[146] Useful equipment was withdrawn or destroyed, and personnel were evacuated. The attack on Khe Sanh, however, proved to be a diversionary tactic for the larger Tet Offensive. If firepower determined the outcome of the fight, it was airlift that allowed the defenders to hold their positions. "[136], Regardless, on 1 April, Operation Pegasus began. [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. [110], As more infantry units had been assigned to defend KSCB, artillery reinforcement kept pace. In the US, the media following the battle drew comparisons with the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which proved disastrous for the French. On January 31, while approximately 50,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops were occupied in defending or supporting Khe Sanh and other DMZ bases, the communists launched an offensive throughout South Vietnam. Thirty-three ARVN troops were also killed and 187 were wounded. Further information on the bombing campaign: Further information on the electronic sensor system: Westmoreland's plan to use nuclear weapons, President Johnson orders that the base be held at all costs, Operation Charlie: evacuation of the base. On July 11, the Marines finally left Khe Sanh. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. [62], On 20 January, La Thanh Ton, a PAVN lieutenant from the 325th Division, defected and laid out the plans for an entire series of PAVN attacks. Westmoreland believed that the latter was the case, and his belief was the basis for his desire to stage "Dien Bien Phu in reverse. 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). Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Marines stayed in the area, conducting operations to recover the bodies of Marines killed previously. 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. At least 852 PAVN soldiers were killed during the action, as opposed to 50 American and South Vietnamese. On January 21 at Khe Sanh, 30,000 North Vietnamese troops attacked an air base held by just 6,000 United States Marines. [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. They attacked 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. The pallet slid to a halt on the airstrip while the aircraft never had to actually land. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. But Pisor also pointed out that 205 is a completely false number. One had to meet certain criteria before being officially considered KIA at Khe Sanh. He believed that was proved by the PAVN's actions during Tet. The plane, piloted by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Hampton, crashed in a huge fireball a few miles east of Khe Sanh, killing all aboard. 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. Declassified documents show that in response, Westmoreland considered using nuclear weapons. [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. [81] The sensors were implanted by a special naval squadron, Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67). History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. [1], The PAVN claim that they began attacking the withdrawing Americans on 26 June 1968 prolonging the withdrawal, killing 1,300 Americans and shooting down 34 aircraft before "liberating" Khe Sanh on 15 July. 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. At dawn on 21 January, it was attacked by a roughly 300-strong PAVN battalion. The launching of the largest enemy offensive thus far in the conflict did not shift Westmoreland's focus away from Khe Sanh. On 18 January, Westmoreland passed his request for Air Force control up the chain of command to CINCPAC in Honolulu. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. According to Gordon Rottman, even the North Vietnamese official history, Victory in Vietnam, is largely silent on the issue. Site will be misbehaving during our migration to new (better!) Khe Sanh had long been responsible for the defense of Lang Vei. The 324th Division was located in the DMZ area 1015 miles (1624km) north of Khe Sanh while the 320th Division was within easy reinforcing distance to the northeast. [135] The Marines had constantly argued that technically, Khe Sanh had never been under siege, since it had never truly been isolated from resupply or reinforcement. A 77 day battle, Khe Sanh had been the biggest single battle of the Vietnam War to that point. Khe Sanh is a village located near the Laotian border and just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam. Listen Now. 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. [70] Regardless, the SOG reconnaissance teams kept patrolling, providing the only human intelligence available in the battle area. 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. They were not included in the official Khe Sanh counts. Reinforcements from the ARVN 256th Regional Force (RF) company were dispatched aboard nine UH-1 helicopters of the 282nd Assault Helicopter Company, but they were landed near the abandoned French fort/former FOB-3 which was occupied by the PAVN who killed many of the RF troops and 4 Americans, including Lieutenant colonel Joseph Seymoe the deputy adviser for Quang Tri Province and forcing the remaining helicopters to abandon the mission. [41], To prevent PAVN observation of the main base at the airfield and their possible use as firebases, the hills of the surrounding Khe Sanh Valley had to be continuously occupied and defended by separate Marine elements. "[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 ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. There are still debates about the true number of casualties, but estimates range that 1,000 to 3,500 US soldiers died, and a secret report from the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam,. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. Free shipping for many products! Taking place between March and July 1970, the Battle of Fire. [24], The plateau camp was permanently manned by the US Marines in 1967, when they established an outpost next to the airstrip. The withdrawal of the last Marines under the cover of darkness was hampered by the shelling of a bridge along Route 9, which had to be repaired before the withdrawal could be completed. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Cushman was appalled by the "implication of a rescue or breaking of the siege by outside forces. [80] Westmoreland had already ordered the nascent Igloo White operation to assist in the Marine defense. A platoon from Company D, 1/26 Marines was sent from the base but was withdrawn in the face of the superior PAVN forces. Over 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped by US aircraft and over 158,000 artillery rounds were fired in defense of the base. The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. Early in the war US forces had established a garrison at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri province, in the . 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. Lownds feared that PAVN infiltrators were mixed up in the crowd of more than 6,000, and lacked sufficient resources to sustain them. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. This article was written by Peter Brush and originally published in the June 2007 issue of Vietnam Magazine. These forces, including support troops, totaled 20,000 to 30,000. A single company replaced an entire battalion. 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. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. Operation Scotland II continued until the end of the year, resulting in the deaths of 72 more Marines. The Siege of Khe Sanh. Then, on the morning of 6 February, the PAVN fired mortars into the Lang Vei compound, wounding eight Camp Strike Force soldiers. "[105] There had been a history of distrust between the Special Forces personnel and the Marines, and General Rathvon M. Tompkins, commander of the 3rd Marine Division, described the Special Forces soldiers as "hopped up wretches [who] were a law unto themselves. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh by Murphy, Edward F. (mass_market) at the best online prices at eBay! [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. [Note 5] This event prompted Cushman to reinforce Lownds with the rest of the 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines. How many American soldiers died in the Battle of Ia Drang? Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! [10] Once the news of the closure of KSCB was announced, the American media immediately raised questions about the reasoning behind its abandonment. Westmoreland planned on Khe Sanh being relieved and then used as the jump-off point for a "hot pursuit" of enemy forces into Laos. [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. Many American casualties were caused by the 10,908 rounds of rockets, artillery and mortars the North Vietnamese fired into the base and hill positions. 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. [54] In attempting to determine PAVN intentions Marine intelligence confirmed that, within a period of just over a week, the 325th Division had moved into the vicinity of the base and two more divisions were within supporting distance. [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. [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. The deaths of U.S. Air Force personnel, estimated between five and 20, are also omitted. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. With Khe Sanh facing a full-scale. American commanders considered the defense of Khe Sanh a success, but shortly after the siege was lifted, the decision was made to dismantle the base rather than risk similar battles in the future. In 1966, the regular Special Forces troops had moved off the plateau and built a smaller camp down Route 9 at Lang Vei, about half the distance to the Laotian border. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. The fact that the North Vietnamese committed only about half of their available forces to the offensive (6070,000), most of whom were Viet Cong, is cited in favor of Westmoreland's argument. Telfer, Rogers, and Fleming, pp. [67], At the same time as the artillery bombardment at KSCB, an attack was launched against Khe Sanh village, seat of Hng Ha District. On Easter Sunday, April 14, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (3/26), assaulted Hill 881 North in order to clear the enemy firing positions. On the afternoon of 29 January, however, the 3rd Marine Division notified Khe Sanh that the truce had been cancelled. [128] Also, Marine Lieutenant General Victor Krulak seconded the notion that there was never a serious intention to take the base by arguing that neither the water supply nor the telephone land lines were ever cut by the PAVN. 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. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. First had been Operation Full Cry, the original three-division invasion plan. 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.
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