Because of washed-out bridges and heavy enemy activity, however, the only way for Americans to get to Khe Sanh was by helicopter or airplane. [79] On an average day, 350 tactical fighter-bombers, 60 B-52s, and 30 light observation or reconnaissance aircraft operated in the skies near the base. At the same time, the 304th Division withdrew to the southwest. A secret memorandum reported by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, sent to US President Lyndon B. Johnson on 19 February 1968, was declassified in 2005. Stubbe examined the command chronologies of the 1st and 2nd battalions, 26th Marines, plus the after-action reports of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines; 1st Battalion, 9th Marines; 1st Battalion, 13th Marines; and more than one dozen other units, all present at Khe Sanh under 26th Marine operational control. [93], The situation changed radically during the early morning hours of 7 February. Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. The pallet slid to a halt on the airstrip while the aircraft never had to actually land. [33] Troops of the US 1st Infantry Division were able to respond quickly. [97] During a meeting at Da Nang at 07:00 the next morning, Westmoreland and Cushman accepted Lownds' decision. The Battle of la Drang was considered essential because it sets up a change of tactics for both troops during the conflict. [42], In the wake of the hill fights, a lull in PAVN activity occurred around Khe Sanh. WALKI NA WZGRZU: PIERWSZA BITWA KHE SANH Edwarda F. Murphy'ego - twarda okadka w bardzo dobrym stanie | Books & Magazines, Books | eBay! [141] Because of the close proximity of the enemy and their high concentration, the massive B-52 bombings, tactical airstrikes, and vast use of artillery, PAVN casualties were estimated by MACV as being between 10,000 and 15,000 men. Both sides have published official histories of the battle, and while these histories agree the fighting took place at Khe Sanh, they disagree on virtually every other aspect of it. The Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. First had been Operation Full Cry, the original three-division invasion plan. As the relief force made progress, the Marines at Khe Sanh moved out from their positions and began patrolling at greater distances from the base. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. [170][140], One argument that was then leveled by Westmoreland and has since often quoted by historians of the battle is that only two Marine regiments were tied down at Khe Sanh, compared with the several PAVN divisions. Battle of la Drang Valley (26 October - 27 . [85] Westmoreland had given his deputy commander for air operations, Air Force General William W. Momyer, the responsibility for coordinating all air assets during the operation to support KSCB. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. [58] These tactics were reminiscent of those employed against the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, particularly in relation to entrenching tactics and artillery placement, and the realization assisted US planners in their targeting decisions. Where were the major battles of the Vietnam War? Taking a larger but more realistic view, the Khe Sanh campaign resulted in a death toll of American military personnel that approached 1,000. The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. today! Westmoreland planned on Khe Sanh being relieved and then used as the jump-off point for a "hot pursuit" of enemy forces into Laos. The report, originally classified as secret, noted that intelligence from many sources indicated conclusively that the North Vietnamese had planned a massive ground attack against the base. The Battle of Khe Sanh began 50 years ago this week when roughly 20,000 North Vietnamese troops surrounded an isolated combat base . Cushman was appalled by the "implication of a rescue or breaking of the siege by outside forces. Home > Features > Battle of Khe Sanh > View All. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. During the 66-day siege, U.S. planes, dropping 5,000 bombs daily, exploded the equivalent of five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs in the area. A press release prepared on the following day (but never issued), at the height of Tet, showed that he was not about to be distracted. [140] Total US casualties during the operation were 92 killed, 667 wounded, and five missing. [34] US intelligence estimated between 1,200 and 1,600 PAVN troops were killed, and 362 members of the US 4th Infantry Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and ARVN Airborne elements were killed in action, but three of the four battalions of the 4th Infantry and the entire 173rd were rendered combat-ineffective during the battle. See also Pisor, p. 108. Known as the McNamara Line, it was initially codenamed "Project Nine". [139] The 11th Engineers proclaimed Route 9 open to traffic on 11 April. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. By the end of May, Marine forces were again drawn down from two battalions to one, the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. The September bombardments ranged from 100 to 150 rounds per day, with a maximum on 25 September of 1,190 rounds. [163] Other theories argued that the forces around Khe Sanh were simply a localized defensive measure in the DMZ area or that they were serving as a reserve in case of an offensive American end run in the mode of the American invasion at Inchon during the Korean War. Soon after, another shell hit a cache of tear gas, which saturated the entire area. [110], As more infantry units had been assigned to defend KSCB, artillery reinforcement kept pace. A single company replaced an entire battalion. [102], The Lao troops were eventually flown back to their homeland, but not before the Laotian regional commander remarked that his army had to "consider the South Vietnamese as enemy because of their conduct. At 0330 hours, soldiers of the NVA 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 325C Division, attacked the Marines on Hill 861. Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January - 9 April 1968) Max Hastings wrote a bestseller on Vietnam, and Dan met him to discuss Domino theory, whether it was possible for the US to win the war and the effect the war had on those who fought in it. I suspect he is also trying to draw everyone's attention away from the greatest area of threat, the northern part of I Corps. [171] When Hanoi made the decision to move in around the base, Khe Sanh was held by only one or two American battalions. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. The battalion was assaulted on the night of 23 January by three PAVN battalions supported by seven tanks. A myth has grown up around this incident. It claimed, however, that only three American advisors were killed during the action. [89] As a result, on 7 March, for the first time during the Vietnam War, air operations were placed under the control of a single manager. For additional reading, see: Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh, by John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe; and the official Marine Corps history, The Battle for Khe Sanh, by Moyers S. Shore II. Shortly after midnight on February 7, a large NVA force, reinforced with tanks, attacked the camp. Listen Now. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Rod Andrew, Jr., a history professor at Clemson University and colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, has written an easily read and thoroughly . [115] This equates to roughly 1,300 tons of bombs dropped daily 5 tons for every one of the 20,000 PAVN soldiers initially estimated to have been committed to the fighting at Khe Sanh. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. Lownds also rejected a proposal to launch a helicopter extraction of the survivors. [39], On 24 April 1967, a patrol from Bravo Company became engaged with a PAVN force of an unknown size north of Hill 861. The ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. "[136], Regardless, on 1 April, Operation Pegasus began. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. The Americans wanted a military presence there to block the infiltration of enemy forces from Laos, to provide a base for launching patrols into Laos to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and to serve as a western anchor for defense along the DMZ. They fixed the attention of the American command on the border regions, and they drew American and ARVN forces away from the coastal lowlands and cities in preparation for the Tet Offensive. Dien Bien Phu would loom large for the rest of the war, especially during the Battle of Khe Sanh. TBKQS / Trung tm TBKQS - BQP - H Ni: QND, 2004. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. "[103] The Bru were excluded from evacuation from the highlands by an order from the ARVN I Corps commander, who ruled that no Bru be allowed to move into the lowlands. Military History Institute of Vietnam, pp. Five more attacks against their sector were launched during March. The Marines suffered 155 killed in action and 425 wounded. Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. Background [ edit] [95], It still came as a shock to the Special Forces troopers at Lang Vei when 12 tanks attacked their camp. In the aftermath, the North Vietnamese proclaimed a victory at Khe Sanh, while US forces claimed that they had withdrawn, as the base was no longer required. This caused problems for the Marine command, which possessed its own aviation squadrons that operated under their own close air support doctrine. That afternoon, as a rescue force was dispatched to the village, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Seymoe and other soldiers died when their helicopter was attacked. Seven miles west of Khe Sanh on Route 9, and about halfway to the Laotian border, sat the U.S. Army Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. Of the 500 CIDG troops at Lang Vei, 200 had been killed or were missing and 75 more were wounded. [112][113][114] In addition, over 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped until mid-April by aircraft of the USAF, US Navy and Marines onto the area surrounding Khe Sanh. [172], On 30 January 1971, the ARVN and US forces launched Operation Dewey Canyon II, which involved the reopening of Route 9, securing the Khe Sanh area and reoccupying of KSCB as a forward supply base for Operation Lam Son 719. The report continues to state, "this prompted Air Force chief of staff, General John McConnell, to press, although unsuccessfully, for JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) authority to request Pacific Command to prepare a plan for using low-yield nuclear weapons to prevent a catastrophic loss of the U.S. Marine base. U.S. battles of the war in Vietnam had young GIs or Marines humping into the boonies in search of the enemy. Battle of Hamburger Hill The 29 th North Vietnam Army had entrenched themselves on Hamburger Hill in South Vietnam; a joint US-South Vietnamese force was ordered to remove them. Marine Corps aviators had flown 7,098 missions and released 17,015tons. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! That action prematurely triggered a PAVN offensive aimed at taking Khe Sanh. If a battle tallied a sufficiently favorable body count ratio, American commanders declared victory, as they did after Khe Sanh. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. Johnson backed the Marine position due to his concern over protecting the Army's air assets from Air Force co-option. Senior Marine Corps General Victor Krulak agreed, noting on May 13 that the Marines had defeated the North Vietnamese and won the battle of Khe Sanh. Over time, these KIA figures have been accepted by historians. [148], Regardless, the PAVN had gained control of a strategically important area, and its lines of communication extended further into South Vietnam. "[52], Brigadier General Lowell English (assistant commander 3rd Marine Division) complained that the defense of the isolated outpost was ludicrous: "When you're at Khe Sanh, you're not really anywhere. The Battle of Khe Sanh began Jan. 21, 1968, with inconclusive ground activity by US and North Vietnamese patrols. This fighting was heavy, involving South Vietnamese militia as well as U.S. Army MACV advisers and Marines attached to a Combined Action Company platoon. The fighting around Khe Sanh began January 21, 1968, and concluded around April 8, 1968. Of the 24 Americans at the camp, 10 had been killed and 11 wounded. At 00:30 on 21 January, Hill 861 was attacked by about 300 PAVN troops, the Marines, however, were prepared. That appraisal was later altered when the PAVN was found to be moving major forces into the area. Declassified documents show that in response, Westmoreland considered using nuclear weapons. The PAVN 130mm and 152mm artillery pieces, and 122mm rockets, had a longer range than the Marine artillery support which consisted of 105mm and 155mm howitzers. Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. The Marine Corps casualty reporting system was based on named operations and not geographic location. Battle of Khe Sanh: American Casualties : Showing All Results.
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