I saw how effective they were against the VC. You are correct that they are mostly a perimeter defense weapon but they are Not that hard to set up
Agreed, not hard to set up, but a “throw it now” tool either. I remember Vietnam vets telling how they would rig a time fused M18A1 in their rucks and if pursued, the last man would yank the igniter and drop his pack- and keep on hauling tail. 30-45 seconds later the claymore would go bang and the trail would get quiet....
Later, we had a similar tool- the Anti-Pursuit Munition- an AP wedge of the scatterable artillery munition (DPICM) with a timed initiation- pull the pin like a frag and toss it behind you- 20 seconds later it would deploy up to 16 very sensitive wires- any disturbance would detonate the munition. Never had to use one, but the were nice to have.