[1] According to Brush, it was "the only occasion in which Americans abandoned a major combat base due to enemy pressure" and in the aftermath, the North Vietnamese began a strong propaganda campaign, seeking to exploit the US withdrawal and to promote the message that the withdrawal had not been by choice. The pallet slid to a halt on the airstrip while the aircraft never had to actually land. The Siege of Khe Sanh. Khe Sanh is a village located near the Laotian border and just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. Hernandez was killed. These forces, including support troops, totaled 20,000 to 30,000. The next operations were named Crockett and Ardmore. Only nine US battalions were available from Hue/Phu Bai northward. Minor attacks continued before the base was officially closed on 5 July. One of the first enemy shells set off an explosion in the main ammunition dump. On January 14, Marines from Company B, 3rd Recon Battalion, were moving up the north slope of Hill 881 North, a few miles northwest of Khe Sanh Combat Base. According to this history, originally classified as secret, the battle deaths for all major NVA units participating in the entire Highway 9Khe Sanh Front from January 20 until July 20, 1968, totaled 2,469. On June 19, 1968, another operation began at Khe Sanh, Operation Charlie, the final evacuation and destruction of the Khe Sanh Combat Base. The NVAs main command post was located in Laos, at Sar Lit. [81] The sensors were implanted by a special naval squadron, Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67). 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. At 04:15 on 8 February under cover of fog and a mortar barrage, the PAVN penetrated the perimeter, overrunning most of the position and pushing the remaining 30 defenders into the southwestern portion of the defenses. [97] During a meeting at Da Nang at 07:00 the next morning, Westmoreland and Cushman accepted Lownds' decision. The legendary siege at Khe Sanh occurred in 1968, but during the spring of 1967, the United States Marines fought in northwestern Quang Tri Province in what became the first stage of the Khe Sanh battles. [66] Hours after the bombardment ceased, the base was still in danger. The tower at Khe Sanh instructed the pilot to take evasive action and go around for another approach. [36], Things remained quiet in the Khe Sanh area through 1966. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.. 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. [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. Setting out from Ca Lu, 10 miles east of Khe Sanh, Pegasus opened the highway, linked up with the Marines at Khe Sanh, and engaged NVA in the surrounding area. Operation Pegasus: ~20,000 (1st Air Cavalry and Marine units), U.S. losses:At Khe Sanh: 274 killed2,541 wounded (not including ARVN Ranger, RF/PF, Forward Operation Base 3 US Army and Royal Laotian Army losses)[15]Operation Scotland I and Operation Pegasus: 730 killed2,642 wounded,7 missing[15]Operation Scotland II (15 April 1968 July 1968):485 killed2,396 wounded[1]USAF:5 ~ 20 killed, wounded unknown[1]Operation Charlie for the final evacuation:At least 11 marines killed, wounded unknown[1] While suffering less significant casualties (around 10,000 dead), ARVN units had only turned back the attacking PAVN forces with massive American air support. "[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. "[168][Note 7], Marine General Rathvon M. Tompkins, the commander of the 3rd Marine Division, pointed out that had the PAVN actually intended to take Khe Sanh, PAVN troops could have cut the base's sole source of water, a stream 500 m outside the perimeter of the base. 6,000 men North Vietnamese Vo Nguyen Giap Tran Quy Hai Approx. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. [83] Westmoreland later wrote, "Washington so feared that some word of it might reach the press that I was told to desist, ironically answering what those consequences could be: a political disaster. 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. Twenty-five USAF personnel who were killed are also not included. Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. 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. 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. The NVA 304th Divisions history notes that on 9 July 1968, the liberation flag was waving from the flag pole at Ta Con [Khe Sanh] airfield. On July 13, 1968, Ho Chi Minh sent a message to the soldiers of the Route 9Khe Sanh Front affirming our victory at Khe Sanh.. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. In the coming days, a campaign headquarters was established around Sap Lit. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. [96], The Marines at Khe Sanh had a plan in place for providing a ground relief force in just such a contingency, but Lownds, fearing a PAVN ambush, refused to implement it. After a ten-day battle, the attackers were pushed back into Cambodia. This, however, did not prevent the Marine tanks within the perimeter from training their guns on the SOG camp. They attacked 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. McNamara's thinking may have also been affected by his aide David Morrisroe, whose brother Michael Morrisroe was serving at the base. Battle of Khe Sanh : American Casualties We have 535 casualty profiles listed in our archive. As a result, "B-52 Arc Light strikes originating in Guam, Okinawa, and Thailand bombed the jungles surrounding Khe Sanh into stubble fields" and Khe Sanh became the major news headline coming out of Vietnam in late March 1968. The launching of the largest enemy offensive thus far in the conflict did not shift Westmoreland's focus away from Khe Sanh. For some unknown reason, the PAVN troops did not press their advantage and eliminate the pocket, instead throwing a steady stream of grenades at the Marines. From the Hu site the communication signal was sent to Danang headquarters where it could be sent anywhere in the world. [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. The latest microwave/tropospheric scatter technology enabled them to maintain communications at all times. As a result of this intelligence, KSCB was reinforced on 22 January 1968 by the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment. The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. Strategically, however, the withdrawal meant little. It was the only time Americans abandoned a major combat base because of enemy pressure. 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. The United States and its South Vietnamese allies pulled many huge offensive . 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. Its main objectives were to inflict casualties on US troops and to isolate them in the remote border regions. [70] Regardless, the SOG reconnaissance teams kept patrolling, providing the only human intelligence available in the battle area. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. [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. Background [ edit] Taking a larger but more realistic view, the Khe Sanh campaign resulted in a death toll of American military personnel that approached 1,000. Since the Marines on board were not yet officially attached to the 26th Marine Regiment, their deaths were not included in the official Khe Sanh count, nor were the several other deaths associated with aircraft crashes. "[155], According to military historian Ronald Spector, to reasonably record the fighting at Khe Sanh as an American victory is impossible. Battle of Khe Sanh: American Casualties : Showing All Results. 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. No logic was apparent to them behind the sustained PAVN/VC offensives other than to inflict casualties on the allied forces. [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. Unlike the Marines killed in the same place in January, since Operation Scotland had ended, the four Lima Company Marines who died in this attack on Hill 881 North were excluded from the official statistics. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! An additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II as of the end of June 1968. Then, on the morning of 6 February, the PAVN fired mortars into the Lang Vei compound, wounding eight Camp Strike Force soldiers. New material will be added to that page through the end of 2018. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. [146] Useful equipment was withdrawn or destroyed, and personnel were evacuated. 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 Battle of la Drang was considered essential because it sets up a change of tactics for both troops during the conflict. 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. 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). [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 relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . The Marines withdrew all salvageable material and destroyed everything else. [142], Lownds and the 26th Marines departed Khe Sanh, leaving the defense of the base to the 1st Marine Regiment. Cushman, the new III MAF commander, supported Westmoreland perhaps because he wanted to mend Army/Marine relations after the departure of Walt. The attacks hindered the advancement of the McNamara Line, and as the fighting around Khe Sanh intensified, vital equipment including sensors and other hardware had to be diverted from elsewhere to meet the needs of the US garrison at Khe Sanh. [138] At 08:00 on 15 April, Operation Pegasus was officially terminated. 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 most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. Things heated up for the air cavalrymen on 6 April, when the 3rd Brigade encountered a PAVN blocking force and fought a day-long engagement. On April 15, Operation Pegasus ended and Operation Scotland II began. At least 852 PAVN soldiers were killed during the action, as opposed to 50 American and South Vietnamese. The new anchor base was established at Ca Lu, a few miles down Route 9 to the east. 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. 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 Laotians were overrun, and many fled to the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. [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. The strike wounded two more Strike Force soldiers and damaged two bunkers. SOG Reconnaissance teams also reported finding tank tracks in the area surrounding Co Roc mountain. 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. 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. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. On the afternoon of 29 January, however, the 3rd Marine Division notified Khe Sanh that the truce had been cancelled. [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. [121] Casualties from the bombardment were 10 killed and 51 wounded. 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. [21], The fighting at Khe Sanh was so volatile that the Joint Chiefs and MACV commanders were uncertain that the base could be held by the Marines. [107] The greatest impediments to the delivery of supplies to the base were the closure of Route 9 and the winter monsoon weather. The microwave/tropo site was located in an underground bunker next to the airstrip. Home > Features > Battle of Khe Sanh > View All. [140] Operation Scotland II would continue until 28 February 1969 resulting in 435 Marines and 3304 PAVN killed. Later, the 1/1 Marines and 3rd ARVN Airborne Task Force (the 3rd, 6th, and 8th Airborne Battalions) would join the operation. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. [125] On the night of 28 February, the combat base unleashed artillery and airstrikes on possible PAVN staging areas and routes of advance. [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. This range overmatch was used by the PAVN to avoid counter-battery fire. The Marines suffered 155 killed in action and 425 wounded. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. [139] The 11th Engineers proclaimed Route 9 open to traffic on 11 April. He subsequently ordered the US military to hold Khe Sanh at all costs. This caused problems for the Marine command, which possessed its own aviation squadrons that operated under their own close air support doctrine. Click to View Online Archive The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted northwestern Quaag Tri Province, South Vietnam, between January 21 and July 9, 1968 during the Vietnam War. [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. 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. The lossesindicating that the enemy suffered a major defeatwere estimated at 3,550 KIA inflicted by delivered fires (i.e., aerial and artillery bombardment) and 2,000 KIA from ground action, for a total of 5,550 estimated North Vietnamese killed in action as of March 31. On that day, Tolson ordered his unit to immediately make preparations for Operation Delaware, an air assault into the A Shau Valley. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. Amid heavy shelling, the Marines attempted to salvage what they could before destroying what remained as they were evacuated. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. 535 Results : page 1 of 54.
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