Final answer:
Guerilla fighters used surprise attacks to achieve two main objectives: to physically weaken the enemy's military capacity and to create a psychological impact by lowering morale and increasing the unpredictability of the conflict.
Step-by-step explanation:
The surprise attacks launched by the guerrilla fighters, particularly those during the Vietnam War, were designed to achieve two main objectives. The first goal was to inflict damage on the enemy through tactics such as hit-and-run assaults and disrupting supply lines, contributing to a strategy aimed at weakening the opponent's military capacity.
The second was to create a psychological impact, often by demonstrating the guerrilla fighters' ability to strike unexpectedly and by exploiting their knowledge of the local terrain to engage in actions such as sabotage or surprise engagements, all of which served to lower the morale of enemy troops and make the conflict unpredictable and stressful for them.
Vietcong fighters often used the element of surprise to their advantage against US and South Vietnamese forces. Through guerrilla warfare tactics like ambushes, they avoided confrontations in search of strategic victories that would disrupt and demoralize their enemies. The use of such tactics also meant that the distinction between civilians and combatants was often blurred, further complicating the military efforts of the United States and its allies.