[57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. [59], Making matters worse for the defenders, any aircraft that braved the weather and attempted to land was subject to PAVN antiaircraft fire on its way in for a landing. The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. The official statistics yield a KIA ratio of between 50:1 and 75:1 of North Vietnamese to U.S. military deaths. 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. The Marines pursued three enemy scouts, who led them into an ambush. 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. Only nine US battalions were available from Hue/Phu Bai northward. [87], Heated debate arose among Westmoreland, Commandant of the Marine Corps Leonard F. Chapman Jr., and Army Chief of Staff Harold K. Johnson. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. [156] Correspondent Michael Herr reported on the battle, and his account would inspire the surreal "Do Long Bridge" scene in the film Apocalypse Now, which emphasized the anarchy of the war. Of the 24 Americans at the camp, 10 had been killed and 11 wounded. Khe Sanh had long been responsible for the defense of Lang Vei. [140] Total US casualties during the operation were 92 killed, 667 wounded, and five missing. [34] The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. "[91][92], Not much activity (with the exception of patrolling) had occurred thus far during the battle for the Special Forces Detachment A-101 and their four companies of Bru CIDGs stationed at Lang Vei. The North Vietnamese lost as many as 15,000 casualties during the siege of Khe Sanh. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. "[159] In assessing North Vietnamese intentions, Peter Brush cites the claim of Vietnamese theater commander, V Nguyn Gip, "that Khe Sanh itself was not of importance, but only a diversion to draw U.S. forces away from the populated areas of South Vietnam. [65] The fighting and shelling on 21 January resulted in 14 Marines killed and 43 wounded. [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. These were pitted against two to three divisional-size elements of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). During one 8-hour period, the base was rocked by 1,307 rounds, most of which came from 130-mm (used for the first time on the battlefield) and 152-mm artillery pieces located in Laos. At 21:30, the attack came on, but it was stifled by the small arms of the Rangers, who were supported by thousands of artillery rounds and air strikes. The Battle of Khe Sanh began on January 21, 1968, when forces from the People's Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) carried out a massive artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos. [166] This view was supported by a captured North Vietnamese study of the battle in 1974 that stated that the PAVN would have taken Khe Sanh if it could have done so, but there was a limit to the price that it would pay. [33] The PAVN fought for several days, took casualties, and fell back. [110], As more infantry units had been assigned to defend KSCB, artillery reinforcement kept pace. On July 11, the Marines finally left Khe Sanh. The Battle of la Drang was considered essential because it sets up a change of tactics for both troops during the conflict. According to the official PAVN history, by December 1967 the North Vietnamese had in place, or within supporting distance: the 304th, 320th, 324th and 325th Infantry Divisions, the independent 270th infantry Regiment; five artillery regiments (the 16th, 45th, 84th, 204th, and 675th); three AAA regiments (the 208th, 214th, and 228th); four tank companies; one engineer regiment plus one independent engineer battalion; one signal battalion; and a number of local force units. In the coming days, a campaign headquarters was established around Sap Lit. The Marines withdrew all salvageable material and destroyed everything else. On July 10, Pfc Robert Hernandez of Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, was manning an M-60 machine gun position when it took a direct hit from NVA mortars. 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. "[136], Regardless, on 1 April, Operation Pegasus began. The Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Regiment was one of the racially segregated units of the United States Army known as Buffalo Soldiers.The 25th served from 1866 to 1957, seeing action in the American Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War and World War II. 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. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. Operation Pegasus forces, however, were highly mobile and did not attack en masse down Route 9 far enough west of Khe Sanh for the NVA, by then dispersed, to implement their plan. The site linked to another microwave/tropo site in Hu manned by the 513th Signal Detachment. A historian, General Dave Palmer, accepted that rationale: "General Giap never had any intention of capturing Khe Sanh [it] was a feint, a diversionary effort. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. Of the 500 CIDG troops at Lang Vei, 200 had been killed or were missing and 75 more were wounded. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. An airborne battlefield command and control center aboard a C-130 aircraft, directed incoming strike aircraft to forward air control (FAC) spotter planes, which, in turn directed them to targets either located by themselves or radioed in by ground units. Both sides suffered major casualties with both claiming victory of their own. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. And it had accomplished its purpose magnificently. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ladd (commander, 5th Special Forces Group), who had just flown in from Khe Sanh, was reportedly, "astounded that the Marines, who prided themselves on leaving no man behind, were willing to write off all of the Green Berets and simply ignore the fall of Lang Vei. The fire of PAVN antiaircraft units took its toll of helicopters that made the attempt. 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). The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. The main US forces defending Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB) were two regiments of the United States Marine Corps supported by elements from the United States Army and the United States Air Force (USAF), as well as a small number of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops. During aerial resupply:1 KC-130, 3 C-123 ARVN losses: 229 killed, 436 wounded (not including CIDG, RF/PF and SOG losses)CIDG losses: 1,000 1,500 killed or missing, at least 250 captured (in Lang Vei), wounded unknown[16] Kingdom of Laos: Unknown. Mobile combat operations continued against the North Vietnamese. However, North Vietnamese sources claim that the Americans did not win a victory at Khe Sanh but were forced to retreat to avoid destruction. The last of the American casualties were finally lifted off Hill 861 on March 17. 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." At the same time, the 304th Division withdrew to the southwest. 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. Its main objectives were to inflict casualties on US troops and to isolate them in the remote border regions. [86] The command and control arrangement then in place in Southeast Asia went against Air Force doctrine, which was predicated on the single air manager concept. After failing to respond to a challenge, they were fired upon and five were killed outright while the sixth, although wounded, escaped. Several rounds also landed on Hill 881. The village, 3km south of the base, was defended by 160 local Bru troops, plus 15 American advisers. While suffering less significant casualties (around 10,000 dead), ARVN units had only turned back the attacking PAVN forces with massive American air support. Army deaths at FOB-3, however, were not included in the official statistics either. The Marines at KSCB credited 40% of intelligence available to their fire-support coordination center to the sensors. Marines stayed in the area, conducting operations to recover the bodies of Marines killed previously. [173][174], After the ARVN defeat in Laos, the newly-reopened KSCB came under attack by PAVN sappers and artillery and the base was abandoned once again on 6 April 1971.[175][176]. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. The United States and its South Vietnamese allies pulled many huge offensive . Route 9, the only practical overland route from the east, was impassable due to its poor state of repair and the presence of PAVN troops. The badly-deteriorated Route 9 ran from the coastal region through the western highlands and crossed the border into Laos. Only those killed in action during Operation Scotland, which began on November 1, 1967, and ended on March 31, 1968, were included in the official casualty count. [122] The majority of these were around the southern and southeastern corners of the perimeter, and formed part of a system that would be developed throughout the end of February and into March until they were ready to be used to launch an attack, providing cover for troops to advance to jumping-off points close to the perimeter. [150] On 31 December 1968, the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion was landed west of Khe Sanh to commence Operation Dawson River West, on 2 January 1969 the 9th Marines and 2nd ARVN Regiment were also deployed on the plateau supported by the newly established Fire Support Bases Geiger and Smith; the 3-week operation found no significant PAVN forces or supplies in the Khe Sanh area. Westmoreland echoed this judgment in his memoirs, and, using exactly the same figures, concluded that the North Vietnamese had suffered a most damaging and one-sided defeat. 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. When an enemy rocket-propelled grenade killed 2nd Lt. Randall Yeary and Corporal Richard John, although these Marines died before the beginning of the siege, their deaths were included in the official statistics. 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 most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet.
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