battle of khe sanh casualties

Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. The attack on Khe Sanh, however, proved to be a diversionary tactic for the larger Tet Offensive. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. On 19 June 1968, the evacuation and destruction of KSCB began. [65] The fighting and shelling on 21 January resulted in 14 Marines killed and 43 wounded. This caused problems for the Marine command, which possessed its own aviation squadrons that operated under their own close air support doctrine. [39], On 24 April 1967, a patrol from Bravo Company became engaged with a PAVN force of an unknown size north of Hill 861. [117], Cumulative friendly casualties for Operation Scotland, which began on 1 November 1967, were: 205 killed in action, 1,668 wounded, and 25 missing and presumed dead. [35], American intelligence analysts were quite baffled by the series of enemy actions. [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. Marines stayed in the area, conducting operations to recover the bodies of Marines killed previously. Westmoreland had been forwarding operational plans for an invasion of Laos since 1966. The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. Five more attacks against their sector were launched during March. 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. After its adoption, Marine helicopters flew in 465 tons of supplies during February. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. "[91][92], Not much activity (with the exception of patrolling) had occurred thus far during the battle for the Special Forces Detachment A-101 and their four companies of Bru CIDGs stationed at Lang Vei. [139] The 11th Engineers proclaimed Route 9 open to traffic on 11 April. An additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II as of the end of June 1968. The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. The report, originally classified as secret, noted that intelligence from many sources indicated conclusively that the North Vietnamese had planned a massive ground attack against the base. Military History Institute of Vietnam, p. 222. 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. 239240. The platoon withdrew following a three-hour battle that left six Marines dead, 24 missing, and one taken prisoner. 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. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. [117], Communications with military command outside of Khe Sanh was maintained by an U.S. Army Signal Corps team, the 544th Signal Detachment from the 337th Signal Company, 37th Signal Brigade in Danang. "[73], Nevertheless, ultimately the nuclear option was discounted by military planners. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. [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. According to this history, originally classified as secret, the battle deaths for all major NVA units participating in the entire Highway 9Khe Sanh Front from January 20 until July 20, 1968, totaled 2,469. The distinctions between Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II, while important from the command perspective, were not necessarily apparent to individual Marines. The Operation Scotland tactical area of responsibility (TAOR) was limited to the area around Khe Sanh along Route 9 in western Quang Tri province. "[155], According to military historian Ronald Spector, to reasonably record the fighting at Khe Sanh as an American victory is impossible. Once the base came under siege, a series of actions were fought over a period of five months. Indeed, had enemy forces not been at Khe Sanh, they could have joined the NVA and VC who occupied Hue, a much more important strategic target. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except 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. [28], In early December 1967, the PAVN appointed Major General Tran Quy Hai as the local commander for the actions around Khe Sanh, with Le Quang Do as his political commissar. How many American soldiers died in the Battle of Ia Drang? Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh, 1967 [58] These tactics were reminiscent of those employed against the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, particularly in relation to entrenching tactics and artillery placement, and the realization assisted US planners in their targeting decisions. On June 19, 1968, another operation began at Khe Sanh, Operation Charlie, the final evacuation and destruction of the Khe Sanh Combat Base. [102], The Lao troops were eventually flown back to their homeland, but not before the Laotian regional commander remarked that his army had to "consider the South Vietnamese as enemy because of their conduct. Throughout the battle, Marine artillerymen fired 158,891 mixed rounds. On 18 January, Westmoreland passed his request for Air Force control up the chain of command to CINCPAC in Honolulu. [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. The fact that the North Vietnamese committed only about half of their available forces to the offensive (6070,000), most of whom were Viet Cong, is cited in favor of Westmoreland's argument. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. [88] Westmoreland was so obsessed with the tactical situation that he threatened to resign if his wishes were not obeyed. Armies and Commanders Allies General William Westmoreland Colonel David Lownds Approx. 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. Declassified documents show that in response, Westmoreland considered using nuclear weapons. Click to View Online Archive The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted northwestern Quaag Tri Province, South Vietnam, between January 21 and July 9, 1968 during the Vietnam War. 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 . [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. The fire of PAVN antiaircraft units took its toll of helicopters that made the attempt. [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. U.S. reconnaissance forces continued to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In 1966, the regular Special Forces troops had moved off the plateau and built a smaller camp down Route 9 at Lang Vei, about half the distance to the Laotian border. Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled Victory at Khe Sanh, reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. Listen Now. The badly-deteriorated Route 9 ran from the coastal region through the western highlands and crossed the border into Laos. The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. The United States Marines gave the actual body count of the NVA troops killed to be 1,602, but estimates show that the total number of NVA troops . As early as 1962, the U.S. Military CommandVietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. A myth has grown up around this incident. [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. 5 Major Battles of the Vietnam War | History Hit [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. The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, with two . The North Vietnamese lost as many as 15,000 casualties during the siege of Khe Sanh. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. [12], Following the closure of the base, a small force of Marines remained around Hill 689 carrying out mopping-up operations. 3% were Asian, 7 or . At least 852 PAVN soldiers were killed during the action, as opposed to 50 American and South Vietnamese. Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . 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. Battlefield:Vietnam | History A smaller slice of the action saw Americans on the receiving end, defending some firebase or outpost. [81] The sensors were implanted by a special naval squadron, Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67). Free shipping for many products! They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. 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. Of the 500 CIDG troops at Lang Vei, 200 had been killed or were missing and 75 more were wounded. As far as PAVN casualties were concerned, 1,602 bodies were counted, seven prisoners were taken, and two soldiers defected to allied forces during the operation. [119] By 11:00, the battle was over, Company A had lost 24 dead and 27 wounded, while 150 PAVN bodies were found around the position, which was then abandoned. About two hours later, an NVA artillery barrage scored a hit on the main ammunition dump at Khe Sanh Combat Base, killing Lance Corp. Jerry Stenberg and other Marines. The NVA surrounded Khe Sanh in an attempt to force the Marines to break out of their fighting positions, which would make it easier to engage and destroy them. They produced a body count ratio in the range between 50:1 and 75:1. 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." [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. There are still debates about the true number of casualties, but estimates range that 1,000 to 3,500 US soldiers died, and a secret report from the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam,.