7/3/2023 0 Comments Tank battles in vietnam![]() The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.”Īs 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. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: “We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled “Victory at Khe Sanh,” reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. ![]() According to the official Marine Corps history of the battle, total fatalities for Operation Scotland were “205 friendly KIA.” The Marines recorded an actual body count of 1,602 NVA killed but estimated the total NVA dead at between 10,000 and 15,000. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. Joseph Seymoe and other soldiers died when their helicopter was attacked. That afternoon, as a rescue force was dispatched to the village, Army Lt. Army MACV advisers and Marines attached to a Combined Action Company platoon. This fighting was heavy, involving South Vietnamese militia as well as U.S. At about 0640 hours the NVA 7th Battalion, 66th Regiment, 304th Division, attacked the Huong Hoa District headquarters in Khe Sanh village. About two hours later, an NVA artillery barrage scored a hit on the main ammunition dump at Khe Sanh Combat Base, killing Lance Corp. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. At 0330 hours, soldiers of the NVA 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 325C Division, attacked the Marines on Hill 861. the nva attack khe sanh combat baseĭuring the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. Because of washed-out bridges and heavy enemy activity, however, the only way for Americans to get to Khe Sanh was by helicopter or airplane. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting.īy the middle of January 1968, some 6,000 Marines and Army troops occupied the Khe Sanh Combat Base and its surrounding positions. The Marine Corps casualty reporting system was based on named operations and not geographic location. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. These forces, including support troops, totaled 20,000 to 30,000. The next operations were named Crockett and Ardmore.īeginning 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. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. By early 1967, the Marine position was reinforced to regimental strength. In 1966 the Marines built a base adjacent to the Army position, and organized their combat activities around named operations. 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.Īrmy and Navy Pilots Joined Together in a Day of Duels Over Vietnam Military Command–Vietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. Khe Sanh is a village located near the Laotian border and just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. If a battle tallied a sufficiently favorable body count ratio, American commanders declared victory, as they did after Khe Sanh. ![]() The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. In an unconventional war without conventional frontlines, statistics became the most critical measure of progress. 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. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Victory in Vietnam - or Worst Defeat? Close
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