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. ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Editor's Note: This is the second part of a historical summary on the Battle of Khe Sanh, and looks into how strategic air power contributed to the defense of the Khe Sanh base Jan. 21 - July 9, 1968. The village of Khe Sanh was the local seat of government, an area of Bru Montagnard (local tribes people) villages and coffee plantations. The area around Khe Sanh was hotly contested during the battle. Marines Fought in Hand to Hand Combat with Bayonets. The Marines on the patrol were outnumbered by 10 to 1 but they took on the superior force despite the odds. More than ...read more, Women in the Vietnam War served as soldiers, health workers, and in news-gathering capacities. These are excerpts from a 1968 documentary film from Department of Defense outlining the timeline in the Battle of Khe Sanh. That they were there had an interesting story. Watch Explore Our World - Season 1, Episode 856586 - Battle of Khe Sanh, Pt. While the battle was a military victory for the United States, public perception was that the battle was in fact a loss. Known as the Tet Offensive, this aggressive operation aimed to break Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces, inspire rebellion among the South Vietnamese population against the regime in Saigon and drive a wedge between South Vietnam and its powerful ally, the United States. Two divisions, the 304th and the 325th, were assigned to the operation: the 325th was given responsibility for the area around the north, while the 304th was given responsibility for the southern sector. This is the Republic of Vietnam. In the fall of 1967, the People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) began to build up its strength in the region, and U.S. officials began to suspect that Khe Sanh would be the target of an attack. Fighting at Khe Sanh, the Vietnam war’s most famous siege. President Lyndon B. Johnson agreed with Westmoreland’s argument that the base should be held at all costs, and U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched Operation Niagara, a major artillery bombardment of suspected locations of North Vietnamese artillery in the hills surrounding Khe Sanh. Khe Sanh base was to the southwest of the 17th Parallel and a number of miles northeast of Danang and Hué. The fights were for Hill 881 North, Hill 881 South, and Hill 861. A company of American soldiers brutally killed most of the people—women, children and old men—in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. A comprehensive experience of events of the longest battle of the Vietnam war, Khe Sanh, as seen through the eyes and words of the men who lived through it. General William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam (MACV), believed that Vietnamese Communist forces had targeted Khe Sanh as part of a general effort to seize South Vietnam’s northernmost regions and put themselves in a stronger position prior to any future peace negotiations. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The number of Communist forces killed in the Battle of Khe Sanh would reach around 10,000, compared to fewer than 500 U.S. Marines killed in action. For the next 77 days, U.S. Marines and their South Vietnamese allies fought off an intense siege of the garrison, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 2: Between January and April of 1968, the US marine post of Khe Sanh came under heavy fire from North Vietnamese forces. At the town roundabout/monument, turn right and head north on Ho Chi Minh Highway West for 2.6 kilometres. Responding to this, the Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB), located on a plateau in a valley of the same name, was reinforced by elements of the 26th Marine Regiment under Colonel David E. … While the battle is called a siege, the Marines were never cut off from communication or supplies due in great part to the bravery of the pilots and Airmen of the 834th and 315th Air Divisions who flew continuous supply missions under heavy fire. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. From the U.S. side, over 100,000 pounds of bombs were dropped on the hills surrounding the base and over 158,000 artillery shells were fired in direct support of the base. As Johnson, Westmoreland and other officials considered Khe Sanh to be the primary target of the North Vietnamese, they largely ignored signs of a Communist buildup in more urban areas of South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in ...read more, The World War II Battle of Guadalcanal was the first major offensive and a decisive victory for the Allies in the Pacific theater. After the loss of the Ghost Patrol on February 25, of which there were only 2 survivors, a patrol was sent out on February 30 to attempt to recover the bodies of the lost and to inflict damage on the Vietnamese battalion in the area. The political decision to withdraw and hand the enemy hard won terrain was not the decision of the Marines, Airmen, and Soldiers who fought to defend the base. The work of the men at Khe Sanh was heroic. A 77 day battle, Khe Sanh had been the biggest single battle of the Vietnam War to that point. Khe Sanh was just a remote region in Quang Tri Province of the Republic of South Vietnam. Battle of Khe Sanh. In the face of criticism that he had fallen victim to the North Vietnamese diversionary tactic, Westmoreland defended his decision to defend Khe Sanh, and claimed the battle as a victory in that it prevented the enemy from gaining control over the northwest corner of South Vietnam and inflicted heavy losses on PAVN forces. Suddenly, the long and bitter struggle at Khe Sanh began to look like a diversionary tactic meant to tie up U.S. and South Vietnamese resources leading up to the Tet Offensive. They had done this successfully against French colonial troops at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, prior to obtaining independence at the Geneva peace conference. The village of Khe Sanh, in western Quang Tri province, was about 15 miles below the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam. The Battle of Khe Sanh took place "around" the Khe Sanh Valley, as any cursory examination of the maps contained in the article would reveal (that is, after all, what they are there for.) In the end, President Johnson sided with Westmoreland and ordered the base to be held at all costs. As part of a program codenamed Operation Scotland, Westmoreland reinforced the Marine garrison at Khe Sanh—bringing the total number of troops to around 6,000—stockpiled ammunition and refurbished the airstrip at the base, all in preparation for a possible attack. Commanders were faced with the decision to either reinforce the base or abandon it. The Battle of Khe Sanh: The History and Legacy of the Major Battle that Preceded the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War chronicles one of the most controversial battles of the war, and the effects it had on both sides. The Battle of Khe Sanh was a major battle in the Vietnam War between the American forces - primarily led by the Marines with some support from the Army, Air Force, and South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) - and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The attack finally came on January 21, 1968, when PAVN forces began a massive artillery bombardment of Khe Sanh, hitting the base’s main store of ammunition and destroying 90 percent of its artillery and mortar rounds. The Battle of Khe Sanh began 50 years ago this week when roughly 20,000 North Vietnamese troops surrounded an isolated combat base held by roughly 5,500 Marines. “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,” it said. #5 – President Lyndon Johnson ordered that the base at Khe Sanh be held at all costs. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Hundreds of Marines were killed and thousands were wounded at Khe Sanh, as the enemy rained as many as 1,300 shells, rockets and mortars on the … Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the Marines were able to hold off a vastly superior force while under constant enemy fire. Required fields are marked *. This proved to be a mistake, as on January 31, 1968—a date celebrated as the lunar new year, or Tet—some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Editor's Note: This is the first part of a historical summary on the Battle of Khe Sanh, and looks into how strategic air power contributed to the defense of the Khe Sanh base Jan. 21 - July 9, 1968. General Westmoreland, commander of all forces in Vietnam, wanted the base to be held at all costs. General Creighton W. Abrams replaced Westmoreland as MACV head in June 1968, and on July 5 he closed the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh. While most have heard of the Battle for Khe Sanh, an 11-week siege in early 1968 that pitted three NVA divisions — about 20,000 troops — against a … Located 750 miles off the coast of Japan, the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of ...read more, In order to combat better-supplied American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops known as Viet Cong (VC) dug tens of thousands of miles of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of ...read more, The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed against unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. Over the next four years, the general directed much of U.S. military strategy during ...read more, The Vietnam War started in the 1950s, according to most historians, though the conflict in Southeast Asia had its roots in the French colonial period of the 1800s. Khe Sanh combat base, built on a hilltop located 10 km from the Laotian border, was the westernmost in a line of Allied defenses south of the DMZ designed to prevent communist infiltration into South Vietnam. https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/battle-of-khe-sanh-1. The U.S. commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland, was clearly convinced that Khe Sanh was the focal point of the Communist plans in 1968. It is a testament to those who served and those who never came home. Did you know? President Lyndon Johnson chose William Westmoreland, a distinguished veteran of World War II and the Korean War, to command the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam (MACV) in June 1964. EDITED 8/15/2011 In 1967, Marine patrols outside of Khe Sanh airbase came under increased pressure from NVA troops and they captured substantial amounts of weaponry. Despite months of fighting over the area, the U.S. withdrew from Khe Sanh in July handing the base over to the enemy. Khe Sanh and Dienbienphu: Different Wars -- Similar Battles Outline The turning point for the French in the French-Indochina War was the battle of Dienbienphu in 1954. From Dong Ha travel west on QL9 for 60 kilometres in the direction of Lao Bao (the Lao border). On 20 January, La Thanh Ton, a PAVN lieutenant of the 14th Anti-Aircraft Company, 325th Division, defected at the base and laid out the plans for an entire series of North Vietnamese attacks. The Battle of Khe Sanh, January 21 – April 8, 1968 Posted on November 30, 2016 Editor: Michael Spilling and Consultant Editor: Chris McNab. #1 – The Entire Area was Bombarded by Ordinance. As to the article's length, I wrote it to give a detailed, unbiased account of the action and did not consider length as any kind of qualifying measure. On March 31, Johnson announced he was halting most of the bombing attacks in North Vietnam and opening peace negotiations; he also withdrew his candidacy for reelection. Beginning on January 21, 1968, the battle was the lead in for the Tet Offensive that began nine days later when the People’s Army of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong launched attacks on military and civilian targets throughout South Vietnam. The battle is one of the most well-known battles of the war and is a battle that has been added to Marine Corps lore for the performance of the 6,000 Marines tasked with holding the base at all costs. YOU CAN TRY TO COPY US, BUT THEN WE’LL WATERBOARD YOU WITH FREEDOM. #3 – General Westmoreland Wanted to Nuke the Place. The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in Khe Sanh of the northwestern Quảng Trị Province. The bayonet charge in to the NVA trenches resulted in 115 NVA killed and a complete routing of the far superior force who fled down the hillside away from the charging Marines. © 2017 GRUNT STYLE LLC. Battle Of Khe Sanh Essay. News reports of the Battle of Khe Sanh consistently referred to the struggle as another Dien Bien Phu, but in reality the U.S. and South Vietnamese enjoyed a much stronger position than had the French. The United States did not want to give the North Vietnamese another Dien Bien Phu victory that resulted in the defeat of French forces in Vietnam. In addition to a fleet of helicopters and cargo planes that could resupply and reinforce the besieged Marines, they could rely on the heavy bombing capacity of the B-52 fighter planes, which dropped close to 100,000 explosives on the hills surrounding Khe Sanh over the course of the battle. This was the First Battle for Khe Sanh, the costly battle for the hills. I was there, end of the runway. The U.S. was not the only one dishing out firepower at Khe Sanh. In attempting to determine PAVN intentions Marine intelligence c… All Rights Reserved. The Battle of Khe Sanh: The History and Legacy of the Major Battle that Preceded the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War - Kindle edition by Charles River Editors. On January 21, 1968 the Battle of Khe Sanh had begun. Men on the patrol called it the payback patrol. NVA soldiers would continue to be spotted in the area but no attack would come. Battle of Khe Sanh. Summary of the Battle of Khe Sanh. In the summer of 1967, American commanders learned of a build-up of the People's Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) forces in the area around Khe Sanh in northwest South Vietnam. Tne battle of Khe Sanh is but one facet of the long and complicated war in South Vietnam. The United States’ army occupied the region in 1952 and built a camp there. Battle of Khe Sanh - La Thanh Ton. 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 Dạo as his political commissar. Today is the 48th anniversary of the beginning of the longest battle of the Vietnam War, the Battle of Khe Sanh. As the 186 man patrol from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment approached the NVA trenches and bunkers, Bravo’s commander, Captain Ken Pipes, got on the radio and said: Cpl Steve Wiese, one of the two survivors of the Ghost Patrol thought to himself when he heard the order, “I was like, ‘Oh crap, we’re talking hand-to-hand combat.”. The base is located close to Khe Sanh town. The Battle of Khe Sanh Featuring Gregg Jones On the morning of January 21, Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base realized they were surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army and the only road leading to the base was cut off. The U.S. military presence at Khe Sanh began in 1962, when Army Special Forces built a small camp near the village, located some 14 miles south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam and 6 miles from the Laotian border on Route 9, the principal road from South Vietnam into Laos. It was January 1968 and the Marine outpost at Khe Sanh was under attack; 6,000 U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese Rangers were surrounded by an enemy force of nearly 20,000 and cut off from all overland resupply. To support 6,000 Marines holding the base, air power and artillery were on constant alert to provide assets. That battle fought on Feb. 25, 1967, by Harper’s squad—from 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division—proved to be a harbinger of even deadlier battles. “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,” said a separate 106-page declassified, “top secret” report titled, “The Air Force in Southeast Asia: Toward a Bombing Halt, 1968,” written by the Office of Air Force History in 1970. No hand to hand, but shelled the hell out of us. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Battle of Khe Sanh like never before. After the loss of the Ghost … As antiwar sentiment mounted on the home front in the wake of the Tet Offensive, the Johnson administration lost confidence in the general’s strategy of attrition and his claims of progress in the war effort. Despite the odds, the U.S. suffered 274 killed at Khe Sanh and just over 2,500 wounded compared to NVA and Viet Cong losses estimated in the thousands. 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. The NVA fired over 40,000 rounds of rockets, artillery, and mortars at the Marines in and around Khe Sanh during the battle making the Khe Sanh area one of the most bombed and shelled areas of the Vietnam War. The battle fought in and around Khe Sanh has gone into US military history. Your email address will not be published. U.S. Marines built a garrison adjacent to the Army camp in 1966. 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. 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 battle between the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN or NVA) and United States Marines took place in the I Corps Tactical Zone, near the village of Khe Sanh. General Maxwell Taylor, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, wanted the position to be abandoned due to it’s isolated position. This battle was one of the most important battles during the Vietnam War. In the coming days, a campaign headquarters was established around Sap Lit. The question has best been phrased by Peter Brush: “Was Khe Sanh a territorial imperative or a bait and switch?”¹ Both sides claimed victory at Khe Sanh, fueling a long-running debate. Battle of Khe Sanh Overview. [mwi-cat-listing cat=”94″ ppp=”4″ cols=”4″ desc=”false” type=”view” btn_color=”black” ]. 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