In fact, neither side won a resounding victory. [12] With the abandonment of the base, according to Thomas Ricks, "Khe Sanh became etched in the minds of many Americans as a symbol of the pointless sacrifice and muddled tactics that permeated a doomed U.S. war effort in Vietnam". If a battle tallied a sufficiently favorable body count ratio, American commanders declared victory, as they did after Khe Sanh. [161], Whether the PAVN actually planned to capture Khe Sanh or the battle was an attempt to replicate the Vit Minh triumph against the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu has long been a point of contention. The Marines suffered 155 killed in action and 425 wounded. You could lose it and you really haven't lost a damn thing. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. On 18 January, Westmoreland passed his request for Air Force control up the chain of command to CINCPAC in Honolulu. On July 11, the Marines finally left Khe Sanh. Westmoreland had been forwarding operational plans for an invasion of Laos since 1966. [88] Westmoreland was so obsessed with the tactical situation that he threatened to resign if his wishes were not obeyed. The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. They were not included in the official Khe Sanh counts. That proved to be the last overland attempt at resupply for Khe Sanh until the following March. [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. [29], During the second half of 1967, the North Vietnamese instigated a series of actions in the border regions of South Vietnam. The Marines found a solution to the problem in the "Super Gaggle" concept. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. [27][28] The Marines' defensive system stretched below the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the coast, along Route 9, to Khe Sanh. [95], It still came as a shock to the Special Forces troopers at Lang Vei when 12 tanks attacked their camp. The Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January 9 July 1968) was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Qung Tr Province, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), during the Vietnam War. In an unconventional war without conventional frontlines, statistics became the most critical measure of progress. The Tet Offensive was about to begin. For a succinct overview of the creation of the CIDG program and its operations. Ho Chi Minhs oft-quoted admonition to the French applied equally to the Americans: You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win. The calculation by Stubbe that approximately 1,000 Americans died on the Khe Sanh battlefield is especially compelling, given that Stubbes numbers are accompanied by names and dates of death. [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. U.S. reconnaissance forces continued to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. But only by checking my service record while writing this article did it become evident that I had participated in all three operations. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. 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 site was first established near the village and later moved to the French fort. A single company replaced an entire battalion. [25], Marino stated that "by 1966, Westmoreland had begun to consider Khe Sanh as part of a larger strategy." [77] When weather conditions precluded FAC-directed strikes, the bombers were directed to their targets by either a Marine AN/TPQ-10 radar installation at KSCB or by Air Force Combat Skyspot MSQ-77 stations. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. Later, the 1/1 Marines and 3rd ARVN Airborne Task Force (the 3rd, 6th, and 8th Airborne Battalions) would join the operation. Additionally, the logistical effort required to support the base once it was isolated demanded the implementation of other tactical innovations to keep the Marines supplied. [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. The adoption of this concept at the end of February was the turning point in the resupply effort. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. As journalist Robert Pisor pointed out in his 1982 book, The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh, no other battle of the entire war produced a better body count or kill ratio than that claimed by the Americans at Khe Sanh. [93], The situation changed radically during the early morning hours of 7 February. Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. In 1966 the Marines built a base adjacent to the Army position, and organized their combat activities around named operations. [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]. 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. On June 28, a Communist spokesman claimed the Americans had been forced to retreat and that Khe Sanh was the gravest tactical and strategic defeat for the U.S. in the war. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. 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. [70] The Marines and ARVN dug in and hoped that the approaching Tt truce (scheduled for 2931 January) would provide some respite. NVA casualties were more than 200. PAVN forces were driven out of the area around Khe Sanh after suffering 940 casualties. [47][Note 3] Westmoreland regarded the choice as quite simple. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, as many as 30,000 Communist Vietnamese forces surrounded roughly 6,000 U.S. marines defending a combat base on .. Week of February 21 The site linked to another microwave/tropo site in Hu manned by the 513th Signal Detachment. By the end of January 1968, he had moved half of all US combat troops, nearly 50 maneuver battalions, to I Corps. 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. 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. Senior Marine Corps General Victor Krulak agreed, noting on May 13 that the Marines had defeated the North Vietnamese and won the battle of Khe Sanh. Over time, these KIA figures have been accepted by historians. 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. They fixed the attention of the American command on the border regions, and they drew American and ARVN forces away from the coastal lowlands and cities in preparation for the Tet Offensive. The fighting was heavy. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. After failing to respond to a challenge, they were fired upon and five were killed outright while the sixth, although wounded, escaped. [97] During a meeting at Da Nang at 07:00 the next morning, Westmoreland and Cushman accepted Lownds' decision. Battle of la Drang Valley (26 October - 27 . [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. 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. [121] Casualties from the bombardment were 10 killed and 51 wounded. 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 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. [120], On 23 February, KSCB received its worst bombardment of the entire battle. Battle of Khe Sanh 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. [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. Battle of Khe Sanh: American Casualties : Showing All Results. In his memoirs, he listed the reasons for a continued effort: Khe Sanh could serve as a patrol base for blocking enemy infiltration from Laos along Route 9; as a base for SOG operations to harass the enemy in Laos; as an airstrip for reconnaissance planes surveying the Ho Chi Minh Trail; as the western anchor for defenses south of the DMZ; and as an eventual jump-off point for ground operations to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [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. He has published over 20 books including: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere. 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. The Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. To support the Marine base, a massive aerial bombardment campaign (Operation Niagara) was launched by the USAF. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July.