The Vietcong or the Vietnamese communists were part of the military branch of the National Liberation Front (NLF). The Central Office for South Vietnam commanded the Vietcong near the Cambodian border (PBS). The main force Vietcong soldiers were full-time soldiers and they were also uniformed. These full time soldiers launched attacks over a vast region. The Vietcong had regional soldiers whom operated in their assigned districts and when the regional soldiers needed to conduct a large-scale attack they would combine their forces. If American power became too great to handle the Vietcong would break up and scatter. Besides the main force Vietcong there was the local Vietcong groups who were far less confident and didn’t have nearly the training than the main force. These local guerilla groups were mainly made up of young teenagers who shared the same ideologies and or were forced to join in fear of death. The Soviet Union and the Chinese issued their own weapons to the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Vietcong to help defeat the South Vietnamese and the Americans. The main weapon issued to the Vietcong was the Chinese copy of the Russian Ak-47 submachine gun. Heavy machine guns were issued and were mainly used in destroying the American helicopters. The Vietcong were also issued the rocket propelled grenade launcher (RPG) to destroy vehicles, bunkers, and sometimes helicopters. Local Vietcong forces would design Punji traps to frighten intruders. These traps were deep pits filled with sharp spikes and when an intruder fell into the pit, the intruder would be killed (PBS). At the beginning of the war the NVA and Vietcong would fight the Americans head on. But that would change. In December of 1965, the North Vietnamese commanders ordered a change in their fighting style. The NVA and Vietcong would conduct guerilla warfare on the Americans (PBS). With this new fighting style the Vietcong had an advantage over the Americans. Guerilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as armed civilians or irregulars use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military (Asprey). The Vietcong would use all of these tactics throughout the war. But they also implemented the tunnel system. The tunnels were not just a place to be safe but used as headquarters, training grounds and the ability to ambush the Americans. The tunnels stretched all across the country and they were extremely effective (PBS). The United States engaged the Vietcong and NVA via ground and air. American soldiers would fight the Vietcong all through the Vietnam jungles. This proved to be extremely difficult and challenging. The United States also conducted air strikes on the Vietcong. Air combat proved to be much more successful than ground combat. The use of airstrikes during Vietnam would change the way the U.S. fought all wars in the future (Nastasi). At the beginning of the war the U.S. had about one thousand five hundred advisors in Vietnam to help train the South Vietnamese soldiers. In 1963, the U.S had about sixteen thousand advisors in the country. Two years