Existing comment:
Khe Sanh:
Khe Sanh, the most remote military position in South Vietnam, was also one of the most isolated. It sat deep in a rugged, mountainous, and densely-vegetated jungle.
Khe Sanh was important to the American forces as a way of plugging a hole in the mountainous border with Laos that contained very few passes. U.S. forces saw the remote, sparsely populated area as a baited trap where attacking North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units could be destroyed by massive B-52 bombing raids. The NVA sought to "liberate" Khe Sanh while forcing Americans to deploy reinforcements, which could then be ambushed.
By November 1967, several NVA units moved toward Khe Sahn. When the battle erupted with the shelling of Khe Sahn Combat Base (KSCB) on 21 January 1968, 6,000 Marines suddenly found themselves surrounded by over 40,000 NVA regular soldiers. The situation quickly became desperate. The NVA strategy of annihilating American reinforcements failed. The Marine defenders stood firm without reinforcements, despite daily NVA shellings ,reduced rations (limited to one C-ration per day), loss of water for days at a time, rotting clothing, and a sense of isolation and vulnerability.
The Marines withstood 11,114 incoming rounds of artillery, mortar, and rockets, an average of 150 per day. In return, American forces dropped over 99,600 tons of bombs over 564 square miles and delivered 533 sorties of B-52s within three kilometers of American ground troops.
Casualties for the siege included 402 Americans killed and 2,249 medically evacuated. NVA casualties are estimated to have exceeded 10,000. Approximately 10,000 local Montagnard civilians perished during the period, making Khe Sahn the costliest battle of the Vietnam War.
Khe Sanh was a microcosm of the entire Vietnam War in that it was one of a number of instances that Washington planners abandoned a military effort because of highest level political concerns. Khe Sanh also reflected the general ambiguity of the war as both sides claimed victory. The Americans claimed victory over NVA forces that were either killed or left the battlefield. The North Vietnamese claimed victory over the Americans because they abandoned the fixed position at Khe Sahn. |