Vietnam War Without Helicopters

Imagine some vigorous hand waving that causes helicopters to not be seen as viable transportation until much later in history. Thus, the United States enters the Vietnam War with little to no helicopters, or at the very most has them at the levels they were used for in the Korean War.

How would this change the war?
 
Hmmm, interesting. It limits the scope of the war, for one thing. It also means that American combat losses are going to be much higher, since it will be that much harder to get injured troops to field hospitals.
 
The problem with "dechoppering" Vietnam from a technical point is that working helicopters had been around in and since WW2. However, if senior Generals concluded from war games that

a) they were vulnerable and whilst might be alright for medivac and observation, combat helicopters (both gunships and assault transports) would take too high casualties to be considered

b) anyway fast moving ground troops with air support can do the job

you could see far less use of them.
 
The problem with "dechoppering" Vietnam from a technical point is that working helicopters had been around in and since WW2. However, if senior Generals concluded from war games that

They had working autogyros before WW2, in 1932.

Michael B said:
a) they were vulnerable and whilst might be alright for medivac and observation, combat helicopters (both gunships and assault transports) would take too high casualties to be considered

This could work. The first intended use for rotorcraft was as replacements for the various observation floatplanes that operated from ships in the Kriegsmarine in 1936. Since this recon role was the only function anyone could think of, they tested it. But the rotorcraft was deemed a failure because of the unstabillity in gusty winds, making landing in such a confined space difficult. So you could have a POD where they just give up on that.

As for the later effects, maybe you have more limited CAS? This could lead to the invention of more specialized Close air support planes.
 
Have MANPADs (shoulderlaunched SAMs) around earlier and in greater numbers.
If the enemy has these instead of a limited amount of non-portable heavy MG's and light cannons as IRL, you might see helicopters used only behind own lines.

One way you could achieve that is if WWII lasts longer.

If helicopters and MANPADs are developed more or less at the same time, helicopters could be delegated to less important jobs, although they'll still be around.

edit:
Although it'd be nice to have guided SAM's, even unguided ones would have some effect.
like the first MANPAD around; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fliegerfaust

The Fliegerfaust was a typical example of Nazi efficiency;
the wiki claims 10 000 launchers and 4 million missiles were built and only 80 used .
 
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I'm beginning to suspect that it's a Wikipedia factoid...

Could be, it was too good to be true. Maybe even very likely it's incorrect.


I checked it's sources and they are
1- an italian multiplayer forum (for a game?)
2- a website that doesn't work about miniatures.

This is a more reliable source:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=23884

If I understand it correctly, maybe 10 000 were built and the large numbers only means the size of the order (which not necessarily are all delivered or even produced).
Furthermore using it succesfully requires enormous cojones; range 300 to 500 meters.

there's a nice picture of a Fliegerfaust lying on the rubble on the first page of that link to axishistory.


edit:
Back on topic;
if large amounts of this stuff is lying around from the '50s onwards, I'd expect more of them in the hands of the NVA/VC too, making helicopter landings in the jungle quite dangerous. Even the Fliegerfaust (or is it the Luftfaust?) had a minimum range of 300 meters, which would mean you'd need giant landingzones secured.
 
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