[98] The Marines continued to oppose the operation until Westmoreland actually had to issue an order to Cushman to allow the rescue operation to proceed. [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. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. After a ten-day battle, the attackers were pushed back into Cambodia. 6,000 men North Vietnamese Vo Nguyen Giap Tran Quy Hai Approx. 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. Westmoreland was replaced two months after the end of the battle, and his successor explained the retreat in different ways. Then, on the morning of 6 February, the PAVN fired mortars into the Lang Vei compound, wounding eight Camp Strike Force soldiers. [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. The Battle of la Drang was considered essential because it sets up a change of tactics for both troops during the conflict. The official, public estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 North Vietnamese KIA stands in contrast to another estimate made by the American military. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. 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. Westmoreland believed that the latter was the case, and his belief was the basis for his desire to stage "Dien Bien Phu in reverse. 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 September bombardments ranged from 100 to 150 rounds per day, with a maximum on 25 September of 1,190 rounds. 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. According to Gordon Rottman, even the North Vietnamese official history, Victory in Vietnam, is largely silent on the issue. By the end of May, Marine forces were again drawn down from two battalions to one, the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. What is the 25th Infantry known for? The PAVN infantry, though bracketed by artillery fire, still managed to penetrate the perimeter of the defenses and were only driven back after severe close-quarters combat. U.S. battles of the war in Vietnam had young GIs or Marines humping into the boonies in search of the enemy. [75], Niagara I was completed during the third week of January, and the next phase, Niagara II, was launched on the 21st,[76] the day of the first PAVN artillery barrage. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. Marine Corps aviators had flown 7,098 missions and released 17,015tons. The Marines claimed 115 PAVN killed, while their own casualties amounted to 10 dead, 100 wounded, and two missing. 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. Five days later, the final reinforcements arrived in the form of the 37th ARVN Ranger Battalion, which was deployed more for political than tactical reasons. The Laotians were overrun, and many fled to the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . [21][68], To eliminate any threat to their flank, the PAVN attacked Laotian Battalion BV-33, located at Ban Houei Sane, on Route 9 in Laos. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. By the middle of January 1968, some 6,000 Marines and Army troops occupied the Khe Sanh Combat Base and its surrounding positions. 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. [71][72], Nine days before the Tet Offensive broke out, the PAVN opened the battle of Khe Sanh and attacked the US forces just south of the DMZ. 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. It reveals that the nuclear option was discounted because of terrain considerations that were unique to South Vietnam, which would have reduced the effectiveness of tactical nuclear weapons. That was superseded by the smaller contingency plans. The latest microwave/tropospheric scatter technology enabled them to maintain communications at all times. [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. 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. 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. [38], Westmoreland won out, however, and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment (1/3 Marines) was dispatched to occupy the camp and airstrip on 29 September. [22] The camp then became a Special Forces outpost of the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, which were to keep watch on PAVN infiltration along the border and to protect the local population. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. [69] Due to the arrival of the 304th Division, KSCB was further reinforced by the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment on 22 January. Additionally, Shore argued that the "weather was another critical factor because the poor visibility and low overcasts attendant to the monsoon season made such operations hazardous. [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. The Battle of Ban Houei Sane, not the attack three weeks later at Lang Vei, marked the first time that the PAVN had committed an armored unit to battle. As a result, 65% of all supplies were delivered by paradrops delivered by C-130 aircraft, mostly by the USAF, whose crews had significantly more experience in airdrop tactics than Marine air crews. That appraisal was later altered when the PAVN was found to be moving major forces into the area. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. Declassified documents show that in response, Westmoreland considered using nuclear weapons. Battle of Khe Sanh: American Casualties : Showing All Results. 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. 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. [33] The PAVN fought for several days, took casualties, and fell back. [143][144], On 15 April, the 3rd Marine Division resumed responsibility for KSCB, Operation Pegasus ended, and Operation Scotland II began with the Marines seeking out the PAVN in the surrounding area. 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. The badly-deteriorated Route 9 ran from the coastal region through the western highlands and crossed the border into Laos. A 77 day battle, Khe Sanh had been the biggest single battle of the Vietnam War to that point. In response, US forces were built up before the PAVN isolated the Marine base. 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. [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. Later, the 1/1 Marines and 3rd ARVN Airborne Task Force (the 3rd, 6th, and 8th Airborne Battalions) would join the operation. From the Hu site the communication signal was sent to Danang headquarters where it could be sent anywhere in the world. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. At the same time, the 304th Division withdrew to the southwest. [140] Total US casualties during the operation were 92 killed, 667 wounded, and five missing. 129131. [138] At 08:00 on 15 April, Operation Pegasus was officially terminated. 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. [36], Things remained quiet in the Khe Sanh area through 1966. [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. The North Vietnamese lost as many as 15,000 casualties during the siege of Khe Sanh. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. The Marines pursued three enemy scouts, who led them into an ambush. [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. [78], Thus began what was described by John Morocco as "the most concentrated application of aerial firepower in the history of warfare". Thirty-three ARVN troops were also killed and 187 were wounded. [95], It still came as a shock to the Special Forces troopers at Lang Vei when 12 tanks attacked their camp. Route 9, the only practical overland route from the east, was impassable due to its poor state of repair and the presence of PAVN troops. A limited attack was made by a PAVN company on 1 July, falling on a company from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, who were holding a position 3km to the southeast of the base. [33], The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. 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 launching of the largest enemy offensive thus far in the conflict did not shift Westmoreland's focus away from Khe Sanh. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. The next operations were named Crockett and Ardmore. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. [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. Amid heavy shelling, the Marines attempted to salvage what they could before destroying what remained as they were evacuated. No logic was apparent to them behind the sustained PAVN/VC offensives other than to inflict casualties on the allied forces. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. [81] The sensors were implanted by a special naval squadron, Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67). The attack was to have been supported by armor and artillery. The explanations given out by the Saigon command were that "the enemy had changed his tactics and reduced his forces; that PAVN had carved out new infiltration routes; that the Marines now had enough troops and helicopters to carry out mobile operations; that a fixed base was no longer necessary. The adoption of this concept at the end of February was the turning point in the resupply effort. As early as 1962, the U.S. Military CommandVietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. "[84], Meanwhile, an interservice political struggle took place in the headquarters at Phu Bai Combat Base, Saigon, and the Pentagon over who should control aviation assets supporting the entire American effort in Southeast Asia. [166] This view was supported by a captured North Vietnamese study of the battle in 1974 that stated that the PAVN would have taken Khe Sanh if it could have done so, but there was a limit to the price that it would pay. At 1530 hours the first C-123, with 44 passengers and a crew of five, began to land. By comparison, according to another Army general, a 10:1 ratio was considered average and 25:1 was considered very good. They were not included in the official Khe Sanh counts. [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. He subsequently ordered the US military to hold Khe Sanh at all costs. 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] Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. Once the aircraft touched down, it became the target of any number of PAVN artillery or mortar crews. [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. Minor attacks continued before the base was officially closed on 5 July. "[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. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. After its adoption, Marine helicopters flew in 465 tons of supplies during February. [42], In the wake of the hill fights, a lull in PAVN activity occurred around Khe Sanh. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. Due to severe losses, however, the NVA abandoned its plan for a massive ground attack. 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. That did not mean, however, that battle was over. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except Khe Sanh. 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. In the 43-day . It was later renamed "Dye Marker" by MACV in September 1967, just as the PAVN began the first phase of their offensive by launching attacks against Marine-held positions across the DMZ. Both sides suffered major casualties with both claiming victory of their own. [94] Although the PAVN was known to possess two armored regiments, it had not yet fielded an armored unit in South Vietnam, and besides, the Americans considered it impossible for them to get one down to Khe Sanh without it being spotted by aerial reconnaissance. 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. "[106] At the end of January, Tompkins had ordered that no Marine patrols proceed more than 500 meters from the Combat Base. With Khe Sanh facing a full-scale. Operational control of the Khe Sanh area was handed over to the US Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division for the duration of Operation Pegasus. The presence of the PAVN 1st Division prompted a 22-day battle there and had some of the most intense close-quarters fighting of the entire conflict. North Vietnamese Army gained control of the Khe Sanh region after the American withdrawal. [107] The greatest impediments to the delivery of supplies to the base were the closure of Route 9 and the winter monsoon weather. Of the 500 CIDG troops at Lang Vei, 200 had been killed or were missing and 75 more were wounded. Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. On that day, Tolson ordered his unit to immediately make preparations for Operation Delaware, an air assault into the A Shau Valley. Aug 23, 2013. The border battles, however, had two significant consequences, which were unappreciated at the time. Military History Institute of Vietnam, p. 222. [20] These figures do not include casualties among Special Forces troops at Lang Vei, aircrews killed or missing in the area, or Marine replacements killed or wounded while entering or exiting the base aboard aircraft. The PAVN claim that during the entire battle they "eliminated" 17,000 enemy troops, including 13,000 Americans and destroyed 480 aircraft. Two Marines died. . And it had accomplished its purpose magnificently. A group of 12 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers provided flak suppression for massed flights of 1216 helicopters, which would resupply the hills simultaneously. 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. The exact number of casualties suffered by both sides during the Khe Sanh battle is very difficult to ascertain, given that in many cases the two warring factions provided their own disparate counts. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 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 monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. Background [ edit] The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. Casualties were heavy among the attacking PAVN, who lost over 200 killed, while the defending Marines lost two men. . Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. It claimed, however, that only three American advisors were killed during the action. [127] At 08:00 the following day, Operation Scotland was officially terminated.
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