[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. If firepower determined the outcome of the fight, it was airlift that allowed the defenders to hold their positions. The 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (2/1 Marines) and the 2/3 Marines would launch a ground assault from Ca Lu Combat Base (16km east of Khe Sanh) and head west on Route 9 while the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades of the 1st Cavalry Division, would air-assault key terrain features along Route 9 to establish fire support bases and cover the Marine advance. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. The PAVN claim that during the entire battle they "eliminated" 17,000 enemy troops, including 13,000 Americans and destroyed 480 aircraft. [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. Battle of Dak To in the Vietnam War - ThoughtCo 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. One of the first enemy shells set off an explosion in the main ammunition dump. He subsequently ordered the US military to hold Khe Sanh at all costs. [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. Cushman was appalled by the "implication of a rescue or breaking of the siege by outside forces. "[73], Nevertheless, ultimately the nuclear option was discounted by military planners. "[24] In November 1964, the Special Forces moved their camp to the Xom Cham Plateau, the future site of Khe Sanh Combat Base. 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. Military History Institute of Vietnam, p. 222. Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the war's most famous siege, a 77-day struggle for a rain-swept plateau in central Vietnam that riveted the U.S. in 1968, and opened a year of . [125] On the night of 28 February, the combat base unleashed artillery and airstrikes on possible PAVN staging areas and routes of advance. Aug 23, 2013. Operation Pegasus casualties included 59 U.S. Army and 51 Marine Corps dead. Home > Features > Battle of Khe Sanh > View All. Casualties were heavy among the attacking PAVN, who lost over 200 killed, while the defending Marines lost two men. [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. [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. Then, on the morning of 6 February, the PAVN fired mortars into the Lang Vei compound, wounding eight Camp Strike Force soldiers. [39], On 24 April 1967, a patrol from Bravo Company became engaged with a PAVN force of an unknown size north of Hill 861. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. That proved to be the last overland attempt at resupply for Khe Sanh until the following March. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. PAVN forces were driven out of the area around Khe Sanh after suffering 940 casualties. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Battle of Khe Sanh begins - HISTORY [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. In the coming days, a campaign headquarters was established around Sap Lit. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. Marine Khe Sanh veteran Peter Brush is Vietnam Magazines book review editor. Although the camp's main defenses were overrun in only 13 minutes, the fighting lasted for several hours, during which the Special Forces men and Bru CIDGs managed to knock out at least five of the tanks. Battle of Khe Sanh : American Casualties We have 535 casualty profiles listed in our archive. 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. 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. [75] On 22 January, the first sensor drops took place, and by the end of the month, 316 acoustic and seismic sensors had been dropped in 44 strings. Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. Name State Date War Branch; 1: Steven Glenn Abbott . A decision then had to be made by the American high command to commit more of the limited manpower in I Corps to the defense of Khe Sanh or to abandon the base. 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. Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. In March 1968, an overland relief expedition (Operation Pegasus) was launched by a combined MarineArmy/ARVN task force that eventually broke through to the Marines at Khe Sanh. This time period does not particularly coincide with the fighting; rather, it dates from before the siege began and terminates before the siege (and the fighting) ended. U.S. reconnaissance forces continued to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. By the end of May, Marine forces were again drawn down from two battalions to one, the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. [90], The Tet Offensive was launched prematurely in some areas on 30 January. In the US, the media following the battle drew comparisons with the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which proved disastrous for the French. McNamara wrote: "because of terrain and other conditions peculiar to our operations in South Vietnam, it is inconceivable that the use of nuclear weapons would be recommended there against either Viet Cong or North Vietnamese forces". "[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. They too were left out of the official Khe Sanh casualty count. [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 opportunity to engage and destroy a formerly elusive enemy that was moving toward a fixed position promised a victory of unprecedented proportions. [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. Throughout the battle, Marine artillerymen fired 158,891 mixed rounds. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. With a view to gain the eventual approval for an advance through Laos to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail, he determined that "it was absolutely essential to hold the base." What did the 25th Infantry do in Vietnam? - 2023 All of the attacks were conducted by regimental-size PAVN/VC units, but unlike most of the previous usual hit-and-run tactics, they were sustained and bloody affairs. At dawn on 21 January, it was attacked by a roughly 300-strong PAVN battalion. Even so, Westmoreland insisted for it not only to be occupied by the Marines but also for it to be reinforced. [147] The official closure of the base came on 5 July after fighting, which had killed five more Marines. The adoption of this concept at the end of February was the turning point in the resupply effort. [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. . [140] Total US casualties during the operation were 92 killed, 667 wounded, and five missing. The heavy reliance on American airpower was an ominous sign for Vietnamization and . 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. The Americans had forewarning of PAVN armor in the area from Laotian refugees from camp BV-33. 216217. [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. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. 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. [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. [105], Lownds estimated that the logistical requirements of KSCB were 60 tons per day in mid-January and rose to 185 tons per day when all five battalions were in place. Just days before, as the Army of the . 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. Battle of Khe Sanh : American Casualties : Showing All Results [153][154] The gradual withdrawal of US forces began during 1969 and the adoption of Vietnamization meant that, by 1969, "although limited tactical offensives abounded, US military participation in the war would soon be relegated to a defensive stance. [40] The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 3rd Marine Regiment, under the command of Colonel John P. Lanigan, reinforced KSCB and were given the task of pushing the PAVN off of Hills 861, 881 North, and 881 South. [134], Westmoreland's planned relief effort infuriated the Marines, who had not wanted to hold Khe Sanh in the first place and who had been roundly criticized for not defending it well. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except Khe Sanh. Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. The Battle of Khe Sanh, January 21 - April 8, 1968 - The History Reader Telfer, Rogers, and Fleming, pp. Beginning in October 1967, the Communists greatly increased their forces in the Khe Sanh area to total two infantry divisions, two artillery regiments and an armored regiment. An additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II as of the end of June 1968. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. Battle of Khe Sanh: Greatest U.S. Victory in Vietnam - HistoryNet Battle of Khe Sanh "What had been a combat base looked like rubble." A US Marine carries an American flag on his rifle during a recovery operation 6 miles south of Khe Sanh, Vietnam, June 17 . 129131. 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 Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. At 00:30 on 21 January, Hill 861 was attacked by about 300 PAVN troops, the Marines, however, were prepared.