Summary: ISIS either has taken a lessons learned approach from how the US "lost" south Vietnam, or have been trained in tactics used by the NVA.

I have been suspicious of this for a long time. There have been too many parallels for this to be accidental. It follows a set pattern.

1: Possible use of political cadres

The viet kong had powerful political cadres. These cadres had numerous roles: espionage, recruitment, and propaganda. The north Vietnamese political cadres infiltrated south Vietnam and caused untold havoc right under the south Vietnamese governments incompetent noses.

We are seeing very similar behavior today in Europe and the US. Isis is somehow able to: spin public opinion of islam, recruit members, plan attacks in our borders, and somehow get supplies into their occupied territories in syria and iraq. Based on what has happened over the last few years, i have come to the conclusion that ISIS has strong, compartmentalized, and well organized cells both in the middle east, as well as in the west.

2: Using refugees as a supply chain disruption and an infiltration tool.

this was a very devastating tactic used by the NVA in later parts of the war. It caused severe economic strain on the south Vietnamese government. It also allowed the communists to put infiltrators in south vietnam.

We are seeing the same tactic today in Europe. Europe is under heavy economic strain due to the recession. By flooding the EU with refugees this strain is increased greatly. It also allows ISIS to easily smuggle in their agents, and smuggle out supplies. The added strain and difficulty also keep these European nations out of the Syrian conflict.

3: We are going to see a Ramadan offensive, just like the Tet offensive.

We assumed that the viet kong would not strike during tet. We had failed to fully understand the nature of communism at that time. We did not understand that a relatively atheist movement did not care for religious holidays, while the south Vietnamese did. This was a time when we where most vulnerable, and we thought we where at our safest.

Ramadan is a similar situation, and ISIS is not the typical jihadist movement. They are working to create a new theocratic nation, based on their interpretations of Islam. This means that we are going to see lots of small to medium scale opportunistic attacks in various parts of the world over Ramadan.

These are just a few of my thoughts on the current situation. The current isis strategy mirrors the viet kong operations too closely to be accidental. Considering the similarities between the two movements, and how successful the viet kong where against the US in the long term, this should not come as a surprise.