The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. But only by checking my service record while writing this article did it become evident that I had participated in all three operations. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. [137] Opposition from the North Vietnamese was light and the primary problem that hampered the advance was continual heavy morning cloud cover that slowed the pace of helicopter operations. Khe Sanh had long been responsible for the defense of Lang Vei. 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. Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. The site was first established near the village and later moved to the French fort. However, even if Westmoreland believed his statement, his argument never moved on to the next logical level. Battle of Khe Sanh : American Casualties We have 535 casualty profiles listed in our archive. The official, public estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 North Vietnamese KIA stands in contrast to another estimate made by the American military. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, with two . "[52], Brigadier General Lowell English (assistant commander 3rd Marine Division) complained that the defense of the isolated outpost was ludicrous: "When you're at Khe Sanh, you're not really anywhere. See also Pisor, p. 108. [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. 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. [133] The Marines would be accompanied by their 11th Engineer Battalion, which would repair the road as the advance moved forward. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. [82], By the end of the battle, USAF assets had flown 9,691 tactical sorties and dropped 14,223tons of bombs on targets within the Khe Sanh area. [74], During January, the recently installed electronic sensors of Operation Muscle Shoals (later renamed "Igloo White"), which were undergoing test and evaluation in southeastern Laos, were alerted by a flurry of PAVN activity along the Ho Chi Minh Trail opposite the northwestern corner of South Vietnam. No logic was apparent to them behind the sustained PAVN/VC offensives other than to inflict casualties on the allied forces. [100][Note 6], Lownds infuriated the Special Forces personnel even further when the indigenous survivors of Lang Vei, their families, civilian refugees from the area, and Laotian survivors from the camp at Ban Houei Sane arrived at the gate of KSCB. At 00:30 on 21 January, Hill 861 was attacked by about 300 PAVN troops, the Marines, however, were prepared. It was a bad beginning to a long 77-day siege. The assault began on 10 May 1969 w ith the 101st Airborne Division and troops of the 9th M arine Regiment, the 5 th Cavalry Regiment, and the 3 rd ARVN Regiment. Fighting around Khe Sanh was continuous. [55] They were supported logistically from the nearby Ho Chi Minh Trail. [25], In the winter of 1964, Khe Sanh became the location of a launch site for the highly-classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group. The tower at Khe Sanh instructed the pilot to take evasive action and go around for another approach. They too were left out of the official Khe Sanh casualty count. This is the battles end date from the North Vietnamese perspective. Of the 4953 Navy and Air Force casualties, both officer and enlisted, 4, 736 or 96% were white. Hernandez was killed. [140] Operation Scotland II would continue until 28 February 1969 resulting in 435 Marines and 3304 PAVN killed. A Look at the Damage from the Secret War in Laos, How Operation Homecoming Was Sprung into Action to Repatriate American POWs, The Viet Cong Were Shooting Down Americans From a Cave Until This GI Stopped Them, https://www.historynet.com/recounting-the-casualties-at-the-deadly-battle-of-khe-sanh/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. The ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. A press release prepared on the following day (but never issued), at the height of Tet, showed that he was not about to be distracted. [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. "[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. [66] Hours after the bombardment ceased, the base was still in danger. American logistical, aerial, and artillery support was provided to the operation. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. Seven miles west of Khe Sanh on Route 9, and about halfway to the Laotian border, sat the U.S. Army Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. [1] He goes on to state that a further 72 were killed as part Operation Scotland II throughout the remainder of the year, but that these deaths are not included in the official US casualty lists for the Battle of Khe Sanh. For most of the battle, low-lying clouds and fog enclosed the area from early morning until around noon, and poor visibility severely hampered aerial resupply. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. Its mission was to destroy the Special Forces and their Vietnamese allies and to ambush any reinforcements coming from Khe Sanh. And it had accomplished its purpose magnificently. The site linked to another microwave/tropo site in Hu manned by the 513th Signal Detachment. MACV therefore initiated an operation to open Route 9 to vehicle traffic. [125] The 325C Divisional Headquarters was the first to leave, followed by the 95C and 101D Regiments, all of which relocated to the west. By the end of January 1968, he had moved half of all US combat troops, nearly 50 maneuver battalions, to I Corps. 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. The Marine Corps casualty reporting system was based on named operations and not geographic location. Following a rolling barrage fired by nine artillery batteries, the Marine attack advanced through two PAVN trenchlines, but the Marines failed to locate the remains of the men of the ambushed patrol. On the afternoon of 29 January, however, the 3rd Marine Division notified Khe Sanh that the truce had been cancelled. [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. North Vietnamese Army gained control of the Khe Sanh region after the American withdrawal. Enemy artillery rounds slammed into the runway. [42], In the wake of the hill fights, a lull in PAVN activity occurred around Khe Sanh. Two Marines died. Free shipping for many products! In 1966 the Marines built a base adjacent to the Army position, and organized their combat activities around named operations. The PAVN would try to take Khe Sanh, but if could not, it would occupy the attention of as many American and South Vietnamese forces in I Corps as it could, which would facilitate the Tet Offensive. [118], On the night of the fall of Lang Vei, three companies of the PAVN 101D Regiment moved into jump-off positions to attack Alpha-1, an outpost west of the Combat Base held by 66 men of Company A, 1st Platoon, 1/9 Marines. Even so, Westmoreland insisted for it not only to be occupied by the Marines but also for it to be reinforced. By the end of May, Marine forces were again drawn down from two battalions to one, the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. 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. This is also the position taken in the official PAVN history but offers no further explanation of the strategy. The next operations were named Crockett and Ardmore. [104] Ladd, back on the scene, reported that the Marines stated, "they couldn't trust any gooks in their damn camp. Whether the destruction of one battalion could have been the goal of two to four PAVN divisions was debatable. 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 latest microwave/tropospheric scatter technology enabled them to maintain communications at all times. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. At 1530 hours the first C-123, with 44 passengers and a crew of five, began to land. "[24] In November 1964, the Special Forces moved their camp to the Xom Cham Plateau, the future site of Khe Sanh Combat Base. Less likely to be mentioned is the final high-casualty engagement between units of the U.S. infantry and the North Vietnamese Army. 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. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. This marked the first time that all three battalions of the 26th Marine Regiment had operated together in combat since the Battle of Iwo Jima during the Second World War. [43] Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman Jr. relieved Walt as commander of III MAF in June. That did not mean, however, that battle was over. Battle of la Drang Valley (26 October - 27 . Operation Pegasus, begun the day after Scotland ended, lasted until April 15. 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. [31] Mortar rounds, artillery shells, and 122mm rockets fell randomly but incessantly upon the base. Since the official duration of the battle ends even earlier than the termination of the siege itself, a wider definition of the Khe Sanh battlefield to include Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II also seems reasonable. The heavy reliance on American airpower was an ominous sign for Vietnamization and . [123][124], Nevertheless, the same day that the trenches were detected, 25 February, 3rd Platoon from Bravo Company 1st Battalion, 26th Marines was ambushed on a short patrol outside the base's perimeter to test the PAVN strength. Tolson was not happy with the assignment, since he believed that the best course of action, after Tet, was to use his division in an attack into the A Shau Valley. 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. 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. Let me caution everyone not to be confused. [24], The plateau camp was permanently manned by the US Marines in 1967, when they established an outpost next to the airstrip. [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. An additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II as of the end of June 1968. Five more attacks against their sector were launched during March. On 18 January, Westmoreland passed his request for Air Force control up the chain of command to CINCPAC in Honolulu. Of the 500 CIDG troops at Lang Vei, 200 had been killed or were missing and 75 more were wounded. On April 15, Operation Pegasus ended and Operation Scotland II began. [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. PAVN forces were driven out of the area around Khe Sanh after suffering 940 casualties. 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. The Battle of Khe Sanh took place between January 21 and July 9, 1968; however, most of the official statistics provided pertain only to Operation Scotland, which ended on March 31, or to the 77-day period beginning what is classified as the Siege of Khe Sanh, where the 26th Marines were pinned down until Operations Niagara, and Pegasus freed . [12], Following the closure of the base, a small force of Marines remained around Hill 689 carrying out mopping-up operations. [79] On an average day, 350 tactical fighter-bombers, 60 B-52s, and 30 light observation or reconnaissance aircraft operated in the skies near the base. Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January - 9 April 1968) Max Hastings wrote a bestseller on Vietnam, and Dan met him to discuss Domino theory, whether it was possible for the US to win the war and the effect the war had on those who fought in it. In the course of the fighting, Allied forces fired 151,000 artillery rounds, flew 2,096 tactical air sorties, and conducted 257 B-52 Stratofortress strikes. By late January 1967, the 1/3 returned to Japan and was relieved by Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (1/9 Marines). "[97], Ladd and the commander of the SOG compound (whose men and camp had been incorporated into the defenses of KSCB) proposed that, if the Marines would provide the helicopters, the SOG reconnaissance men would go in themselves to pick up any survivors. Once the aircraft touched down, it became the target of any number of PAVN artillery or mortar crews. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! 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. [93] At 18:10 hours, the PAVN followed up their morning mortar attack with an artillery strike from 152mm howitzers, firing 60 rounds into the camp. Its main objectives were to inflict casualties on US troops and to isolate them in the remote border regions. Naval aircrews, many of whom were redirected from Operation Rolling Thunder strikes against North Vietnam, flew 5,337 sorties and dropped 7,941 tons of ordnance in the area. During the course of the siege, the U.S. Air Force dropped five tons of bombs for each of the estimated 20,000 attacking NVA troops. 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. You could lose it and you really haven't lost a damn thing. [37] He was vociferously opposed by General Lewis W. Walt, the Marine commander of I Corps, who argued heatedly that the real target of the American effort should be the pacification and protection of the population, not chasing the PAVN/VC in the hinterlands. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. 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. "[160] That has led other observers to conclude that the siege served a wider PAVN strategy by diverting 30,000 US troops away from the cities that were the main targets of the Tet Offensive. 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. Officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. The Marines claimed 115 PAVN killed, while their own casualties amounted to 10 dead, 100 wounded, and two missing. [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. [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. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. After its adoption, Marine helicopters flew in 465 tons of supplies during February. The Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. [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. [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. For example, I served with a Marine heavy mortar battery at Khe Sanh during the siege. The village of Khe Sanh was the seat of government of Hng Hoa district, an area of Bru Montagnard villages and coffee plantations about 7 miles (11km) from the Laotian frontier on Route 9, the northernmost transverse road in South Vietnam. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. However, North Vietnamese sources claim that the Americans did not win a victory at Khe Sanh but were forced to retreat to avoid destruction. [140] Total US casualties during the operation were 92 killed, 667 wounded, and five missing. These combined sources report a total of 354 KIA. [139] The 11th Engineers proclaimed Route 9 open to traffic on 11 April. newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. Lownds also rejected a proposal to launch a helicopter extraction of the survivors. Shortly after midnight on February 7, a large NVA force, reinforced with tanks, attacked the camp. While climbing, the C-123 was struck by several bursts of heavy machine gun and recoilless rifle fire. 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. Nevertheless, the US commander during the battle, General William Westmoreland, maintained that the true intention of Tet was to distract forces from Khe Sanh. SOG Reconnaissance teams also reported finding tank tracks in the area surrounding Co Roc mountain. 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. "[149], While KSCB was abandoned, the Marines continued to patrol the Khe Sanh plateau, including reoccupying the area with ARVN forces from 519 October 1968 with minimal opposition. Sporadic actions were taken in the vicinity during the late summer and early fall, the most serious of which was the ambush of a supply convoy on Route 9. The distinctions between Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II, while important from the command perspective, were not necessarily apparent to individual Marines. [35], American intelligence analysts were quite baffled by the series of enemy actions. On 8 February 1971, the leading ARVN units marched along Route 9 into southern Laos while the US ground forces and advisers were prohibited from entering Laos. [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] At 07:40, a relief force from Company A, 2nd Platoon set out from the main base and attacked through the PAVN, pushing them into supporting tank and artillery fire. The Siege of Khe Sanh. How many American soldiers died in the Battle of Ia Drang? Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. [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. At around 10:00, the fire ignited a large quantity of explosives, rocking the base with another series of detonations. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. 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. The fire of PAVN antiaircraft units took its toll of helicopters that made the attempt. Armies and Commanders Allies General William Westmoreland Colonel David Lownds Approx. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. When the weather later cleared in March, the amount was increased to 40 tons per day. [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. Due to severe losses, however, the NVA abandoned its plan for a massive ground attack. [45] In December and early January, numerous sightings of PAVN troops and activities were made in the Khe Sanh area, but the sector remained relatively quiet.[46]. The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. They attacked 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. Just days before, as the Army of the . [70] Regardless, the SOG reconnaissance teams kept patrolling, providing the only human intelligence available in the battle area. 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.

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