[148], Regardless, the PAVN had gained control of a strategically important area, and its lines of communication extended further into South Vietnam. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. [9], The precise nature of Hanoi's strategic goal at Khe Sanh is regarded as one of the most intriguing unanswered questions of the Vietnam War. today! 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. He made his final appearance in the story of Khe Sanh on 23 May, when his regimental sergeant major and he stood before President Johnson and were presented with a Presidential Unit Citation on behalf of the 26th Marines. The ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. [34] The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. 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. Even so, Westmoreland insisted for it not only to be occupied by the Marines but also for it to be reinforced. When the weather later cleared in March, the amount was increased to 40 tons per day. The heavy reliance on American airpower was an ominous sign for Vietnamization and . Once the aircraft touched down, it became the target of any number of PAVN artillery or mortar crews. The Khe Sanh battlefield was considerably more extensive from the North Vietnamese perspective than from that of the U.S. Marine Corps, both geographically and chronologically. As far as PAVN casualties were concerned, 1,602 bodies were counted, seven prisoners were taken, and two soldiers defected to allied forces during the operation. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. [28], In early December 1967, the PAVN appointed Major General Tran Quy Hai as the local commander for the actions around Khe Sanh, with Le Quang Do as his political commissar. [146] Useful equipment was withdrawn or destroyed, and personnel were evacuated. [145], Author Peter Brush details that an "additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II through the end of June 1968". The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.. [32], Westmoreland responded by launching Operation Neutralize, an aerial and naval bombardment campaign designed to break the siege. American logistical, aerial, and artillery support was provided to the operation. Taking place between March and July 1970, the Battle of Fire. [59], During the rainy night of 2 January 1968, six men dressed in black uniforms were seen outside the defensive wire of the main base by members of a listening post. The Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January 9 July 1968) was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Qung Tr Province, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), during the Vietnam War. U.S. battles of the war in Vietnam had young GIs or Marines humping into the boonies in search of the enemy. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. These combined sources report a total of 354 KIA. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. [82], By the end of the battle, USAF assets had flown 9,691 tactical sorties and dropped 14,223tons of bombs on targets within the Khe Sanh area. [20] These figures do not include casualties among Special Forces troops at Lang Vei, aircrews killed or missing in the area, or Marine replacements killed or wounded while entering or exiting the base aboard aircraft. On the morning of 22 January Lownds decided to evacuate the remaining forces in the village with most of the Americans evacuated by helicopter while two advisers led the surviving local forces overland to the combat base. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. Khe Sanh was one of the most remote outposts in Vietnam, but by January 1968, even President Lyndon Johnson had taken a personal interest in the base. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. These forces, including support troops, totaled 20,000 to 30,000. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. [10] Once the news of the closure of KSCB was announced, the American media immediately raised questions about the reasoning behind its abandonment. [33] The PAVN fought for several days, took casualties, and fell back. In 1970, the Office of Air Force History published a then "top secret", but now declassified, 106-page report, titled The Air Force in Southeast Asia: Toward a Bombing Halt, 1968. [23][Note 2], James Marino wrote that in 1964, General William Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, had determined, "Khe Sanh could serve as a patrol base blocking enemy infiltration from Laos; a base for operations to harass the enemy in Laos; an airstrip for reconnaissance to survey the Ho Chi Minh Trail; a western anchor for the defenses south of the DMZ; and an eventual jumping-off point for ground operations to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [36], Things remained quiet in the Khe Sanh area through 1966. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled Victory at Khe Sanh, reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. [138], On the following day, the 2nd Brigade captured the old French fort near Khe Sanh village after a three-day battle. Westmoreland had been forwarding operational plans for an invasion of Laos since 1966. [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. If firepower determined the outcome of the fight, it was airlift that allowed the defenders to hold their positions. By the middle of January 1968, some 6,000 Marines and Army troops occupied the Khe Sanh Combat Base and its surrounding positions. Siege at Khe Sanh: ~17,200 (304th and 308th Division), Defense at Route 9: ~16,900 (320th and 324th Division), This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:52. As journalist Robert Pisor pointed out in his 1982 book, The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh, no other battle of the entire war produced a better body count or kill ratio than that claimed by the Americans at Khe Sanh. Due to the nature of these activities, and the threat that they posed to KSCB, Westmoreland ordered Operation Niagara I, an intense intelligence collection effort on PAVN activities in the vicinity of the Khe Sanh Valley. Known as the McNamara Line, it was initially codenamed "Project Nine". It was the only time Americans abandoned a major combat base because of enemy pressure. [64], The main base was then subjected to an intense mortar and rocket barrage. The village, 3km south of the base, was defended by 160 local Bru troops, plus 15 American advisers. Army deaths at FOB-3, however, were not included in the official statistics either. [131], Planning for the overland relief of Khe Sanh had begun as early as 25 January 1968, when Westmoreland ordered General John J. Tolson, commander, First Cavalry Division, to prepare a contingency plan. [147] The official closure of the base came on 5 July after fighting, which had killed five more Marines. [61] To cover a defilade near the Rao Quan River, four companies from 2/26 were immediately sent out to occupy Hill 558, with another manning Hill 861A. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. The PAVN, however, were not through with the ARVN troops. The Marines, whose aircraft and doctrine were integral to their operations, were under no such centralized control. [117], Cumulative friendly casualties for Operation Scotland, which began on 1 November 1967, were: 205 killed in action, 1,668 wounded, and 25 missing and presumed dead. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, microwave/tropospheric scatter technology, "The Battle of Khe Sanh 40th Anniversary: Casualties in May 1968", "The Battle of Khe Sanh 40th Anniversary: Casualties in June 1968", https://web.archive.org/web/20080215233328/http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/vietnam_war/3029941.html?featured=y&c=y, https://www.historynet.com/recounting-the-casualties-at-the-deadly-battle-of-khe-sanh/, https://www.historynet.com/the-withdrawal-from-khe-sanh/?f, "Khe Sanh: 6,000 Marines Dug In for Battle", "The US's secret plan to nuke Vietnam, Laos", "Memorandum for the President, 19 February 1968", "Battlefields of Khe Sanh: Still One Casualty a Day", "The US Army Quartermaster Air Delivery Units and the Defense of Khe Sanh", "5 things you didn't know about Khe Sanh", "Operational Report Lessons Learned, Headquarters, 8th Battalion 4th Artillery, Period Ending 30 April 1971", "Narrative of Events of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) During LAM SON 719", United States Army Center of Military History, Bibliography: The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Khe Sanh, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Khe_Sanh&oldid=1142289112. 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. Ho Chi Minhs oft-quoted admonition to the French applied equally to the Americans: You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win. The calculation by Stubbe that approximately 1,000 Americans died on the Khe Sanh battlefield is especially compelling, given that Stubbes numbers are accompanied by names and dates of death. Indeed, had enemy forces not been at Khe Sanh, they could have joined the NVA and VC who occupied Hue, a much more important strategic target. [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. The Marines found a solution to the problem in the "Super Gaggle" concept. The US command in Saigon initially believed that combat operations around KSCB during 1967 were part of a series of minor PAVN offensives in the border regions. On June 28, a Communist spokesman claimed the Americans had been forced to retreat and that Khe Sanh was the gravest tactical and strategic defeat for the U.S. in the war. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. [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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. The assault began on 10 May 1969 w ith the 101st Airborne Division and troops of the 9th M arine Regiment, the 5 th Cavalry Regiment, and the 3 rd ARVN Regiment. For seven weeks, American aircraft dropped from 35,000 to 40,000 tons of bombs in nearly 4,000 airstrikes. They attacked 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Hundreds of mortar rounds and 122-mm rockets slammed into the base, levelling most of the above-ground structures. newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. The base was officially closed on July 5. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. This, however, did not prevent the Marine tanks within the perimeter from training their guns on the SOG camp. [30], In early October, the PAVN had intensified battalion-sized ground probes and sustained artillery fire against Con Thien, a hilltop stronghold in the center of the Marines' defensive line south of the DMZ, in northern Qung Tr Province. It was later renamed "Dye Marker" by MACV in September 1967, just as the PAVN began the first phase of their offensive by launching attacks against Marine-held positions across the DMZ. [43] Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman Jr. relieved Walt as commander of III MAF in June. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. [33] Troops of the US 1st Infantry Division were able to respond quickly. The Hill Fights (also known as the First Battle of Khe Sanh) was a battle during the Vietnam War between the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 325C Division and United States Marines on several hill masses north of the Khe Sanh Combat Base in northwest Qung Tr Province . The American military presence at Khe Sanh consisted not only of the Marine Corps Khe Sanh Combat Base, but also Forward Operating Base 3, U.S. Army (FOB-3). [128] They also reported 1,436 wounded before mid-March, of which 484 men returned to their units, while 396 were sent up the Ho Chi Minh Trail to hospitals in the north. According to the official Marine Corps history of the battle, total fatalities for Operation Scotland were 205 friendly KIA. The Marines recorded an actual body count of 1,602 NVA killed but estimated the total NVA dead at between 10,000 and 15,000. "[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 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. The PAVN forces were in the process of gaining elevated terrain before it launched the main attack. On 8 February 1971, the leading ARVN units marched along Route 9 into southern Laos while the US ground forces and advisers were prohibited from entering Laos. "[149], While KSCB was abandoned, the Marines continued to patrol the Khe Sanh plateau, including reoccupying the area with ARVN forces from 519 October 1968 with minimal opposition. The official figure of 205 KIA only represents Marine deaths in the Operation Scotland TAORthat is, Marines killed in proximity to the Khe Sanh Combat Base during the period from November 1, 1967, to March 31, 1968. Dien Bien Phu would loom large for the rest of the war, especially during the Battle of Khe Sanh. Home > Features > Battle of Khe Sanh > View All. [116] Marine analysis of PAVN artillery fire estimated that the PAVN gunners had fired 10,908 artillery and mortar rounds and rockets into Marine positions during the battle. Ray Stubbe has published a translation of the North Vietnamese history of the siege at Khe Sanh. Journalist Richard Ehrlich writes that according to the report, "in late January, General Westmoreland had warned that if the situation near the DMZ and at Khe Sanh worsened drastically, nuclear or chemical weapons might have to be used." "[28], As far as Westmoreland was concerned, however, all that he needed to know was that the PAVN had massed large numbers of troops for a set-piece battle. The plane, piloted by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Hampton, crashed in a huge fireball a few miles east of Khe Sanh, killing all aboard. The Tet Offensive was about to begin. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. At the same time, the 304th Division withdrew to the southwest. The United States and its South Vietnamese allies pulled many huge offensive . The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. In his memoirs, he listed the reasons for a continued effort: Khe Sanh could serve as a patrol base for blocking enemy infiltration from Laos along Route 9; as a base for SOG operations to harass the enemy in Laos; as an airstrip for reconnaissance planes surveying the Ho Chi Minh Trail; as the western anchor for defenses south of the DMZ; and as an eventual jump-off point for ground operations to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [29], During the second half of 1967, the North Vietnamese instigated a series of actions in the border regions of South Vietnam. After a ten-day battle, the attackers were pushed back into Cambodia. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Of the 4953 Navy and Air Force casualties, both officer and enlisted, 4, 736 or 96% were white. U.S. reconnaissance forces continued to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The border battles, however, had two significant consequences, which were unappreciated at the time. A single company replaced an entire battalion. Marine Khe Sanh veteran Peter Brush is Vietnam Magazines book review editor. The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, with two . The Battle of Ban Houei Sane, not the attack three weeks later at Lang Vei, marked the first time that the PAVN had committed an armored unit to battle. Following a rolling barrage fired by nine artillery batteries, the Marine attack advanced through two PAVN trenchlines, but the Marines failed to locate the remains of the men of the ambushed patrol. Two days later, US troops detected PAVN trenches running due north to within 25 m of the base perimeter. A limited attack was made by a PAVN company on 1 July, falling on a company from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, who were holding a position 3km to the southeast of the base. [80] Westmoreland insisted for several months that the entire Tet Offensive was a diversion, including, famously, attacks on downtown Saigon and obsessively affirming that the true objective of the North Vietnamese was Khe Sanh. The PAVN infantry, though bracketed by artillery fire, still managed to penetrate the perimeter of the defenses and were only driven back after severe close-quarters combat. One headquarters would allocate and coordinate all air assets, distributing them wherever they were considered most necessary, and then transferring them as the situation required. Operation Pegasus casualties included 59 U.S. Army and 51 Marine Corps dead. Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. [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. [126], On 30 March, Bravo Company, 26th Marines, launched an attack toward the location of the ambush that had claimed so many of their comrades on 25 February. 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. 239240. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. The advance would be supported by 102 pieces of artillery. [45] In December and early January, numerous sightings of PAVN troops and activities were made in the Khe Sanh area, but the sector remained relatively quiet.[46]. [138] At 08:00 on 15 April, Operation Pegasus was officially terminated. Operation Pegasus, begun the day after Scotland ended, lasted until April 15. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. [67], At the same time as the artillery bombardment at KSCB, an attack was launched against Khe Sanh village, seat of Hng Ha District. [158] The question, known among American historians as the "riddle of Khe Sanh," has been summed up by John Prados and Ray Stubbe: "Either the Tet Offensive was a diversion intended to facilitate PAVN/VC preparations for a war-winning battle at Khe Sanh, or Khe Sanh was a diversion to mesmerize Westmoreland in the days before Tet. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. The Laotians were overrun, and many fled to the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei.
Dave Dave Michael Jackson Comparison,
Ridgid Pro Tool Box Modifications,
Is Ramla Ali Related To Muhammad Ali,
Aflw Leading Goalkicker 2022,
Bristol Myers Squibb Holiday Schedule 2021,
Articles B
