The majority of North Vietnamese people supported the war and their government. Support came also from the Soviet Union, which provided 8,00 anti-aircraft guns and 200 anti-aircraft launching sites for the North Vietnamese. Whilst morale among the communists was far higher than among the Americans, the war was not easy for them either.
Bombs and shelters
What the people of both North and South Vietnam feared most was being bombed by the Americans. Between 1964 and the end of 1971, 6.2 million tonnes of bombs were dropped. This means 136 kilograms of bombs for every man, woman and child in Indo-China, and 22 tonnes of bombs for every 259 hectares (square mile). In many areas, enormous craters covered the landscape, and hundreds of villages were destroyed. Around a million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and there were 5 million refugees. To protect themselves from falling bombs, the Vietnamese people built underground tunnels, where they could shelter during attacks. The tunnels around Saigon stretch for 320 kilometres (200 miles) and were well planned and constructed. Others were built quickly without much planning and were not always reliable.