Project Eldest Son: America’s Secret Ammunition Gambit

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, we continue our unusual look at the world of
special forces, and we have another legend or maybe real history,
I don't know. It's called Project eldest Son, America's secret
ammunition gambit. During the Vietnam War, covert operations often blurred
the line between battlefield tactics and what they call psychological warfare,
and one of the most audacious ones was Project eldest Son,

(00:24):
a classified sabotage program run by the Military Assistants Command
mac v SAG. Its mission was the sofear and distrust
among enemy troops by turning their own weapons against them.
Launched in nineteen sixty seven, the project involved the careful
tampering of eminy enemy ammunition. Special forces operatives seize cachetes
of AK forty seven cartridges, RPD machine gun belts and

(00:46):
mortar rounds and suddenly modified them. Inside a standard looking round,
technicians replaced gunpowder with a high explosive charge. When fired,
the weapon would catastrophically fail off and injuring or killing
the shooter only a smell. A small number of rounds
were sabotaged, but they were mixed back into enemy stockpiles
in a way that made detection impossible. It was a
brilliant strategy, and it also laid psychological effects. The viet

(01:10):
Cong and North Vietnamese relied heavily on Soviet and Chinese
supplied weapons. After unexplained explosions began occurring, rumors spread of
faulty ammunition from the Allies, the Communist Allies commanders grew
suspicious of their supply lines, and social soldiers grew hesitant
to trust their weapons. US planners even planted fake documents
and rumors to reinforce the idea that Chinese factors were

(01:31):
producing defective munitions. Officially, Project eldest Son ran until about
nineteen sixty nine before being renamed Italian Green and later
poll being While the tactical impact was limited, only a
fraction of enemy weapons were ever compromised. The operation demonstrated, though,
how unconventional warfare could weaponize fear as much as firepower. Today,

(01:51):
Project eldest Son remains a striking example of how US
special forces fused technical ingenuity with psychological warfare. However, it
is a half history, half legend, a story where a
single bullet can destroyed not only a rifle, but an
army's trust