NEW

FROM THE MAKERS OF

STORY OF THE

VIETNAM
WAR UNCOVER THE CONFLICT THAT TORE TWO NATIONS APART
Edition
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DIEN BIEN PHU NORTH V SOUTH ROLLING THUNDER HAMBURGER HILL

SECOND
EDITION
 Getty Images
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WAR, CHILDREN!
IT’S JUST A SHOT AWAY...
The morning of 8 March 1965 would change From the birth of Vietnam and its fight
Vietnam forever, transforming a ruthless civil for independence to the Tet Offensive,
war into an international struggle the moment widespread protests against US involvement
US troops raced ashore along the coast of Da and the Fall of Saigon, Story of the of the
Nang in the North. Neither country would ever Vietnam War explores the shaping of a people
be the same again. and their homeland and the battles that would
Spanning two decades, the Vietnam come to define it. Including the key players
War grew from an internal battle for a behind the engagements that decided the
nation’s destiny into a political and military war and an in-depth look at the weapons and
catastrophe for the mightiest power on Earth. tactics they used, this history will immerse
But what caused the war, who was waging you in one of the most controversial chapters
it, and why did the US feel compelled to in the story of America, a tale of death and
intervene in a conflict thousands of miles devastation that still haunts the corridors of
away in Southeast Asia when its allies the White House and the villages of Vietnam
refused to do so? to this day.
 “We are not about to send American
boys nine or ten thousand miles away
to do what Asian boys ought to be
doing for themselves”
President Lyndon B Johnson, 1964
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 STORY OF THE

VIETNAM
WAR Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

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Part of the

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STORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

CONTENTS
46 28

114

THE RISE OF VIETNAM 14 88

10 The making of a nation
Centuries before the war that would rip it apart, a
fledgling Vietnam faced numerous threats on its path
to freedom

14 French rule
Masquerading as civilising liberators, the French
ruthlessly invaded and then exploited Vietnam

18 The Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Inside the clash of arms that would finally drive France
out of her long-held colony

THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL 98

24 North vs South 44 Operation Rolling Thunder
Dividing Vietnam was supposed to avert violence. Lasting for over three years, the US’s aerial
In truth it set two rivals on the road to destruction bombardment of Vietnam remains a contentious
operation to this day
28 The road to war
Relying on trumped-up charges and flawed theories, 46 MACV-SOG
the US Government dragged its people to war This special forces unit was so shrouded in mystery
that even today military historians are still trying to
32 US GI vs Viet Cong fighter piece their operations together
The tools of war used by both sides
52 Anzacs at Long Tan
34 The Battle of Ia Drang An Australian colonel recalls a fight against
A savage infantry battle saw both sides claim victory overwhelming odds

42 Generals and guerrillas 62 Huey helicopter handbook

Meet the commanders who led from the front in an Climb inside the chopper that would become
attritional war that neither side could win synonymous with the jungles of Vietnam

6
92

DEADLOCK IN
THE DEPTHS
OF THE JUNGLE
70 The Siege of Khe Sanh
Awesome American firepower would ultimately settle
a ferocious battle for Khe Sanh Combat Base

78 A vision of hell
Think your job’s tough? A bad day at the office for
Stuart Steinburg meant death and destruction

88 The My Lai massacre

Uncover the truth behind the worst atrocity of the
entire war

92 The Tet Offensive

Aiming to drive the Americans out of Vietnam, the
forces of the North used the cover of a lunar festival
to prepare a massive assault

98 Storm in the USA

Increasingly aware of the carnage caused by US
18 intervention, thousands of Americans voiced their
opposition to the war

Public Domain
Getty Images

102 Hamburger Hill

Over 70 American troops and more than 1,000 South
Vietnamese soldiers would die to take a position
their commanders would soon abandon

110 Cambodia and Laos

Vietnam’s neighbours were not spared the horrors
of its war

110
VICTORY FOR
THE NORTH
52
114 The Easter Offensive
With peace talks looming, the North took the chance
to improve its negotiating position

118 The Paris Peace Accords

The summit that enabled America to withdraw

120 The Fall of Saigon

An eye witness recalls the day the North secured its
hard-won victory

124 What if the US had won?

Disneyland Saigon? A McDonald’s on the Ho Chi
Minh trail? What would a US triumph have meant for
the people of Vietnam?

128 The legacy of the war

How Vietnam healed after the guns fell silent

7
STORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

THE
RISE OF
VIETNAM
10 The making of a nation
Centuries before the war that would rip it apart, a
fledgling Vietnam faced numerous threats on its path
to freedom

14 French rule
Masquerading as civilising liberators, the French
ruthlessly invaded and then exploited Vietnam

18 The Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Inside the clash of arms that would finally drive France
out of her long-held colony

10
 THE RISE OF VIETNAM

14

Public Domain
“The Vietnamese communists, the
Viet Minh, were determined to eject
the French from the country”

18
9
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

The Trung sisters

atop elephants,
riding into battle
against the
Chinese in 40 CE

10
 THE MAKING
OF A NATION
Resisting foreign invasion and Chinese rule, feuding dynasties and a plot
to take the Champa – a rich and sophisticated society developed long
before the Europeans had ever even heard of the Viets
WORDS ARISA LOOMBA

V
ietnam’s peculiar geography has taxed and widely exploited through unpaid
made it a convenient and dynamic labour, leading to regular – though rarely
focal point of trade, battle and the successful – rebellions.
exchange of people, religions, ideas For the most part after 111 BCE, Bac
and world systems over its many Bo was ruled by the Chinese for the next
centuries of existence. With its subtropical millennium. Some rebellions would achieve
and monsoonal climate, home to rainforests, short-lived success, and Vietnamese
mountains and rivers, Vietnam is ideal for independence would be restored. All too
rice production. Rice has always been central soon, though, Chinese military might would
to the Vietnamese identity and allowed the reinstate itself.
region to grow and flourish on the world stage To the south ruled the Champa, presiding
as a major exporter. over the Cham people. Rather than being
Its long coastline and excellent positioning ethnically Chinese like the Lac Viet, the
in the South China Sea made it a crucial Cham had different origins: they were more
stopover point for ships along the Silk Route. closely related to the Malay, Polynesian and
In this way, medieval Vietnam was something Austronesian ethnic groups and so looked
of a melting pot, attracting sea-goers from all physically different from those in the northern
over: Khmer Cambodians, Malay, Javanese kingdom. They were more influenced by their
and Indian people to name but a few. This western rather than northern neighbours.
geography also made the region resistant to The Khmer Cambodian and Indian cultural
outside attack, other than from the and religious incorporations were
north, a route the Chinese used strong. Buddhism and even Islam
consistently after 111 BCE. were popular, but for a while
Two separate kingdoms Hinduism was actually
controlled medieval the Cham’s dominant
Vietnam: the Bac Bo religion. They worked in
to the north, and the handicrafts and exported
Champa to the south. goods like sandalwood,
By 300 BCE, the Bac ivory and aloe, or as
Bo’s area of control sailors pirating in the
came to be known South China Sea,
as Nam Viet, and its patrolling for foreign
people as the Lac ships to plunder. Cham
Viet. These people, society has been seen
more ethnically similar as fairly cohesive and
to the Chinese having harmonious, with a strong
once migrated from the focus on nature, music and
north, were mostly peasants poetry, as opposed to material
under a feudal system – usually culture. Alongside rice, their diet was
rice and cattle farmers, fishermen or bronze, fuelled through fishing and hunting, having
ceramic or weaving workers. developed effective hunting tools such as
As this feudal system emerged, with land arrowheads and spears.
owned by emperors and monasteries, the In 111 BCE, Han China invaded the
Lac Viet lived on the land and paid tribute northern kingdom, Nam Viet, and began to
to their landowners. They were heavily exert and infiltrate high society with Chinese

11
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

administration. This was the beginning of a by Chinese official Su Ding of a Viet man,
A statue of General
long period of attempted Sinicisation, with the Thi Sách, spurred his new widow Trung Trac King Le Hoan of the
governors and top officials of this new society and her sister Trung Nhi to lead a successful Early Le dynasty,
all being Chinese, though some Vietnamese revolt against the Chinese, following which who led Vietnam
nobles still hung on to the highlands. Religion Trung Trac was crowned queen. This short- to newfound
independence
was often in flux between Buddhism and lived Vietnamese independence, however, was
Confucianism in precolonial Vietnam. On quickly crushed within just three years.
the whole though, the Buddhism brought In 43 CE, the Han emperor sent his army to
in by Indian traders and travellers from the suppress the uprising, and the Trung sisters
subcontinent took hold and flourished. Ordinary quickly committed suicide to avoid capture. The
people in the peasant classes generally Trung sisters remain powerful national symbols
followed Buddhism, while Confucianism was the of womanhood in Vietnam. Following this
reserve of the elite and governing classes. incident, the Han were careful to ensure that
Rebellions were constant, but the most the Lac Viet couldn’t rise up in such numbers
notable is without doubt that of the Trung again, and nearly 200 years passed without a
sisters in 40 CE, a fierce display of Viet female major threat to Chinese authority.
agency and might that resounds and provides In the 6th and 7th centuries, several revolts
inspiration to this day. A murder committed began to spark up once more, but all of these

BATTLE OF BACH DANG, 938 CE Nguyen Phúc Canh

was the eldest son
of the Vietnamese
The decisive victory marking the end of Chinese rule prince Nguyen Phúc
Ánh, the future
and the dawn of a strong Vietnamese nation Emperor Gia Long

In the 10th century, the Vietnamese finally made to appease the beast to the north but
obtained long-lasting independence from the also providing breathing room for Vietnamese
Chinese following victory at the Battle of Bach growth and independence. The Viet people
Dang in 938 CE. would follow Chinese law and pay tributes but
Rebellions in 858 CE, aided by Chinese would receive political autonomy in return.
rebels from Yunnan, served to severely weaken They sent both money and products, such as
the Tang Chinese, and from 905 CE onwards, animal skins, ivory, lacquerware and other
they conceded by allowing local Vietnamese local handicrafts and specialities from the
governors to rule autonomously. Resistance tropical realm. In return the Chinese sent
to the Chinese grew in confidence, and the scrolls on philosophy, administration and
Chinese sent a fleet in 938 to subdue the literature. As follows the general theme,
unrest. Led by Viet general Ngo Quyen, the Chinese culture really only ever penetrated the
Chinese were defeated and pushed back in a aristocratic ranks in Vietnam.
historic victory. Here marked the beginning of nine
Declaring himself king, Ngo established a centuries of rule by a stable but fraught and
new system of monarchical independence, tumultuous series of northern Viet dynasties,
striking a deal with the Chinese. It was agreed followed by the decimation of the Champa
that Vietnam would become a vassal state of kingdom and Cham people before the arrival
China, allowing for enough compromises to be of the French.

eventually failed, and the Chinese stood fast

in the region. In 618 CE the Chinese Tang
dynasty took hold, marking a third major
period of domination. They renamed the
nation Annam, a name that would be in place
for nearly 300 years. Under this Third Era of
Northern Domination, Annam flourished as
a trading post, supplying goods for China
and establishing major urban settlements in
the cities.
Following the Battle of Bach Dang, Nam
Viet settled into a slow and stable pattern
of life, which would subsist for the next
thousand years. Very little would change for
ordinary people, but the state would grow in
administrative and political sophistication.
Villages were given autonomy to follow their
own specific cultures and religions, and the
Viets grew into perhaps the most advanced
Southeast Asian kingdom of the time.
Periodic agricultural reforms, breaking up
Images: Alamy

the lands of overzealous estate owners, and

an egalitarian approach to nobility and titles
After 1,000 years, Vietnamese forces led by Ngo Quyen at long last defeated Southern Han China on the river ensured relative peace and cohesion between
of Bach Dang, near Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam rich and poor. Unrest took place, but never grew
to become a real threat to the royal families.

12
 THE MAKING OF A NATION

Ruins of the Champa kingdom still stand today

The Later Le dynasty.

Ruling from 1428
to 1789, it clung
to power despite
many threats

The Trung sisters continue to be regarded as national heroines of Vietnam to this day.
Despite their success being so short lived, they represent the Vietnamese spirit

During this period, civil wars were rife, desire to take Champa was one goal that united origin at first, began to spread Catholicism.
as were invasions by a multitude of foreign all of the northern dynasties. The Cham were The Vietnamese response to this was at first
powers. The Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing at a trading peak between 800 and 1100 CE, interest and acceptance, but this quickly turned
Chinese tried their hand from the north, while but from the 13th century they were in almost to intolerance, shutting down missions and
the Cham rose up from the south. And from continuous battle with the Lac Viet. These wars persecuting Europeans, even with death. Over
outside came the Mongols, Siamese, French economically depleted the Lac Viet kingdom, time various European governments, such as
and Japanese. pushing it into a deep recession and causing the Dutch and French, began to interfere in
Whenever a weakness presented itself, the Tran dynasty to crumble. The Le succeeded dynastic feuds between the north and south,
such as in the sudden death of a king and the in conquering the Champa in 1470 when Le supplying ammunition, weapons and forces and
assumption of the throne by a child, who may armies took the Cham capital and thousands of straying far beyond a simple religious mission.
have been the only surviving heir, the Song and prisoners, including the entire royal family. In the 1770s, the Tay Son rebellion, an
Ming Chinese would seize the opportunity to The Lac Viet, wanting to escape from their uprising of poor and minority peasant workers
invade, exploiting the confused nation, though overpopulated homeland, began to migrate against an oppressive lord, spurred serious
they never again quite recovered the power and settle former Cham regions, pushing its French involvement for the first time, as the
they lost in 938. The Mongols, under Kublai indigenous inhabitants further and further leaders of the rebellion sailed to Paris to ask
Khan, also attempted to assert themselves in towards the coast. It is here, in small pockets for military backing. The success of the Tay
the 13th century, and the region experienced near the Mekong Delta, that those Cham Son revolution finally resulted in the unification
its first Western contact when Marco Polo who didn’t flee during this period still reside of the north and south under the name of
disembarked in 1288. today, existing as a prominent but vulnerable Viet Nam. As the new kingdom settled its way
The Le dynasty was Nam Viet’s longest-ruling Vietnamese minority. This officially signalled through early disputes, the French continued to
and most tyrannical dynasty, the one to finally the end of the Champa as a powerful kingdom, intervene. This period would ultimately pave the
succeed in southward territorial expansion. This now subsumed by the Nam Viet. way for greater and greater influence exerted
followed a range of tactics by prior dynasties As the Le dynasty decayed and the kingdom by the French, finally coming to a head in 1887
to take Champa, such as political marriage began to decline, Christianity and a European when 1,000 years of Vietnamese independence
and making it a tributary state, though none and Jesuit presence slowly began to make itself and resistance to foreign influence would come
had yet been successful in the long term. The known. Missionaries, mostly of Portuguese to an end.

13
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

The French were

supported by Spanish
troops during their
capture of Saigon in 1859

14
FRENCH RULE
Beginning with Christian missionaries, the French colonisation of Vietnam
lasted over six decades, irrevocably altering the fabric of the nation
WORDS FRANCES WHITE

F
rench influence on Vietnam began Back in Paris, worries stirred. If the French
well before soldiers stormed its abandoned the conquest, they feared the
shores. In the early 16th century, British would move in and enjoy their spoils.
French missionaries travelled to With mounting pressure, a fresh fleet of 70
the foreign land to spread word of ships and 3,500 men streamed into Vietnam
Christianity, with mixed results. It wasn’t until as reinforcements. After several bloody
the reign of Louis XVI that the French began to battles, the surrounding three provinces finally
exert more power over the nation. It was with fell into French hands. For Emperor Tu Duc,
his help that for the first time in two centuries the fate of his nation was written in blood. In
Vietnam became unified under Nguyen Anh, 1862 he signed the Treaty of Saigon, ceding
who reigned as emperor from 1802 to 1820. the conquered territories to France and
The step was small, but it was the first allowing the French to open their much-desired
indication of how influential France would ports. Vietnam agreed to pay a humiliating
become over the fate of this nation. indemnity to the invaders. For the French, this
While unification had been groundbreaking, was exactly the foothold they needed. Over
throughout the 1840s and 1850s Vietnam the following five years additional southern
was ravaged not only by revolts and uprisings territories were seized by France. They named
but also natural disasters. Floods and a this new colony Cochinchina.
smallpox epidemic tore through the nation, It seemed that the French mission was
crippling the already-weak leadership. complete, but ruling over the south of the
For France this perfect storm offered an nation wasn’t enough. France wanted it all and
opportunity: conquest. By 1857 Vietnam was set its sights on the north. An ill-fated attempt
ripe for the taking, and the man with his eyes was made in 1873 to enter the Red River
on the prize was Napoleon III. The official story Delta, but it ended badly when the French
of his planned invasion was a reaction to the naval officer Francis Garnier was killed by
suppression of Christian missionaries across Chinese pirates near Hanoi.
the country. In a principle called ‘mission In 1882 France returned to the challenge,
civilisatrice’, or ‘civilising mission’, the French this time with a force of 250 men. Henri
proclaimed it was their duty to colonise Rivière led the troops to storm the citadel
‘savage’ places and civilise them with modern of Hanoi but was killed in a skirmish. Rather
industrial methods and technologies. In reality than dissuading Paris, the angered authorities
France needed resources, raw materials and determined to impose their rule with excessive
cheap labour, and Vietnam had it all. military force. Control over northern Vietnam
French troops lashed out at Da Nang and was achieved after France’s victory over China
its harbour in 1858. The aim was to turn it in the Sino-French War in 1884, turning it into
into a military base from which France could a French protectorate. Within ten years the
launch the rest of its conquest. The town French annexed Laos, adding to its growing
was breached and occupied in just a day. The collection. This new region consisted of
French then set their sights on a bigger goal: Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia and
Saigon. Napoleon had been promised that Laos and was named the Indochinese Union,
Vietnamese Christians would rally in support or French Indochina.
of the French invaders, but the opposite With the power and control they desired
occurred. Vietnamese resistance increased, finally in their hands, the French set about
slowing France’s assault. Although Saigon imposing a Western-style administration
was claimed in early 1859, the resistance over their new colonies. Governor General
prevented the French advancing further. Paul Doumer arrived in 1897 and set about

“The French proclaimed it was their duty to

colonise ‘savage’ places and civilise them. In
reality, France needed resources and materials’’

15
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

eliminating any remaining vestiges of power still

in Vietnamese hands. This included replacing
all major figures within the bureaucracy with
French officials. Even the few Vietnamese
who had cooperated with the French found
themselves demoted to minor or ceremonial
positions. Vietnamese emperors were not
excluded in the takeover and were swiftly
disposed of if they proved uncooperative,
replaced with those more receptive to French
interests. As the bureaucracy expanded so
too did the power of the invaders, and by
1925, 5,000 European administrators ruled an
Indochinese population of 30 million.
Doumer’s reach extended to all corners
of French Indochina. He wished to exploit
the nation’s economic wealth as quickly as
possible and started the rapid construction
of railroads, bridges, harbours and highways
to ship out Vietnam’s valuable raw materials.
The main natural exports of the nation were
rice, coal, rubber and rare minerals. The only
interest France showed towards local industry
or economic development was when it could
benefit investors, eager to receive a high
return for their investments. This took the form
of production of goods for immediate local
consumption, such as breweries, paper mills,
cement factories and textile factories. By 1930
some 100,000 Vietnamese were employed
across all these industries and in mines.
The conditions and prospects for the majority
of Vietnamese under French rule were limited,
with people prohibited from travelling outside
their districts without certain papers. The
Vietnamese were not allowed to publish, meet
or organise, and if they stepped out of line they
could be imprisoned by French magistrates. A
small class of wealthy Vietnamese emerged out
of the colonial regime: landowners. New lands
were not distributed fairly, but instead either
given to collaborators or sold to the highest
bidder. While the landlords reaped the benefits,
the landless tenants worked the fields, paying
The Japanese invasion of Indochina was an effort
to stop China importing arms through the region

outrageous rents of up to 60 per cent per Most notable was the growth of Vietnamese
crop. This resulted in the wealthy landowners – communism, spearheaded by a young man
around three per cent of the total landowners – who later became known as Ho Chi Minh. Minh
owning around 45 per cent of the total land. formed the Vietnamese Communist Party in
While land for rice cultivation quadrupled 1930, encouraging a peasant uprising that
in size between 1880 and 1930, peasants’ claimed the lives of hundreds of landlords
rice consumption decreased – and this was and French officials. The French struggled
not due to increased consumption of alternate to contain the chaos, and it took them until
foods. While the wealthy cited improvements 1931 to re-establish control over Vietnam. But
in medical care, education and transport, the party was not defeated. The communists
these claims have now been cast into some continued to extend their influence among all
doubt. Before colonisation the majority of the levels of Vietnamese society.
Vietnamese possessed at least some degree France’s iron grip was abruptly wrenched
of literacy, but by 1939, 80 per cent of the open when World War II broke out. For five years
population was illiterate. Vietnam boasted Indochina became the possession of Japan,
only one university, with room for just 700 after France had fallen to German occupation.
students from among its 20 million inhabitants. 30,000 Japanese troops streamed into the
Additionally, medical care was drastically worse country, and Indochina became the central
than that enjoyed their East Asian counterparts, base for the Japanese military in Southeast
with only two physicians for every 100,000 Asia. Ho Chi Minh leapt at this opportunity and
Vietnamese, compared to 76 in Japan and 25 formed the Viet Minh, with his long-term goal
in the Philippines. being to achieve Vietnamese independence. He
With such terrible treatment, it is of no fed information regarding Japan’s movements
The French used propaganda materials to convince the surprise that Vietnamese resistance groups to the Allied forces to curry favour, and when
locals of the benefit of French occupation
rose in opposition to French occupation. Japan surrendered in 1945, seized the chance

16
 FRENCH RULE

THE VIETNAMESE
RESISTANCE
Translated as ‘Aid the King’, the
Can Vuong movement was a
desperate grab by the Vietnamese
to expel the French
The Vietnamese were not unfamiliar with
conquerors, and they were not the kind of
people to take domination of their lands
lying down. Pockets of resistance rose up to
defy the French colonial rule, most notably
the Can Vuong movement. With the aim
of expelling the French and creating an
independent Vietnam, they intended to install
Hàm Nghi, the boy emperor, as ruler.
Taking place between 1885 and 1889,
the Can Vuong movement began while the
French were distracted by the Sino-French
War. French General Henri Roussel de Courcy
Viet Minh insurgents took advantage of the Japanese surrender during
and an escort of French troops were attacked
WWII to force the abdication of French puppet Emperor Bao Dai by thousands of insurgents during a visit to
Hue. In retaliation the French looted the royal
palace, forcing Hàm Nghi to flee for his life.
The First Indochina War began in Soon a rallying cry was sent by the exiled
1946 and lasted until 1954 child emperor, calling his people to rise up.
Thousands answered.
As the insurgents aimed their anger
towards the conquerors – and also
Vietnamese Christians – the French, horrified
by tales of massacres, sent in troops to quell
the uprising. Support for the rebellion was
far from unanimous among the Vietnamese,
and the queen mother deserted her son. The
French enthroned the king’s brother, with
many Vietnamese leaders swearing their
allegiance to the French-supported leader.
The movement came to a head during
the Siege of Ba Dinh in 1887, where the
Vietnamese resistance survived French
bombardment for two months before
abandoning their fortified camp. The
Vietnamese lost thousands, while French
deaths only numbered 19. The siege
highlighted the disunity among the Can
Vuong and spelled the end for the resistance.
The movement rapidly collapsed, and Hàm
and ordered a revolution. With French troops
scattered and the Japanese defeated, nobody
“France failed to Nghi was captured and deported to Algeria.

could stop Minh and his supporters, and they

snatched Hanoi. The Democratic Republic of
understand what
Vietnam was born. the Vietnamese
But the French were not willing to give up
their crown jewel so easily. Determined to wanted – unity and
reclaim control, they worked with British forces
to regain mastery of Cochinchina. This led to independence’’
a split in Vietnam: the communist North and
non-communist South. Although initial peace Vietnamese knew fighting back could yield
discussions between the two nations seemed results. They knew the French, they knew their
positive, ultimately their opposing policies techniques and their lies. They rejected the
proved incompatible. No matter how they move to appoint the former emperor as chief of
framed it, France wanted its colony back, and state, beginning an aggressive guerrilla war with
Minh wanted total independence. The result aid from China’s communist government. This
was inevitable, and war broke out once more. wasn’t just a battle between two old enemies,
France was confident in its ability to win. It but a struggle between communism and those
had, after all, already done so once. French who opposed it. With China bankrolling the
troops bombarded Haiphong in November Vietnamese, the US stepped up to funnel aid
Images: Alamy

1946, killing thousands while hoping for a swift to France. As war ravaged the country, over
end to the disagreement. But France failed to 60 years of colonial horrors, exploitation and
Hàm Nghi was exiled to Algeria in 1888, where he
understand that what the Vietnamese people simmering resentment came to a head in the married a French Algerian and had three children
wanted was something it could never provide battle for a tiny mountain outpost, a battle that
– unity and independence. And this time the would decide the future of Vietnam.

17
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

THE BATTLE OF

DIEN BIEN PHU

Inside the struggle that ended French colonial rule in Vietnam and
paved the way for American involvement in the following decade
DIEN BIEN PHU, FRENCH INDOCHINA 13 MARCH – 7 MAY 1954
WORDS MARC DESANTIS

“On 13 March, Giap let

loose with his artillery
from close range.
Hundreds of French
soldiers were killed
in the barrage’’

18
 THE BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU

they would be pulverised. Afterwards, their leaders including howitzers broken down into pieces, and

F
ollowing the end of World War II, after
the defeated Japanese had been would have to meet the French at the negotiating mortars, ironically largely of US origins having been
withdrawn from Vietnam, France table, where an end to the fighting could be Korean War equipment captured by China, were
regained its colony, but it faced a achieved in a peace agreement. lugged to the valley. These weapons would prove
strong and dedicated communist To this end, Navarre decided to send a large critical in the coming battle.
insurgency against its rule. Fundamentally, the force to occupy a strategic valley crossroads town Dien Bien Phu was also an awkward place
French, as colonial masters, lacked the support named Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam’s far northwest for the French to fight. They would be relying
that stood athwart a Viet Minh supply route completely on resupply coming by aircraft. This
of the Vietnamese people. Though there were
into Laos. On 20 November 1953, 800 French would prove to be a fatal vulnerability as the
some 190,000 French troops in the country,
paratroopers were dropped into Dien Bien Phu. coming battle unfolded. The French would soon
they could not defeat an insurgency with a
They were the first to arrive of an eventual 14,000 discover that though they had compelled the
strong nationalist appeal. By 1953, the price French troops who would defend the site against Viet Minh to come out to fight, they had also
in blood had already been steep, with around the Viet Minh. made it possible for the enemy to trap them
74,000 French troops having fallen. The occupation of Dien Bien Phu was indeed a inside Dien Bien Phu.
The Vietnamese communists, the Viet Minh, challenge to the Viet Minh. Its military commander, Giap’s soldiers (his force would comprise around
were determined to eject the French from General Vo Nguyen Giap, developed a plan to 80,000 before the battle’s end) encircled the
the country. France’s top soldier in Vietnam, eliminate it. To achieve that goal, a massive corps French fortress. On 13 March, Giap let loose with
General Henri Navarre, believed that he could of labourers were mobilised to cut jungle trails, put his artillery from close range. Hundreds of French
lure the communists into a battle that they would down roads and carry supplies over distances of soldiers were killed in the barrage. One by one, the
have no choice but to fight, a battle in which up to 805 kilometres to Dien Bien Phu. Artillery, French strongpoints at Dien Bien Phu began to fall.

Triumphant Viet Minh

soldiers raise a flag over
the French headquarters

19
THE RISE OF VIETNAM

DIEN
By 27 March, the Viet Minh had shut down
the main airfield with their fire. There could be
no resupply now except by uncertain airdrop.
Wounded soldiers could not be removed from the
beleaguered fortress either.

BIEN
During the siege of Dien Bien Phu, the
United States was solidly behind the French.
In the US, the ‘domino theory’ was prevalent
in much American strategic thinking. In their

PHU
minds Vietnam was like a domino tile. If the
country came under communist control, then so
too eventually might Indonesia, Malaya, Burma,
and Thailand. Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
Formosa (Taiwan) and the Philippines would then

1954
be left vulnerable. That was a prospect that had
to be avoided.
The French requested direct American
support in the form of an airstrike against the
communists. Though the thought of a heavy
aerial bombardment of the Viet Minh did cross
the minds of some American policy-makers (this 05
was given the code name of Operation Vulture),
01
THE FRENCH DIG IN
as well as the use of a handful of small nuclear
Disregarding the foundations of sound military
weapons, president Dwight D. Eisenhower ruled
out both options.
planning, the French construct a number of strongholds
on flat, open ground flanked by hills. Their five key bases
03
American intervention would never
(Claudine, Huguette, Francoise, Eliane and Dominique)
materialise. President Eisenhower was unwilling
are named after Navarre's former lovers. 10
to help the French with US military force unless
the British agreed to do so also. They didn’t,
believing that there was little that they could 07
hope to achieve by entering the conflict.

02
It was not that the Americans did nothing at SURROUNDED
all to aid the beleaguered French; they were just By early March, 49,000 Viet Minh soldiers
not very helpful. US cargo planes attempted to were dug in along the slopes either side of the valley
resupply the garrison but missed the drop zone. in which the French were positioned. Three infantry
Over 100 tons of howitzer and mortar munitions divisions and two independent regiments are supported
were deposited into Viet Minh hands and then by field guns and heavy mortars.
used to bombard the French.
Giap had enclosed Dien Bien Phu with
trenchworks by early April. This allowed the Viet
Minh to move about with little to fear from French
fire. The final communist assault came on 5 May 04
and continued for the next two days. By 7 May,
the exhausted French garrison capitulated.
The cost to both sides had been enormous.
More than 2,000 French troops had lost their

03
lives, as had about 8,000 Viet Minh. Around BRUTAL BOMBARDMENT
10,000 French prisoners were taken by the The Viet Minh begin pounding the French
communists too. The ultimate cost to France positions, mercilessly raining shells down on the valley
would be greater still. floor for weeks. French counterfire proves futile against
The fate of French Indochina was decided in the enemy guns, which are positioned inside caves and

05
Geneva, Switzerland. A diplomatic conference bunkers and expertly camouflaged. STRANDED
comprising the United States, the USSR, The Viet Minh succeed in permanently closing
Britain and France had been scheduled since off the French airstrip, forcing the stricken troops on the
February and began on 8 May. The Viet Minh ground to rely on parachute drops to supply them with
victory in the interim had a profound effect on the supplies and reinforcements. Badly bloodied, the Viet
conference. In July, the Geneva Accords set down Minh are forced to pull back into the jungle.
what was intended to be a temporary partition
04
THE VIET MINH ATTACK
of Vietnam into a communist North and a On 13 March the Viet Minh unleash an all-out
non-communist South. The stage had been set assault. Following a huge bombardment, Vietnamese
for the next Vietnam War, a conflict that would troops pour forwards, seizing the smaller strongholds of
suck the US into a vortex of bloodshed. Gabrielle, Beatrice and Anne-Marie. Their efforts cost
7,000 casualties in just three days.

06
A FRESH ASSAULT
“It was not that the After two weeks spent recovering, the Viet
Minh attack once more, initiating a fortnight of fighting.
Americans did nothing at Determined to hold their ground, the French inflict
staggering losses on their assailants, casualties that
all to aid the beleaguered eventually force Giap to halt the attack.

French; they were just

not very helpful”

20
 THE BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU

10
SURRENDER
The French positions are overwhelmed one by OPPOSING FORCES
one, and on the sixth day of the assault a mine ruptures
the bunkers of Eliane, which are then flooded with Viet
Minh soldiers. The French command post is stormed the
vs
next day, forcing them to surrender.
FRENCH DEMOCRATIC
09 UNION REPUBLIC OF
HIDDEN NETWORK
To lessen their casualties the Viet Minh NUMBER OF TROOPS: VIETNAM
excavate a series of trenches that completely encircle 14,000 NUMBER OF TROOPS:
the French. Troops filter into position to await the start
80,000
of another assault. It begins on the night of 1 May with
raids on Huguette and Eliane.

02

KEY LEADER:
09 General Henri Navarre
As the architect for the KEY LEADER:
01 strategy that culminated General Vo Nguyen Giap
in the Battle of Dien Bien Chief of the Viet Minh,
Phu, Navarre bears much Giap was the mastermind
responsibility for the of the operation that
French defeat. brought about the fall of
Strengths: Intelligent Dien Bien Phu.
and dedicated, Navarre Strengths: Giap never lost
understood the limits of sight of his military goals
French power in Vietnam. and was able to outlast
Weaknesses: Badly both the French and the
miscalculated the strength Americans.
06 and resourcefulness of the Weaknesses: Giap’s
Viet Minh. fighting strategies cost
large numbers of his
KEY UNIT: soldiers’ lives.
French Paratroopers
The French paratroopers
who fought at Dien Bien
Phu were arguably the finest
08
ISABELLE ISOLATED
The southern stronghold of Isabelle, now soldiers on either side.
severed from the main base, manages to hold out Strengths: Immensely
despite the Viet Minh 304th Division continuing to shell brave, elite infantrymen
it. However, Dominique and Francoise have fallen, as drawn from several KEY UNIT:
have sections of Huguette and Eliane. countries, they were able Viet Minh regulars
to carry out any kind of Viet Minh regulars were
operation asked of them. tactically adept and
Weaknesses: The experts at camouflage
vulnerable tactical position and concealment, skills
at Dien Bien Phu diminished that would be very useful
their overall combat ability. at Dien Bien Phu.
Strengths: Viet Minh
08 KEY WEAPON: regulars were tough, highly
Douglas C-47 mobile and ideologically
committed.
Weaknesses: More lightly
equipped than their
opponents.
Map: Nicholas Forder / Images: Alamy, Wikipedia

KEY WEAPON:
Soviet anti-aircraft gun
Heavily used by the French, Anti-aircraft guns, such
the American-built C-47 as the Soviet-designed
was a transport version of M1939 37mm cannon,
the famed DC-3 airliner. severely hindered French
Strengths: Rugged and resupply of the embattled
reliable, the C-47 was Dien Bien Phu garrison.
perfect for delivering troops
07
A NUCLEAR OPTION? Strengths: Good
With supplies of ammunition and food rapidly to their drop zones. range, high rate of fire,
dwindling and 3,000 injured men trapped inside the Weaknesses: The C-47 explosive ammunition.
base, the French are becoming desperate. They discuss could not overcome the Weaknesses: Not
using nuclear weapons with the US, but President strong Viet Minh useful against targets at
Eisenhower refuses to help without allied aid. anti-aircraft fire. high altitude.

21
 THE STRUGGLE FOR
VIETNAM’S SOUL
24 North vs South
Dividing Vietnam was supposed to avert violence.
In truth it set two rivals on the road to destruction

28 The road to war

Relying on trumped-up charges and flawed theories,
the US Government dragged its people to war

32 US GI vs Viet Cong fighter

The tools of war used by both sides

34 The Battle of Ia Drang

A savage infantry battle saw both sides claim victory
34 44
42 Generals and guerrillas
Meet the commanders who led from the front in an
attritional war that neither side could win
28
44 Operation Rolling Thunder
Lasting for over three years, the US’s aerial
bombardment of Vietnam remains a contentious
operation to this day

46 MACV-SOG
This special forces unit was so shrouded in mystery
that even today military historians are still trying to
piece their operations together

52 Anzacs at Long Tan

An Australian colonel recalls a fight against
overwhelming odds

62 Huey helicopter handbook 24

Climb inside the chopper that would become
synonymous with the jungles of Vietnam

32
42

22
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

46

52
23
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

NORTH V
“The Eisenhower
administration was
convinced that they
would need to intervene
in order to stop a
wave of communism
sweeping the East’’

The 1954 Geneva

Conference,
where Vietnam
was divided

24
S SOUTH
Dividing Vietnam into the North and
South was meant to avert conflict.
Instead it only served to fuel a bitter
guerrilla war that would kill thousands
WORDS CALLUM MCKELVIE

F
ollowing the United Nations development of South
conference in 1954, it was Vietnam, seeking to
decided that Vietnam was to shape the government into
be divided at the 17th Parallel, an anti-communist state that
separating the country into both would stand against the North.
a North and South. The French military Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese
withdrew their troops from the North and politician who had gone into
the communist forces of Ho Chi Minh were exile after refusing to join Ho Chi
given total control. Though the agreement Minh’s communist government,
stated explicitly that the division was was selected as Emperor Bao
not to be seen as a political or territorial Dai’s prime minister. However,
boundary, soon two very distinct states a year later, in 1955, Diem
began to emerge. The agreement stated succeeded in beating Bao Dai in a
that, in 1956, national free elections government-backed referendum and
were to be held, but those elections never became president of South Vietnam.
occurred and instead both the North and The US deemed Ngo Dinh Diem as
the South engaged in a bitter struggle the ideal candidate for this new
involving armed warfare, propaganda and state and immediately
political manoeuvring. provided the new
Following the conference, US officials
were far from pleased with the results.
The oncoming elections, they felt, could
only result in an overwhelming victory
for Ho Chi Minh and result in a wholly
communist Vietnam. Fearful of what was
termed the ‘domino theory’, the Eisenhower
administration was convinced that they
would need to intervene in order to stop
a wave of communism sweeping the
East. They made it clear that they were
not bound by the agreements and,
along with the government of South
Vietnam (which they played a pivotal
role in establishing), refused to
agree. Not one of the nine
countries involved would sign
the Final Declaration.
Instead, the United
States sought to
influence the

25
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

PERSECUTION OF
THE BUDDHISTS
President Ngo Dinh Diem’s
government persecuted
Buddhists during his reign,
resulting in mass protests
President Diem’s government often favoured
Roman Catholics over other religions, placing
members of that religion in positions of
office and prominence. While doing so,
Diem’s supporters also worked to make the
lives of Vietnam’s Buddhists a daily hell. This
discrimination stretched from the granting
of state land and finances for the building of
churches and temples to catholic students
President Diem meeting Eisenhower
being more likely to receive scholarships
during his 1957 trip to Washington
than Buddhist ones. Buddhist groups, unlike
other religions, were also required to have
special government permits in order to hold
large meetings.
In 1963 tensions flared when Buddhists
were prohibited from flying the Buddhist
flag on Vesak, the birth of Gautama
Buddha. When a protest was held troops
opened fire, leaving nine dead. Instead of
apologising for the incident, President Diem’s
government took a hard-line approach.
In June, tensions increased when troops
Images: Alamy, Getty Images, WIkipedia

poured liquid chemicals onto the heads of

praying Buddhists. On 11 June, Thich Quang
Duc set himself on fire in protest, and other
Buddhists followed his example. Mass
protests continued to be held, and by August
President Diem had declared martial law, the
army tasked with raiding pagodas.
As a result of his persecution of Buddhists,
officers in Diem’s army began to silently
arrange a coup, a plot that would result in
Diem’s assassination in November 1963. Ho Chi Minh meeting with Mao Zedong
of the People’s Republic of China

government with financial and diplomatic Diem’s oppressive state was also determined Traditionally, due to the mountainous terrain
support, even helping resettle some 900,000 to stamp out any signs of communism in the and quality of the land, the North had been
refugees from the North. President Diem South. For years, large areas of the countryside forced to rely on imports to feed its population.
refused to carry out the Geneva Accords and had been under the effective control of The ruling communist party, Lao Dong now
instead crafted a suffocatingly oppressive and communist guerrillas along with a number of seized land and large cooperatives were
autocratic regime. powerful politico-religious sects. In 1955, Diem formed. The landlords were publicly humiliated,
Almost immediately this harsh, authoritarian launched an offensive campaign to oust these with their private property (including their
nature began to cause problems. President forces and regain control. As well as using homes) taken and given to the public. Many
Diem himself refused to delegate authority, the military, the Strategic Hamlet Program were beaten and some 50,000 were executed,
having an almost paranoid obsession with was launched and attempted to create new forcing Ho-Chi Minh to admit in August of 1956
loyalty. He filled his government with members rural communities by offering peasants aid, that this policy had gone too far.
of his family, giving his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu financial support and ‘protection’. However, Similar to the South, Lao Dong also sought
vast amounts of power. Organisations such as it is suspected the programme alienated the to influence political thought within their new
the Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party used peasants more than it assisted them. In 1956, state. They initiated a policy of religious and
secret networks to help Diem control all political Diem took his war on communism a step political suppression, with Catholics, Buddhists,
activity in Vietnam, silencing any competitors further when he instigated the controversial academics and numerous others sent to ‘re-
or dissident voices. The regime was rife with policy that any communist activity was to be education’ camps. In November of 1956, due
corruption and numerous local officials engaged punishable by death. to the harsh economic and agricultural policies,
in extortion and bribery. Not only this, but Diem North Vietnam, meanwhile, had spent the around 20,000 peasants revolted at Nam Dam
was Roman Catholic and his government’s time since the Geneva Convention crafting a and the resultant clash with the communist
hiring of members of the same religion for new communist society with help from both troops saw 6,000 executed.
positions of office alienated much of the general China and the USSR (the two main communist Yet while the North’s policies resulted in
public. Historian Lewis L. Gould stated that the powers at the time). Indeed, inspired by horrendous loss of life and the ridiculous
Diem family had a “fundamental inefficiency” the former’s ‘five-year plan’, Ho Chi Minh targets set by the three-year plan were not
and a “narrow system of loyalty and trust” that announced a three-year plan that he claimed met, by the end of the 1950s Lao Dong had
greatly affected their capacity to rule. would transform the country’s agriculture. overseen a number of economic and industrial

26
 NORTH VS SOUTH

Graffiti on a wall in North Vietnam,

urging people to flee to the South

The hope was that the NLF would do the same to be directly involved. A 1964 memorandum
to the government of South Vietnam and also prepared by RAND (an American thinktank)
end US interference in the country. Yet the for the US Air Force stated, “They go to great
name was more than a simple nod; indeed an lengths to camouflage their actual contribution
estimated 5–10,000 ex-Viet Minh members and to perpetuate the myth that they are only
were sent undercover into South Vietnam, as lending moral support to the rebellion.”
the old organisation combined with the new. Yet why were the North so keen to keep
President Diem nicknamed this group ‘Viet their considerable involvement hidden? “It
Gian Cong San’, which roughly translates as benefits the southern insurgents,” the RAND
‘communist Traitors to Vietnam’. The US would report continues, “who have all the flexibility,
use the shortened ‘Viet mobility and freedom from
Cong’ to refer mainly to the responsibility of guerilla’s
fighting arm of the NLF but
“The intention of (they need to maintain a
also to the organisation as the NLF was to presence or protect civil
a whole. order, they can live off the
A guerilla soldier for the National Liberation Front,
or Viet Cong Why would a man or overthrow the land, and they are able to

improvements. By 1960 the country had

woman join the Viet Cong?
Well, as historian Gordon
government of choose their targets).”
Both the USSR and China
constructed 100 new factories and developed L. Rottman stated, “The South Vietnam refused to act directly but
the beginnings of a coal mining industry. A lack reasons a man or woman provided advice and support.
of trained experts prevented the industries from joined the VC are as varied and reunify Crucially, they allowed the
developing at the speed desired by Lao Dong,
but the state had begun to shape some form of
and complex as individuals
themselves. The most
the country’’ North to purchase weapons
and items such as medicine,
a fledgling economy. common was simply disillusionment with the which furnished the supplies the NLF obtained
Meanwhile, in the South, as a result of government in Saigon and acceptance of the independently. By 1959, the communist
Diem’s oppressive attacks against communism, constant barrage of NLF propaganda.” government had been building roads and
a stronger militarised organisation was growing. Not every individual who joined was doing so preparing supply lines, most notably the
On 20 December 1960, the National Liberation out of communist or socialist ideology either, famous Ho Chi Minh trail, for the movement
Front was officially formed, though the the various groups that merged into the NLF of troops and military vehicles into South
organisation (as a collection of smaller guerilla included members of the politico-religious Vietnam. Yet the greatest contribution, the
groups under the influence of the North) had sects and student groups. aforementioned RAND report states, was “the
been in operation for some time. The explicit The communist government was convinced more intangible political and psychological
intention of the Front was to overthrow the that an eventual confrontation with both the support of the DRV”. The North made sure
government of South Vietnam and reunify the South and their Western backers was inevitable that alongside the NLF’s more direct military
country under a single communist leaders. The and alongside developing their nation’s social operations that they kept a constant flow of
inspiration behind this organisation was fairly and economic policies began a programme of propaganda into the South. This, along with the
obvious, the NLF clearly attempting to evoke military expansion. The NLF was the perfect policies and corruption of Diem’s government,
the Viet Minh, which had been so successful organisation through which the North could allowed the NLF, but also a general feeling of
in ending the French colonial rule of Vietnam. attempt to destroy the South without seeming animosity, to grow within the South.

27
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

American airstrikes
using napalm and
Agent Orange
– instigated by
President Kennedy
– devastated
the Vietnamese
countryside

28
 THE ROAD
TO WAR
How the United States became embroiled in a fractured Vietnam
WORDS JAMES HORTON

T
he rising tensions between the in the coming elections, advocated for the
United States Government and unification vote never to be held. Diem was
the communists of Vietnam happy to oblige, and Vietnam remained divided.
stretched across the terms Ngo Dinh Diem was a staunch opponent
of three sitting presidents: of communism, but unfortunately for the
Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Americans there was little else for them
and Lyndon B. Johnson. Although the three to enjoy about his leadership, aside from
men differed in their principles and political this essential trait. Diem had served under
nous, each was a servant to the ideological former Emperor Bao Dai and was known as a
rhetoric and pressures of their time: that Vietnamese traditionalist from noble stock.
communism was the enemy and that its rise However, he was a distrustful man and, as
must be stopped. Therefore, an involvement a Roman Catholic, differed from most of the
in Vietnam that started as mostly financial Vietnamese population, who were Buddhist,
support of a communist-opposed government on religious grounds. The US leadership had
inexorably grew as the years stretched on and initially been impressed with Diem’s ability to
the situation deteriorated. As the will of the suppress his enemies, a characteristic he had
Vietnamese population and the competency demonstrated with aplomb in the build-up to his
of the local US-backed leadership severely election to power in 1955. But this aggressive
diminished between the years of 1955 and suppression evolved into outright oppression
1965, the sitting presidents found themselves as the years of his reign continued.
embedded deeper and deeper in the conflict. Along with communists, Buddhists found
War between the two nations’ armies would themselves victims of Diem’s ire. Suspected
become inevitable. communists were rounded up and killed by
By 1954 Vietnam had wrestled free of Diem’s secret police service, and Buddhist
its French colonial overlords but remained protests were squashed with impunity. Diem
divided on whose leadership should fill the was loathe to relinquish any vestige of power
power vacuum. The Geneva Accords found a and so ruled as an autocrat, trusting few
temporary solution to this problem by dividing outside of his immediate family. The aggressive
Vietnam along the 17th Parallel, severing the persecution of his own people and his complete
country in half until elections could be held monopoly on power earned him many enemies
in 1956. Rebel leader and communist Ho Chi at home and greatly unsettled his American
Minh’s government ruled the North, and a allies in Washington.
US-backed styled democracy took hold in the Many in the rural villages of South Vietnam
South. The southern president and former had an affinity for their communist cousins in
prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem rose to power the North, and Diem’s actions only worked to
of South Vietnam (or ‘Republic of Vietnam’) in drive these people into violent rebellion. The
1955 and enjoyed considerable US support. disenfranchised common folk unified into the
The Americans, ever antagonistic toward North Liberation Front in 1960, which would
communism and wary that Ho Chi Minh’s come to be known by the Americans as the
popularity was likely to win him nomination Viet Cong, or ‘Vietnamese communists’. The

“Suspected communists were rounded up and

killed by Diem’s secret police, and Buddhist
protests were squashed with impunity’’

29
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

Ngo Dinh Diem detested communism but ruled South

Vietnam as an oppressive autocrat

The Strategic Hamlet Program moved

villagers into fortified encampments to
prevent interaction with the Viet Cong

Viet Cong waged a guerrilla war on Diem’s

government, launching ambushes and then “A war directly involving the US edged yet
retreating to hide in the local villages. Their
efforts were supported by Ho Chi Minh’s
closer when the US Navy started supporting
communist North through supplies transported South Vietnamese raids on islands held by
via the Minh Trail, which was a series of
passageways that weaved from North to South
the communist North’’
Vietnam via Cambodia and Laos. digging moats and planting stakes to defend a the usurping generals, Diem and his brother
Rather than retract their aid for Diem, US position they did not want to be trapped within. were captured and shot dead. Diem had
President John F. Kennedy increased the They had been moved, with force if necessary, been assassinated, and just a few weeks
support first offered by his predecessor, to a place further from their farms and the later the same fate would befall US President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. Along with financial resting places of their ancestors. Their reward John F. Kennedy.
aid, Eisenhower had sent several hundred was to reside under an armed guard of the Kennedy’s Vice President, Lyndon B.
US military personnel to act as advisors for South Vietnamese army while knowing all too Johnson, took charge of the US Government
Diem’s military efforts, starting in 1955. well that it was the army personnel, not them, and the management of a South Vietnamese
Kennedy increased the US military advisor who were under threat from the Viet Cong. problem that had become more unstable since
presence substantially during his term in office, Instead of stifling Viet Cong recruitment, the Diem’s removal. It looked to the Americans that
inflating the figure to over 10,000 US troops hamlets turned more villagers against Diem’s the South was becoming less able to defend
in South Vietnam by the end of 1962. This regime and bolstered the efforts of the NLF. itself against the communist tide. Rather
increased advisory support did little to quell 1963 marked the collapse of Diem’s than accept the US effort as a futile sunk
the unrest, however, and the dissent grew yet government. With his faltering economic cost, Johnson ploughed yet more resources
further with the launch of the Strategic Hamlet reforms frustrating those in the city and his into supporting South Vietnam. A war directly
Program that same year. army’s oppressive presence frustrating the involving the US edged yet closer when the US
Diem and Kennedy were aware of the Viet rural population, a military coup brewed among Navy started supporting South Vietnamese
Cong’s potential influence over the rural South Diem’s generals. The US were aware of these raids on islands held by the communist North.
Vietnamese villagers, and so they strategised stirrings, and as Diem’s strategies had been The US dared not attack North Vietnam
to physically remove the villagers from their far from their liking, were not opposed to the directly at this stage for fear of provoking
homes and bunker them in fortified hamlets. idea. However, while Washington continued to the Soviet Union and China, but its navy
The villagers themselves were set to work debate how and when they should approach vessels performed covert reconnaissance

30
 THE ROAD TO WAR

Diem’s oppression of Buddhists for their Vietnamese allies. To perform this matter to Johnson. Washington had been
drove one monk to burn himself task, the US Navy kept mostly to international receiving reports throughout the ‘ambush’, and
alive in defiant protest
waters but patrolled the Gulf of Tonkin, which Johnson quickly capitalised on the perceived
bordered North Vietnam. As such the Maddox, aggression against the US to push the Gulf of
a US warship, was close by when the South Tonkin Resolution through Congress. This gave
Vietnamese launched an island bombardment Johnson almost universal power to wage war in
on their northern enemies in July 1964. The Vietnam any way he saw fit.
North Vietnamese were quick to realise that the It did not take long for Johnson to fully flex
US was likely involved in coordinating the attack his new legal powers. As a retaliatory measure
and sent torpedo boats after the Maddox to the imagined attack, he greenlit increased
a few days later. The formidable US vessel aerial bombing and herbicide attacks to destroy
suffered no loss of life and minimal damage the Viet Cong and their jungle cover, including
during the attack, and after being reinforced by over the Ho Chi Minh trail. The following year
another warship went back to helping the South he went yet further and committed US front-line
Vietnamese raiders. soldiers to the war effort despite being warned
However, late on 4 August, the US Navy that sending in the US Army would by no means
captains were amazed to see that during a assure victory.
bout of rough weather, the North Vietnamese Johnson spouted a defensive rhetoric for his
launched another ambush. This appeared monumental actions, stating that “The first
to be a massively co-ordinated effort, as reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the
vessels came streaming toward the US ships independent nation of South Vietnam. Its object
through the darkness of the night from both is total conquest.”
the direction of land and further out from With their president’s misleading words at
the sea. Like ghosts, these ambush vessels the forefront of their minds, 3,500 marines
disappeared and reappeared from sonar landed in Da Nang in March 1965 to unwanted
detections as the Maddox engaged in evasive fanfare. The marines spent most of that first
manoeuvres and unloaded firepower of its own. day labouring in the heat as they unpacked
In the morning, as the Maddox sat their weapons of war while spies from the NLF
unscathed, the crew found themselves watched from the beachside.
scratching their heads and asking if the attack From their viewpoint, the Viet Cong soldiers
had ever happened. It would be revealed wondered how the Americans would cope with
over the coming days that rather than North the intense heat. They also speculated that this
Vietnamese ambush boats, the sonar detectors arrival marked the beginning of a much harsher
on the Maddox had been detecting waves war. Regretfully for the soldiers on both sides,
from the rough sea. But this truth didn’t they were soon proven right.

DOMINO THEORY
The misguided political theory that fuelled US
involvement in numerous military conflicts
The Cold War was not just a thinly veiled feud between the United States and the Soviet Union;
it was a war of ideologies. The USSR was a one-party communist state, the US a capitalist
republic. Communism was a growing force in the political sphere, and the USSR was the
juggernaut spearheading its charge. Communism was also tightly intertwined with revolution,
with the USSR’s own origin stemming from violent beginnings. In the decades since its inception,
other countries had begun to follow the USSR’s lead, with other populous nations such as China
embracing communism through revolution. The US feared the swell of communism, especially
within Asia, and treated the ideology as an infection that could be spread from nation to nation.
This political theory spawned the ‘domino theory’, which espoused that if one nation fell
to communism, its neighbours would subsequently fall – just like a row of dominoes. This
metaphor also worked well in the minds of the Americans, as they visualised themselves as the
stalwart defenders of democracy who could hold up the domino and prevent it falling. Today the
domino theory has been disregarded, as history has showed us that the principle does not hold.
Following the US’s failure to prevent Vietnam falling to communism, the ideology spread to close
neighbours Cambodia and Laos, but did not take hold elsewhere throughout Asia.
Images: Alamy, Wiki

President Lyndon B. Johnson committed The domino theory was one of the primary reasons the US went to war with North Vietnam
US troops to Vietnam in 1965

31
 THESTRUGGLE
THE STRUGGLEFOR
FORVIETNAM’S
THE SOUL OF VIETNAM
SOUL

HEAD TO HEAD
Driven by opposing ideologies,
the soldiers of both sides proved
M1 HELMET
to be equally committed to the This headgear was the standard
issue in the US Army since WWII.
causes they served

US ARMY GI
M16
Replacing the heavy M14 in 1966,
the M16 initially proved to be a
problematic weapon, with several
reports of soldiers being killed
while attempting to clear a jam (a
fault that trouble the M16 a lot).
However, the gun’s light weight
and high rate of fire made it ideal
BODY ARMOUR for jungle warfare, and design
These sturdy zip-up flak vests changes eventually made it far safe
commonly came with ammunition to disassemble and clean
pouches and grenade hangers.

UTILITY TROUSERS
Olive-green lower garments
came with two patch and two hip
pockets and were made to endure
all weathers and heavy wear.

SMOKE GRENADE
Coloured smoke grenades were
frequently used to mark landing
zones and casualty pick up points.

“But also out here in

this dreary, difficult
war, I think history
will record that this
JUNGLE BOOTS
may have been one Before the introduction of sturdier
of America’s finest jungle boots, flimsier footwear rotted
quickly in the unforgiving conditions.
hours, because we
took a difficult task
and we succeeded’’
President R. Nixon

32
 HEAD TO HEAD

VIET CONG
FIGHTER
GRENADES
The Viet Cong were armed with
rocket-propelled grenades and
mortars designed to destroy
heavily armoured vehicles. They
assembled these homemade
devices from leftover explosives,
tin cans and wires.

ARMED BY ALLIES
China and the USSR supplied the
Viet Cong with Chinese versions
of the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle.
They were also armed with a
range of light, medium and even
heavy machine guns to take
down helicopters.

THE HIDDEN ENEMY

One of the most powerful tactics of the
Viet Cong was to disguise themselves as
ordinary peasants, so they would wear
civilian clothes and ambush unsuspecting
enemies. However, the main force would
later wear black uniform.

“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’’
Ho Chi Minh

33
 IA DRANG
The US First Air Cavalry sought to oust the North Vietnamese from
the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. What followed was a bloody
battle that pitted elite infantry forces against each other
WORDS WILLIAM E. WELSH

“More communists
clad in mustard-
coloured uniforms
arrived to join
the firefight”

34
 THE BATTLE OF IA DRANG

US Army Major Bruce Crandall, who

received the Medal of Honor for bravery
during the battle, departs in his UH-1D
helicopter after dropping off a load PLEIKU PROVINCE,
of riflemen at LZ X-Ray
SOUTH VIETNAM
14–17 NOVEMBER 1965

L
ess than two hours after landing
near the Cambodian border on 14
November 1965, an American ‘Air
Cavalry’ battalion made contact with
North Vietnamese regulars operating
from a base camp in a mountain stronghold
inside South Vietnam. In a sweep up a nearby
mountain, an American rifle platoon spotted
a squad of enemy troops that appeared to
be retreating along a mountain trail and gave
chase. The jungle swallowed the Americans,
and they lost contact with their main force.
50 North Vietnamese came charging down
the trail towards the US troops. Rounds
hissed through the trees. Two American
machine-gun teams swung into action,
and a grenadier pumped rounds from his
M79 ‘Thumper’ into the enemy’s flank.
More communists clad in mustard-coloured
uniforms arrived to join the firefight.
The young lieutenant leading the American
platoon had committed the blunder that he
had been warned against just minutes before.
His company commander had said over the
tactical radio, “Be careful, I don’t want you to
get pinned down or sucked into anything.” In his
desire to engage the enemy, the eager young
officer had done precisely that. His platoon
would have to hold on until help came – if it
arrived before they were wiped out.
The war between the communist Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and the American-backed
Republic of Vietnam, better known as North
Vietnam and South Vietnam respectively,
entered a new phase in 1965. Four years
earlier, the US had ‘stood up’ its Military
Assistance Command, Vietnam. Among MACV’s
many responsibilities was ensuring that the
South Vietnamese troops had American military
advisors to coach them on battle tactics.
When it became apparent that South
Vietnamese forces could not defeat the Viet
Cong insurgency, the Americans brought in
their own ground troops. At the same time, the
North Vietnamese Politburo had decided to
send regular army troops into action in South
Vietnam. These troops arrived in the south by

OPPOSING FORCES

vs
PEOPLE’S ARMY US ARMY
OF NORTH UNIT:
VIETNAM First Cavalry Division
UNIT: (Airmobile)
B-3 Front LEADERS:
LEADERS: Lt. Col. Harold Moore
Brig. Gen. Chu Huy Man INFANTRY: 1,500
INFANTRY: 6,000 HEAVY ARTILLERY:
HEAVY ARTILLERY: 0 12 105mm howitzers

35
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

way of the Ho Chi Minh trail, a vast road and that the newly arrived First Cavalry Division
trail network built by labourers from the North “At first the Americans (Airmobile) stationed at An Khe blocked a drive
that ran through eastern Laos and Cambodia. to the coast, it revised the final step. The North
Among the elite US ground forces that arrived believed they were Vietnamese regulars were not to try to reach
in 1965 was Major General Harry Kinnard’s
16,000-strong First Cavalry (Airmobile) Division,
fighting the Viet Cong, the coast: instead, they were to kill Americans.
American airpower broke attempts by the
which established its base at An Khe in Binh
Dinh Province. The division was built around
but they eventually 32nd and 33rd regiments to capture the
Special Forces Camp and to destroy the South
the novel concept of moving troops before and realised they were up Vietnamese relief force. After a severe mauling,
during battle by helicopter. Brigadier General Man withdrew his forces west
The helicopter that was the mainstay of the against well-trained, into the Ia Drang Valley, which bordered the Chu
air mobility concept was the ubiquitous utility Pong Mountains.
helicopter, the UH-1, nicknamed ‘Huey’. At highly disciplined North Kinnard sent his reconnaissance force, the
this point in the Vietnam War it came in two
versions: the elongated UH-1D, known as a
Vietnamese regulars” First Squadron of the Ninth Cavalry, to scour
the Ia Drang Valley in search of the enemy base
‘Slick’ transported troops, and the shorter UH- mountain ranges, gnarled valleys, jungle-strewn camp. The Ninth Cavalry used light observation
1B armed with rocket launchers and miniguns ravines and abrupt plains where Montagnard helicopters with large Plexiglas bubble canopies
was known as a ‘Hog’. Slicks ordinarily could villages cluster, thin and disappear as the to peer into the foliage below for signs of the
carry their four-man crew as well as eight terrain steepens,” wrote war correspondent enemy. When they spied something promising,
infantrymen, but the thin air of the highlands Michael Herr. As such, they offered the North an aero-rifle platoon was deployed to explore
strained the engine, and in that altitude it could Vietnamese both a training ground and a the situation on foot. During the first week
transport only five infantrymen. sanctuary to recover from battle. For the of November, the squadron found evidence
After its arrival in September, the division American troops, who had little knowledge of indicating that the communists’ base camp was
conducted sweeps around its sprawling the rugged high country and would have had situated on or near the Chu Pong mountains.
helicopter base at An Khe to clear the area of great difficulty penetrating it without their Their reconnaissance was accurate, because
Viet Cong guerillas. Far bigger opportunities helicopters, the highlands were “spooky beyond the three North Vietnamese regiments
awaited it, though. When the North Vietnamese belief,” said Herr. were deployed on the eastern slopes of the
attacked the US Special Forces camp at Plei Me Running the show for the communist Mountains, as well as in Ia Drang Valley located
in the Central Highlands on 19 October, MACV People’s Army of Vietnam in the Central to the northeast.
Commander General William Westmoreland Highlands in 1965 was Brigadier General Chu Anticipating a large battle, Kinnard ordered
ordered Kinnard to engage and destroy enemy Huy Man, the commander of the division-sized Colonel Thomas Brown to have his Third
forces. At first the Americans believed they B-3 Front. His three regiments were the 32nd, Brigade ready for a helicopter assault into Ia
were fighting the Viet Cong, but they eventually 33rd and 66th regiments. Hanoi wanted Man Drang Valley. The brigade comprised Lieutenant
realised they were up against well-trained, highly to destroy the Plei Me Special Forces Camp Colonel Harold Moore’s First Battalion,
disciplined North Vietnamese regulars. and any South Vietnamese forces sent to Seventh Cavalry; Lieutenant Colonel Robert
The Central Highlands had long been a support it. Afterwards, his troops were to McDade’s Second Battalion, Seventh Cavalry;
sanctuary for communist operations in South advance east to the coast, thereby splitting and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Tully’s Second
Vietnam. The highlands “are a run of erratic South Vietnam in half. But when Hanoi learned Brigade, Fifth Cavalry.

North Vietnamese soldiers fighting

to liberate South Vietnam underwent
rigorous training in battlefield tactics

36
 THE BATTLE OF IA DRANG

10 03 04 ATTEMPT 08 RESCUE MISSION

B-52 STRIKES ISOLATED PLATOON FAILED RELIEF SUCCESSFUL
On the afternoon of the third Elements of the 33rd
day US B-52 bombers from Guam and 66th regiments of the North By late afternoon all four Two fresh battalions arrive by
conduct bombing runs against North Vietnamese B-3 Front stream companies of the First midday. With his strength tripled,
Vietnamese forces in the Chu Pong downhill to attack Bravo Company. Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, US Army Lt. Col. Harold Moore has
Mountains. The tactical B-52 strikes They encircle Bravo Company’s have arrived at LZ X-Ray. An enough men to hold the landing
mark the beginning of Operation Arc Second Platoon. In the process attempt to rescue the isolated zone and also rescue the isolated
Light. The Arc Light attacks against of forming a defensive position platoon on the mountainside platoon. A relief force rescues the
the Chu Pong Mountains continue the platoon loses one of its two fails in the face of strong encircled American platoon on
for the next five days. invaluable M60 machine guns. enemy resistance. the afternoon of 15 November. Of
the 29 men from the platoon, only
seven avoided serious injury. Nine
died and 13 were wounded.

N
W
02 CAPTURED
LT. HERRICK’S PRISONER
ISOLATED
PLATOON E In their initial sweep around the
S perimeter, US riflemen find a lone
enemy deserter without a weapon.
Through an interpreter, he tells
the Americans that there are two
North Vietnamese battalions in
HERREN the hills above the landing zone.
The communist soldiers are eager
to kill Americans, he says.
DRY CREEK BED

01 HELICOPTER
FIRE CONTROL

A command and control

CHU NADAL helicopter flying above the
PONG MOORE’S COMMAND POST landing zone co-ordinates
MASSIF EDWARDS supporting fire for First
Battalion, Seventh Cavalry.
Supporting fire consists of
two batteries of 105mm
howitzers located at LZ
Falcon, as well as helicopter
gunships and strike aircraft.

07
FRIENDLY FIRE CASUALTIES
Two US F-100 Super Sabres unload
canisters of napalm on what they believe is an
enemy position at 8.30 a.m. The pilot in the lead
jet releases his two canisters and they explode
inside the perimeter near Moore’s command post.
Two American soldiers are severely burned in
the explosion. The second pilot narrowly avoids
making the same mistake.

09
FINAL ASSAULT

05
ATTACK ON THE The Americans string
LANDING ZONE
Two companies of North Vietnamese
flare traps on the second night to
alert them to a night-time attack.
“Charlie Company
attack the landing zone from the
south in an attempt to penetrate 06
ENTRENCHED FOE
By the morning of 15
The North Vietnamese attack
before dawn on 16 November,
holds its ground, and
the perimeter. Charlie Company
holds its ground, and this makes
November many of the communist
soldiers are entrenched outside
setting off the trip wires, thus
giving the Americans warning
this makes it possible
it possible for the helicopters to of LZ X-Ray in spider holes. These
shoulder-deep, camouflaged
that an attack is in progress.
After attempting four times in the
for the helicopters
continue landing more troops
and ammunition throughout the positions offer protection against early morning to breach the south to continue landing
afternoon. By late afternoon, all four artillery barrages, bombs and side of the perimeter, the North
of Moore’s companies have safely rockets, with which the Americans Vietnamese break contact for the more troops and
arrived in the landing zone. hammer the enemy positions. final time.
ammunition”

37
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

A weary sergeant of Alpha

Company First Battalion, Seventh
Cavalry, has the ‘1,000-yard
stare’ characteristic of soldiers
who have seen protracted fighting

“They were damned

good soldiers, used
cover and concealment
to perfection and were
deadly shots”

38
 THE BATTLE OF IA DRANG

Kinnard selected Moore’s battalion to 22.5-kilometre flight from Plei Me to LZ X-Ray to fight a sustained battle, they fought from
spearhead the assault scheduled for 14 took 13 minutes. At 10.35 a.m. the choppers concealed positions close to the enemy so
November. Moore was the best choice for the rose skyward in a swirl of red dust. A few that the Americans would be reluctant to call
mission because he had extensive combat minutes out the pilots took their ‘birds’ down to in supporting fire for fear of causing friendly
experience from the Korean War. Based on treetop level for the final approach. casualties. This tactic was known as ‘clinging to
the earlier findings, Kinnard decided to land It was dry season in the mountains, and the the belt’.
Moore’s battalion at the northeastern base streams that snaked across the plateaus were Captain John Herren’s Bravo Company
of the Chu Pongs on the assumption that he bone dry. The landing zone was veiled in grey ascended the mountain with two platoons
would be landing behind the North Vietnamese smoke from artillery shells and aerial rocket abreast and one behind. Al Devney’s First
and therefore could cut off their retreat. As artillery designed to kill any enemy soldiers in Platoon held the left, Lieutenant Henry
subsequent events would prove, Moore landed or near the clearing. The barrage stopped just Herrick’s Second Platoon held the right,
among the enemy, not behind it. seconds before the Slicks of the first lift flew and Lieutenant Dennis Deal’s Third Platoon
down into the clearing. brought up the rear. Alerted by a mountaintop
The cavalry arrives Moore and his staff set up their command observation post that the Americans had
LZ X-Ray was a narrow, 30-metre-long clearing post next to a large termite mound. Dry ravines landed, the North Vietnamese streamed down
with chest-high, yellow-brown elephant grass, bracketed the clearing on the west and north. the mountain in large numbers.
scattered trees and massive termite mounds. Shortly after noon the second and third lifts Bravo Company ran headlong into large
The open woodlands at the base of the delivered more soldiers. To ensure that the numbers of enemy troops just 30 minutes after
mountains gave way to thick jungle as soon as helicopters could continue to land safely through it had left the landing zone. The communists
they began ascending the steep slopes. the afternoon, Moore wanted to engage the quickly pinned down Devney’s men, yet the
Moore had 16 Huey Slicks to ferry his enemy outside of the landing zone, not in it. savvy platoon leader maintained contact with
troops to LZ X-Ray. The clearing could only Leaving Alpha Company to guard the landing the landing zone.
accommodate eight Slicks at a time, so the zone, Moore ordered Captain John Herrin “They were damned good soldiers, used
other eight would have to hover nearby until to explore the lower slope of the 457-metre cover and concealment to perfection and were
the first group had exited the landing zone. mountain to the northwest that loomed over the deadly shots,” Moore said of the enemy. As
The helicopter pilots would have to make half a landing zone. soon as the firefight commenced, devastating
dozen ‘lifts’ to get the 440 men on the ground, The North Vietnamese were waiting for the American firepower struck the mountainside.
a process that would take most of the first day. Americans. The communist soldiers, who In addition to the torrent of howitzer shells that
Each US Army rifleman carried 300 rounds of were drawn mainly from the rural peasantry, screamed down on them, the North Vietnamese
ammunition for his newly issued M16 assault were patient, tenacious and tough. Each troops were pounded throughout the long
rifle, and each M79 grenadier had 36 rounds. carried a Soviet-designed AK-47 rifle and afternoon with rockets, bombs and napalm.
Each rifle platoon had two M60 machine three ‘potato masher’ grenades. Their To counter the American strike aircraft, the
guns, each of which had at least four boxes of platoons had machine guns and hand-held North Vietnamese situated on the mountain
ammunition. In addition, each squad had two rocket-propelled grenade launchers. fired 12.7mm Russian-made heavy machine
portable anti-tank weapon rockets to destroy Their tactical doctrine called for inflicting guns, which they used as anti-aircraft weapons.
enemy bunkers. heavy casualties on the Americans at the In mid-afternoon they finally succeeded in
Moore’s men assembled late in the morning beginning of a battle and then breaking contact downing an A1-E Skyraider, the bullet-ridden
near Plei Me for the shuttle to LZ X-Ray. The before they could be taken under fire by enemy plane plummeting from the sky before crashing
first lift carried Moore and Bravo Company. The long-range artillery or air strikes. If they had in a fireball north of LZ X-Ray.

A soldier rushes to retrieve

“The North an American body at
LZ X-Ray as a waiting
helicopter prepares to take
Vietnamese were off under heavy fire

waiting for the

Americans. The
communist soldiers,
who were drawn
mainly from the rural
peasantry, were
patient, tenacious
and tough”

39
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

An air cavalry platoon sweeps through the elephant grass

firing M16 rifles during heavy fighting at LZ X-Ray

The communist soldiers quickly got behind Moore told his immediate superior, Third The enemy made four unsuccessful attempts
Herrick’s platoon, and it lost contact with the Brigade Commander Colonel Tim Brown, that to penetrate the perimeter that night. On the
rest of Bravo Company. Engaged in a full- he was hard-pressed by the enemy and could mountainside, the encircled platoon benefitted
throttle firefight, Herrick’s three squads pulled use another company of soldiers. Realising the from the support of an AC-47 ‘Spooky’ gunship
back shortly before mid-afternoon to a knoll on dire nature of the situation, Brown mustered far that circled overhead firing its miniguns outside
a ridge to await rescue. Their perimeter was more reinforcements than Moore requested. the platoon’s tiny perimeter.
only 23 metres in diameter. But it would take time to get many of them to At dawn on 15 November, the second day
A torrent of small-arms fire swept the the battlefield. of battle, a squad patrolling the bush south of
knoll where Herrick’s men lay prone. If they While arranging for two full battalions to the perimeter triggered a premature assault
knelt, they were struck by AK-47 or automatic arrive the following day, Brown gathered the by a company-sized force of North Vietnamese
weapons rounds. The Americans laid their closest reinforcements available to send that troops. A furious firefight ensued in which
M16s flat and fired on full automatic. While afternoon. Captain Myron Diduryk’s Bravo Charlie Company struggled to hold its position.
establishing an effective defence on the Company of Second Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, Although he was wounded in the firefight,
knoll, Herrick was killed by an enemy round. was guarding Brown’s headquarters south of Charlie Company commander Captain Edwards
Command eventually devolved, after two Pleiku. Brown ordered Diduryk to prepare his continued to direct the defence of his section
sergeants were killed in quick succession, to a men to fly via helicopter to LZ X-Ray. of the perimeter. He pleaded with Moore for
third sergeant named Clyde Savage. In an effort Scheduled to arrive the next day on Brown’s reinforcements, but the battalion commander
to keep the enemy at bay, Savage called in air orders were Lieutenant Colonel McDade’s refused. When the situation became even
support and artillery fire that landed within 46 battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Tully’s more dire, Moore sent his last reserve, the
metres of the platoon’s position to keep the battalion. They would be moved later in the battalion’s reconnaissance platoon, to assist
enemy at bay. day to landing zones within several miles of LZ Charlie Company. Hand-to-hand fighting
“The bullets were clipping all around us, hitting X-Ray. While McDade’s men would be lifted by occurred, and the dead of both sides lay
men and trees and cutting the grass,” said helicopter to LZ X-Ray on the morning of the alongside each other in the elephant grass.
Savage. “There was a lot of fire coming in on us second day, Tully and his men would have to The North Vietnamese expanded their assault
and they had people coming up at us, but they march overland to LZ X-Ray through enemy- on LZ X-Ray by assailing the north and east
had a hell of a lot of fire coming down on them.” controlled territory, where an ambush was a sides of the perimeter too. Moore called Brown
While the fighting on the mountainside raged, real possibility. again by radio, urgently inquiring as to the status
the Huey Slicks continued to arrive with additional By mid-afternoon the North Vietnamese of the promised reinforcements. Brown said that
platoons. Moore sent Captain ‘Tony’ Nadal with had begun attacking the landing zone in large Tully’s battalion was on its way to join Moore.
his Alpha Platoon troops to extend the battlefront numbers. The small clearing was swept by Moore ordered each company to pop coloured
on the mountain. They took up a position on the a hailstorm of small-arms and automatic smoke grenades just outside their position to
left flank of Bravo Company. In so doing, they weapons fire. North Vietnamese mortar rounds mark it for the ground-attack aircraft and rocket-
blocked the communists from striking the landing and rocket-propelled grenades exploded inside firing helicopters. Soon the area outside of the
zone directly from the mountain. the perimeter, which forced Moore to suspend perimeter was rocked by a series of explosions
Moore retained Captain Bob Edwards’ Charlie helicopter landings for a short time. The as rockets, high-explosive bombs and napalm
Company at the landing zone as a reserve. last lifts of the day brought in Captain Louis fell on communist positions. The air strikes
Charlie Company deployed on the south side Lefebvre’s D Company, which was Moore’s eventually forced the North Vietnamese to break
of the perimeter to prevent the enemy from heavy weapons company, and Diduryk’s rifle off their attack. The three-hour fight took a
hooking around the Americans to the south and company. This gave Moore enough troops to heavy toll on Charlie Company, which lost half of
overrunning the landing zone. adequately defend his entire perimeter. its strength. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Brown

40
 THE BATTLE OF IA DRANG

“The American casualties at LZ

X-Ray amounted to 79 killed and
121 wounded. The Americans
confirmed that they had killed
650 North Vietnamese”

Lt. Col. Harold Moore examines a fallen North

Vietnamese regular after the Battle of Ia Drang

troops made no further attacks that day on As for the debacle at LZ Albany, the Americans
the landing zone. Their chance to wipe out suffered 151 dead and 121 wounded. They
Moore’s battalion had come and gone. estimated that the North Vietnamese lost 1,500
Helicopters evacuated Moore’s troops men as a result of US artillery barrages and
on 16 November to Pleiku for rest and airstrikes at Albany.
recovery. The other two battalions of the Third Although the three-day battle at LZ X-Ray
Brigade remained at LZ X-Ray that night. Both is best described as a tactical draw, the
Members of the US 1st Air Cavalry
march through forest en route to battalions departed on foot the morning of Americans won a strategic victory in the
the Chu Phong Mountains in the 17 November. The two battalions marched larger Pleiku campaign, as they had prevented
Ia Drang Valley together but eventually split up to head for the North Vietnamese from splitting South
different landing zones. Tully’s battalion Vietnam in two with a drive to the coast of
continued on a northeast course for LZ the South China Sea. Man did his troops a
made a brief visit to the landing zone to inform Columbus, while McDade’s battalion turned great disservice at Ia Drang by not having
Moore that he would be withdrawing his force west towards LZ Albany. McDade had not large numbers of heavy weapons, particularly
the following day. taken any steps to protect his flanks, either by large anti-aircraft guns, to offset the American
Additional elements of McDade’s Second detaching small groups of soldiers to thrash airpower. Many of these were left behind on the
Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, arrived in the through the brush alongside the trail or by Ho Chi Minh trail as the infantry hurried forward
morning by helicopter, and Tully’s battalion walking barrages of artillery. His battalion would to the battlefront in the highlands.
arrived safely at noon following a dangerous pay a heavy price for his negligence. The Battle of Ia Drang “marked the first
march through enemy-controlled territory. To Brigadier General Man thirsted for revenge wholesale appearance of North Vietnamese
avoid an enemy ambush, Tully had spread out for the heavy casualties his force suffered at regulars in the South,” wrote Herr. “And no one
his battalion rather than have it march in a LZ X-Ray. He ordered two battalions to set up a who was around then can forget the horror of it
single, vulnerable column. classic L-shaped ambush, which would enable or… get over the confidence and sophistication
The arrival of a large number of fresh troops the communists to rake the column with small with which entire [North Vietnamese] battalions
put Moore’s mind at ease. He dispatched three arms, automatic weapons, rocket-propelled came to engage America in a war.”
companies to rescue the isolated battalion. grenades and mortars. They waited quietly
This time the communists did not contest their in the elephant grass until the Americans
advance. The relief force entered the jungle were deep into the trap. Just as the front of FURTHER READING
shortly after 1.00 p.m., and helicopter gunships McDade’s column was entering the clearing
✪ COLEMAN, J.D. PLEIKU: THE DAWN OF
peppered the area over which they would be at Albany, the North Vietnamese attacked. HELICOPTER WARFARE IN VIETNAM
advancing with rocket fire. American airpower arrived eventually to drive (NEW YORK: ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, 1988)
Two hours after the relief force set out, it off the enemy, but the battalion was destroyed ✪ MOORE, HAL, AND JOE GALLOWAY.
returned to the landing zone escorting the as a fighting force. WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE ... AND YOUNG:
seven uninjured soldiers and carrying the The American casualties at LZ X-ray IA DRANG: THE BATTLE THAT CHANGED
Images: Alamy, Getty

wounded in ponchos. They also brought back amounted to 79 killed and 121 wounded. THE WAR IN VIETNAM
their fallen comrades. The survivors were The Americans confirmed that they had (NEW YORK: HARPERCOLLINS 1992)
caked in blood and dirt. They had the vacant killed 650 North Vietnamese and estimated ✪ NILES, DOUGLAS. A NOBLE CAUSE:
‘1,000-yard stare’ of battle-weary troops who that the communist soldiers took with them AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD VICTORIES
had narrowly avoided being wiped out by a approximately 1,000 of their slain comrades IN VIETNAM (NEW YORK: PENGUIN
more numerous enemy. The North Vietnamese when they withdrew from the battlefield. RANDOM HOUSE, 2015)

41
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

GENERALS, GUERRILLAS AND

THE COMMUNIST BONAPARTE
North Vietnamese forces were commanded by highly skilled
generals who were opposed by commanders of varying quality
from the United States and South Vietnam

VO NGUYEN GIAP Giap cut his military teeth during the First
Indochina War, when he commanded Viet
WILLIAM
THE ‘RED NAPOLEON’ Minh forces against the French. He was the WESTMORELAND
1911–2013 NORTH VIETNAM victor of the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu
in 1954, which led to the partition of Vietnam.
THE OVERCONFIDENT AMERICAN
Politically minded from an early age, Giap As deputy prime minister and minister of COMMANDER OF US FORCES
worked as a history teacher and journalist
before he joined the Communist Party. He
defence of what was then North Vietnam,
Giap was also the overall commander of the
1914–2005 US
began protesting against French rule in People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). Born in South Carolina, Westmoreland graduated
Indochina and joined with Ho Chi Minh the Over the next decade he sent increasing from West Point in 1936. He fought as an
leader of the Viet Minh, to organise guerrilla amounts of troops to South Vietnam to fight artillery officer during WWII in Tunisia, Sicily,
activities against the Japanese during WWII. growing American involvement. As early as France and Germany. A brigadier general during
1967 he was confident that US forces were the Korean War, he subsequently commanded
fighting an unwinnable war. He took direct US forces in South Vietnam between 1964–68.
command that year and mustered his forces Despite his rise to high command
for an ambush against the American fortress Westmoreland’s overconfidence proved his
at Khe Sanh in early 1968. While the undoing. He continually underestimated the
Americans reinforced Khe Sanh, Giap’s military ability of the North Vietnamese and
men launched the Tet Offensive. believed wearing them down with attritional
As the commander of North Vietnamese strategies would win the war. During the Tet
forces Giap was ultimately responsible Offensive he gave a notorious press conference
for overseeing the offensive. However, the in Saigon that was continually interrupted by the
extent of his contribution to the planning sound of artillery fire.
is disputed. Some historians believe that He declared to the media that the offensive
he wrangled over the details with his senior was “about to run out of steam” and was merely
commanders while others claim that he “a diversionary effort to take attention away
objected to the plan and even went abroad. from the northern part of the country”.
What is not contested is that Giap did not stop In the aftermath of the offensive
the offensive even though it resulted in heavy Westmoreland requested a further 200,000
casualties and tactical failure. troops to supplement the existing 550,000
Nevertheless, North Vietnam’s long-term American troops in Vietnam. He was ultimately
strategic victory was later recognised by Giap recalled to Washington to act as the US
as a turning point. “After the Tet Offensive, the Army’s chief-of-staff, but his reputation was
Americans moved from the attack to the defence. permanently tainted.
And defence is always the beginning of defeat.”
Image: Alamy

He went on to oversee the complete North Despite the

Vietnamese victory in the war. When Saigon American failure
Source: Wiki/ United States Defense Visual Information Center

finally fell in April 1975 Giap became the first in the war,
Westmoreland
general to comprehensively defeat US later insisted,
forces in a war. He remained deputy “Militarily, we
prime minister of the now succeeded
unified Vietnam until in Vietnam.
We won every
1991 and lived to engagement we
the age of 102. were involved in
out there”
Giap was
nicknamed the
‘Red Napoleon’
and was heavily
influenced by
the French
emperor as
well as T. E.
Lawrence

42
 GENERALS, GUERRILLAS AND THE COMMUNIST BONAPARTE

CAO VAN VIEN

THE SKILLED DEFENDER OF SAIGON FOSTER C. LAHUE
1921–2008 SOUTH VIETNAM THE COMMANDER OF TASK FORCE X-RAY
Born in Laos to Vietnamese parents, Vien was initially a follower of Ho Chi DURING THE BATTLE OF HUE
Minh and fought against French rule. He was captured and earned a degree 1917–96 US
in French literature before joining the independent but French-affiliated
Vietnamese National Army as an officer. A native of Indiana, LaHue served as a US
Extensively trained by the Americans, Vien was awarded the US Silver Star Marines junior officer in the Pacific theatre
in 1964 and became South Vietnam’s only four-star general. during WWII and was awarded the Silver
Image: Getty

Vien played a critical role during the Tet Offensive, leading the defence of Star while commanding 3rd Battalion, 1st
Saigon against PAVN-VC forces. Often operating in back streets, he ordered Marines, in the Korean War. Between March
counterattacks and fought with limited personnel. He used his own staff as 1967 and April 1968 he served with the 1st
combat troops and personally led divisions throughout the city, including in Marine Division while commanding Task
Vien was forced into exile an attack on an air base. Force X-Ray as a brigadier general.
following the Fall of Saigon The military headquarters of South Vietnam and Saigon itself was saved, Comprising of four Marine battalions,
in 1975 and spent the rest but Vien later disagreed with American opinions about North Vietnamese X-Ray was significantly involved in the Battle
of his life in the United
States. He became an intentions. He later criticised the American and South Vietnamese of Hue. When North Vietnamese forces
American citizen in 1982 governments for not following up their tactical victory during the offensive. overran the city, the task force was called
upon to retake it in conjunction with other
American and South Vietnamese troops.
LaHue’s troops recaptured much of the south
RATHVON M. TOMPKINS of Hue, which led him to believe that the
citadel could be successfully stormed.
THE DOGGED DEFENDER OF KHE SANH A brigade of 101st Airborne Division was
1912–99 US also attached to X-Ray, which blocked a
PAVN-VC retreat out of the city. American
Commissioned as a US Marines lieutenant in 1936, Tompkins fought and South Vietnamese forces retook Hue
extensively in the Pacific during WWII and was awarded the Navy Cross on 2 March 1968 and LaHue was promoted
and Silver Star for valour. He received the Bronze Star in Korea and by the to major general that August. He ended his
time of the Vietnam War he was the commander of 3rd Marine Division. career as a lieutenant general and chief-of-
When asked how soon he could be in the country, he replied, “Tomorrow.” staff of the Marine Corps.
Commanding 24,000 men in January 1968, Tompkins ordered
During WWII LaHue fought in both the New
the defences at Khe Sanh to be reinforced in the light of Georgia and Admiralty Islands campaigns as
Source: Wiki/ USMC Military History Division
North Vietnamese attacks. This transpired to be the part of the elite Marine Raiders
preliminary deception assaults for the Tet Offensive and
Khe Sanh was quickly encircled.
Every attack was repelled and the base was
successfully defended until the encirclement was
broken in April 1968. Throughout this time Tompkins
made daily inspections of front-line troops and was
decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal.
Tompkins served 36 years in the US Marines and when
he retired he was awarded a second Distinguished
Service Medal

TRA VAN TRA

THE VIET CONG GUERRILLA WHO LEARNED FROM
THE MISTAKES OF THE TET OFFENSIVE
1918–96 NORTH VIETNAM
Tra joined the Communist Party in 1938 and was arrested
several times by the French during WWII. A Saigon-based
commander in the Viet Minh, Tra used guerrilla tactics against
the French during the First Indochina War. Upon the creation of
North Vietnam he became a deputy chief-of-staff in the PAVN.
During the early 1960s Tra rallied and trained guerrillas in
South Vietnam that became known as the Viet Cong. Despite
this important role he was not given overall command over
these forces, with the Tet Offensive in particular being directed
by political commissars from Hanoi. Nevertheless, Tra’s Viet
Cong were in the vanguard of the offensive and took most of
the casualties. He personally led the failed attack on Saigon
and he learned much from the tactical mistakes of 1968.
Source: Wiki / USMC

In 1974 Tra managed to persuade many conservative

The son of a bricklayer, Tra was
strategists in Hanoi to change their plans for the final attack
Image: Getty

well regarded by his troops but

later fell out with his superiors on Saigon. Although he was again not in direct command,
and became a pig farmer Tra was a key architect of the 1975 Spring Offensive that
ended the Vietnam War.

43
 OPERATION

ROLLING
THUNDER
A costly sustained US bombing campaign against
North Vietnam yielded mixed results WORDS MICHAEL E. HASKEW

S
ix days before US ground troops (653,000 tons) or the Pacific theatre during
landed in significant numbers World War II (503,000 tons).
in Vietnam for the first time on Rolling Thunder, however, was a limited
8 March 1965, American air assets offensive and the concept itself is a
had already begun a lengthy but contradiction in terms. Potential targets were
apparently futile aerial bombing campaign, identified, evaluated and then approved or
escalating the nation’s involvement in the denied by civilian and military war planners,
Vietnam War. including President Lyndon B. Johnson himself,
Operation Rolling Thunder was undertaken whose understandable concerns about limiting
ostensibly to raise the flagging morale of the civilian casualties and reticence for attacking
South Vietnamese people in their protracted population centres negatively impacted the
conflict with a well-organised, determined strategic optimisation of the air effort. Heavy
communist insurgency and stifle the ability of bombing of Hanoi, the North Vietnamese
North Vietnam to continue funnelling support capital, and mining the harbour of Haiphong,
to Viet Cong guerrillas in the South by disabling made military sense, but inherently restrictive
the country’s industrial and transportation rules of engagement prohibited such initiatives.
complexes. From the outset these goals were American commanders were further hesitant
difficult to quantify, and strategic success to deploy the potentially decisive Boeing B-52
was necessarily tempered by the prerequisite Stratofortress heavy bomber in significant
that air strikes would not provoke the direct numbers, and therefore the majority of
military intervention of the Soviet Union or the Rolling Thunder missions were flown by other
People’s Republic of China, North Vietnam’s aircraft, such as Air Force, Navy and Marine
communist benefactors. Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms, Air
As 3,500 US Marines splashed ashore at Force F-105 Thunderchiefs and the Navy A-4
Da Nang, Rolling Thunder was undertaken Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair.
primarily by US Air Force planes flying from Operation Rolling Thunder was directed
bases in South Vietnam and Thailand and primarily at North Vietnamese infrastructure,
the US Navy, with the carrier-based planes of such as bridges, railroads and roadways, as
Task Force 77 deployed from Yankee Station well as ammunition dumps, barracks, oil and
in the Gulf of Tonkin. Marine Corps and South fuel depots, power plants and storage facilities.
Vietnamese aircrews also participated. Some targets were heavily damaged in the
Operation Rolling Thunder ebbed and flowed attacks, but repairs were often accomplished
across the skies of North Vietnam for 44 quite efficiently. During the first month of
months. When it was over the cost proved air operations a total of 26 bridges in North
staggering. A total of 922 American aircraft Vietnam were destroyed.
were shot down, with 1,054 personnel killed, As Rolling Thunder wore on, however, North
wounded or captured. Estimates of North Vietnamese air defence capability steadily
Vietnamese civilian and military casualties improved. The Soviet Union and China supplied
range from 30,000 to 200,000. Flying over a variety of anti-aircraft guns, along with MiG-
300,000 combat sorties, American planes 17 and MiG-21 fighter planes and the S-75
expended more ordnance – 864,000 tons of Dvina air-defence system, which deployed the
bombs and missiles – against North Vietnam deadly SA-2 Guideline radar-directed surface-
than during the entirety of the Korean War to-air missile. In time Hanoi and its environs
were ringed with the heaviest concentration of
sophisticated air-defence weaponry in history.
Although American planes were sometimes
“Rolling Thunder ebbed authorised to hit enemy radar sites, airfields
remained off limits.
and flowed across the North Vietnamese fighters began to conduct
skies of North Vietnam hit-and-run attacks on American F-105
formations, quickly disengaging and returning
A US reconnaissance plane, its shadow
photographed, confirms the destruction
of a North Vietnamese bridge
for 44 months” to their bases, some actually located in China.

44
 OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER

A destroyed textile
factory in Nam Dinh,
North Vietnam

Images: Alamy, Wiki / PD

When opposing aircraft engaged in dogfights,
Four F-105 Thunderchief bombers drop
payloads above a target in North Vietnam kill ratios fluctuated but usually favoured the
during Rolling Thunder Americans. US Navy fliers, for example, shot
down 29 enemy planes during Rolling Thunder,
while losing only eight to MiG pilots. The vast
majority of American combat losses were
attributed to anti-aircraft guns and missiles.
A total of 170 downed Navy airmen, including
future senator John McCain, were held prisoner
in the North, and the 160 who survived brutal
internment were finally released in 1973.
Among the Air Force personnel captured,
Lieutenant Colonel James Robinson Risner,
who led the very first Rolling Thunder mission,
was shot down in September 1965. He was
held prisoner for over seven years.
Operation Rolling Thunder was terminated
on 2 November 1968, as President Johnson
hoped to bring North Vietnam to the negotiating
table and end the Vietnam War. Historians
have debated the costs and benefits of
Rolling Thunder for the last half century. While
some assert that the nature of the limited
offensive indeed delivered limited gains, others
contend that it was destined to fail due to the
exigencies of ‘limited war’ that prevented a
global superpower from sufficiently flexing the
muscle of potentially overwhelming air strength.

45
MAC V
A US Army Special Forces
captain contacts his
base camp by radio while
Vietnamese soldiers burn
down a Viet Cong hideout

46
V SOG
Embroiled in a secret campaign hidden within the wider Vietnam War,
even the name of this special forces unit remained highly classified

T
WORDS LEIGH NEVILLE

heir missions were secret: some

remain so even to this day.
Many of the special operations
soldiers, sailors and Marines who
conducted them took their stories
to the grave. Their existence and the incredible
operations they conducted were only officially
acknowledged in 2001 after years of lobbying
by SOG (Special Operations Group) veterans.
Like everything to do with SOG, its beginning
was cloaked in secrecy. In 1961, US President
John F. Kennedy ordered the CIA to begin
establishing what he called “networks of
resistance” in communist North Vietnam.
within the war. The largest and most well
known element of SOG was the Ground
Studies Group, which launched commando
teams into North Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia on what were known as strategic
reconnaissance missions.
Above:
Unofficial
insignia of
MACV-SOG

The Army Special Forces were no strangers

to cross-border operations. Green Berets
assigned to the Military Advisory Assistance
Group had been training irregular anti-
communist forces in Laos since 1961. Along
with Green Berets, who made up the majority
of the Ground Studies Group, SOG recruited
Navy SEALs, Marine Force Recon and Air Force
The CIA was assigned the task of running Special Tactics operators.
covert operations within the region, including These men were then given cover stories
inserting undercover agents into the North and personnel records to match and assigned
and carrying out hazardous cross-border to one of three separate regional commands;
reconnaissance missions. Command and Control North (CCN), Command
The CIA officers who initially undertook and Control South (CCS) or Command and
these missions were trained by US Army Control Central (CCC).
Green Berets and US Navy SEALs, but the SOG also established its own air wing – the
officer running the programme was largely Air Studies Group – that included surveillance
unsuccessful and the majority of agents were and transport aircraft rigged for parachuting,
uncovered and suffered a terrible fate at the along with unmarked helicopters that were
hands of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). equipped with a unique extraction system
With the failure of the CIA programme, these known as STABO. This saw operators literally
covert operations were instead handed to the hooked onto a winch and lifted straight out of
United States military in late 1963. the jungle.
To conduct these special missions, the army For seaborne insertions, including into
established the Military Assistance Command, North Vietnam’s Haiphong Harbour, the SOG
Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, or created the Maritime Studies Group with
MACV-SOG, in January 1964. Its innocuous 16 high-speed racing boats affectionately
and lengthy title was part of an elaborate called Nasty Class Fast Patrol Boats. These
cover story to deceive the North Vietnamese could carry sea mines and torpedoes along
“MACV-SOG would and their Chinese and Soviet allies. According with commando teams. The unit’s historian
to the cover story, MACV-SOG was something described these Norwegian-built craft as
soon become the of a knowledge-management ‘think-tank’, capable of an impressive, “…44 knots at 75
dedicated to analysing and disseminating tons displacement [with] a cruising range of
most lethal, effective operational ‘lessons-learned’ across the US approximately 725 kilometres.”
and covert special military in South Vietnam.
To insiders, though, the initials SOG stood
The Psychological Studies Group was in
charge of the psychological operations, or
operations unit within instead for Special Operations Group. MACV- psy-ops, component of MACV-SOG. This
group would pioneer the use of airborne
SOG would soon become the most lethal,
the war” effective and covert special operations unit broadcasting of propaganda, along with the

47
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

use of spoof broadcasting stations that claimed Operations were soon expanded to include
to be based in the North but were in reality missions conducted in neighbouring
broadcasting from Saigon. This mysterious Cambodia under Project Daniel Boone.
group also managed one of the biggest Cambodia had quietly become a major
deception campaigns since World War II. staging area and sanctuary for North
The largest component of SOG was the Vietnamese and Viet Cong (VC) forces.
Ground Studies Branch’s Reconnaissance These cross-border operations were
Teams (RTs), or Spike Teams. These RTs always deniable for all parties involved. The
were colourfully named after types of snakes North Vietnamese swore none of its troops
or American states, such as RT Idaho or RT ever entered Laos and Cambodia, while the
Diamondback. A typical mission would see Americans denied even the very existence of
either a six- or 12-man RT deployed. Of these, SOG and its recon teams. This denial continued
only three soldiers would be American – the long after the war.
team leader, assistant team leader and a radio The SOG’s primary role was to target the Above:
operator. The remainder comprised indigenous infamous Ho Chi Minh trail. Since they were Chinese
Nung mercenaries
soldiers, often Chinese Nung mercenaries or often bombed crossing into South Vietnam from
working for MACV-SOG
Montagnard hill tribesmen, who were especially the North, the NVA and Main Force VC would Command and Control North
skilled jungle fighters. use a network of trails, roads and tracks in
The RTs operated under Project Shining neighbouring Laos instead that were all, officially the North Vietnamese regulars fighting in
Brass, which saw joint US and South at least, neutral. The Ho Chi Minh trail offered the South, along with supporting Viet Cong
Vietnamese teams infiltrate up to 50 kilometres them respite from American bombing – or so guerrilla units with weapons and ammunition.
inside of Laos. Along with their primary they thought. These supplies were often carried by truck, but
reconnaissance mission, these RTs also Along with troop movements, the Ho Chi bicycles, ox-carts and even elephants were also
conducted downed pilot and POW recoveries. Minh trail was instrumental in resupplying pressed into service.

This US Army long-range reconnaissance unit

TIGER FORCE
Tiger Force was the nickname given to a ‘Lurp’,
was developed to ‘out-guerrilla the guerrillas’
but instead was investigated for war crimes
over the unit. Allegations spread of the routine this day any knowledge of these alleged atrocities
or long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) murder of civilians; the widespread torture and and war crimes committed by men formerly under
platoon of the storied 101st Airborne Division. execution of prisoners; the mutilation, scalping and his command (he had moved to another posting
Its charismatic leader, Colonel David Hackworth, cutting off the ears of enemy dead; and several before the reported atrocities began). In 2003,
later gained fame through his political and military other incidents too horrible to mention. when faced with the accusations against his
writings. During the Vietnam War, Tiger Force was The unit was eventually scrutinised in what former unit, he allegedly told journalists that, “…
considered a particularly effective unit, although it became the longest-running investigation into war every US bomb or rocket that struck a city or a
suffered heavy casualties. Indeed, like SOG, it was crimes during the conflict. Incredibly, none of the village killing non-combatants was a war crime.
awarded its own Presidential Unit Citation. soldiers were ever charged. Hackworth denies to Who investigated this?”
The unit was, like many in Vietnam, unofficially
recognised because of its high body count. This
fact alone should have triggered warning bells.
LRRPs, again like the SOG, traditionally attempted
“The unit was eventually scrutinised in what
to bypass and avoid contact with the enemy due to
their small numbers, relying on stealth and guile.
became the longest-running investigation into
Instead, a culture of barbarism seemed to take war crimes during the conflict”
Members of the Tiger Force
platoon on patrol. Note the
second soldier dressed as
a Viet Cong guerrilla

48
 MACV-SOG

CLANDESTINE
The trail became ever-more sophisticated,
with its own air defence gun batteries and SA-2
surface-to-air missiles. The North Vietnamese
even stationed specialist engineer units along

OPERATIONS
the trail who were responsible for its upkeep
and repair. For the South Vietnamese and
Americans, it was a unique challenge. Much
of the trail was concealed from the air by thick
jungle canopy, while other, more exposed MACV-SOG conducted some of the most hair-raising
portions were camouflaged daily by the NVA.
MACV-SOG was given the mission to carry out covert missions in the history of special operations
strategic reconnaissance of the trail, surveilling
choke points that could be targeted by secret HANOI
US airstrikes and providing on-the-ground bomb ★
damage assessments to the US Air Force. They
also targeted specific high-ranking individuals
– like NVA officers or VC tax collectors – that
HO CHI MINH TRAIL
intelligence indicated would be travelling on the The Ho Chi Minh trail ran almost 1,600
trail, killing or capturing them as required. kilometres from North Vietnam through
On these operations, the RTs carried nothing Laos and ended near the South Vietnamese
that could conclusively prove they were indeed capital of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).
MACV-SOG teams routinely conducted
American soldiers – their uniforms were reconnaissance and surveillance on the
locally made, their weapons were of foreign BATTLE OF KHE SANH
trail, guiding in US bombing raids to target Khe Sanh was the site of one of
manufacture and they carried no identification logistics convoys and troop movements. SOG’s most famous battles – the
last stand of RT Kansas. Sent in
to capture a prisoner, the 14-man
An American soldier team ended up holding off an
applies a makeshift NVA regiment, suffering nine
bandage outside the dead, before the timely arrival
US Special Forces of helicopter gunships broke the
camp at Ben Het back of the human wave assault.

COMMAND & CONTROL NORTH

Command and Control North (CCN), the
largest of the three SOG field commands,
was based in De Nang and operated mainly
KHE SANH
in North Vietnam and Laos, although some ★
operations were conducted into mainland
China. CCN had the only RTs trained in high- ★
altitude, low-opening (HALO) parachuting
and combat diving. DA NANG

COMMAND & CONTROL CENTRAL

Command and Control Central (CCC) was based
in Kon Tum. It conducted missions primarily KON TUM
within the tri-border area of Vietnam, Laos ★
and Cambodia, including offensive operations
against the communist Pathet Lao and Khmer
Rouge in the latter countries. The last to be
officially disbanded, it continued to operate
covertly for several years.

BAN ME THUOT
★

COMMAND & CONTROL SOUTH

Command and Control South (CCS) was based in
Ban Me Thuot and operated mainly against VC
Main Force units along the South Vietnamese
border and into Cambodia, targeting the VC ★
sanctuary in the notorious Fish Hook border
area. CCS famously guided in a B-52 strike on an HO CHI MINH CITY
NVA headquarters there in 1969.

49
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

or dog tags. Some teams even carried captured

JUNGLE
Outnumbered and outgunned, SOG
AK-47s and wore NVA fatigues to confuse the
enemy (as they were so far from other US
forces, the risk of friendly fire was minimal).
These teams also used a large number of
used special equipment to try to exotic weapons. At least one SOG operator
carried a futuristic 13mm Gyrojet Rocket Pistol
even the odds of survival as his sidearm, while another routinely totted
The weapons and equipment carried by the RTs a hunting bow (and used it in at least one
were designed to accomplish two things – aid them firefight). Other weapons were highly modified
in covertly inserting into an area and to help them for their unique needs – an M60 medium
get out, particularly if an NVA reaction force was on machine gun, for instance, was fitted with a
their trail. The tiny RTs would be vastly outnumbered Predator-style 500-round backpack and dubbed
and needed every trick up their sleeve to discourage the ‘Death Machine’.
and slow pursuit until they could reach a safe The small teams needed all of the firepower
landing zone. Many of today’s special operations they could carry, as they would typically end
techniques were invented, tried and tested in the up in firefights with enemy units of far larger
jungles of Vietnam by the SOG. HALO parachuting, size. In fact, the RTs would do everything in
combat SCUBA and fast roping from a helicopter were all their power to avoid a confrontation, preferring
stealth over force. A perfect SOG mission would
often involve zero contact with the enemy, with
the RTs operating as the silent eyes and ears
Above: Suppressed sub-machine guns like the Israeli Uzi of the covert US bombing campaigns.
and Swedish M45B (illustrated above) were favoured on The NVA responded to the SOG missions with
prisoner snatches and for silently eliminating sentries Chinese-trained hunter-killer units accompanied
by tracking dogs. One SOG veteran, Frank
Right: The STABO Capper, remembered that, “…they’d have these
(STAbilised BOdy) hunter-killer units sitting on the primary and
rig allowed SOG secondary insertion points, just waiting for us
operators to be
winched out of to arrive. We had teams get hit as soon as they
the jungle without jumped off the bird – totally destroyed.”
requiring a If the teams couldn’t avoid contact, they would
helicopter to land attempt to overwhelm the enemy with weight
of fire before breaking contact and heading
“Many of today’s special for an emergency landing zone. The operators
would use their radio to declare a ‘Prairie Fire’
operations techniques emergency that would summon any US aircraft
in the vicinity to assist, while a Hatchet Force
were invented, tried and launched to pull the compromised team out.
tested in the jungles of A Hatchet Force was typically comprised of
five Americans and 30 indigenous soldiers,
Vietnam by the SOG” who would launch by helicopter to rescue
RTs that had run into trouble. It was relatively
commonplace for RTs to simply vanish after
Below: SOG used cut down M79 grenade
launchers with the stock and much of the sending a contact report, wiped out to a man
barrel sawn off to reduce weight before the Hatchet Force could respond.
Along with their missions along the
Ho Chi Minh trail, SOG conducted
rescue operations to recover downed
US aircrew and prisoners of war under
Operation Bright Light. Intriguingly, SOG were
not involved in perhaps the most well-known
POW rescue mission of the Vietnam War.
The famous Son Tay mission in November
1970 seemed a perfect fit for SOG – CCN
in particular – who had conducted secret
Below: M18A1 Claymore directional mines were reconnaissance missions in the area. It isn’t
carried to protect remain-overnight positions and
known why the rescue operation was given to a
to set as booby-traps for pursuing NVA
newly established one-off task force, although
inter-service politics likely played their part. In
any case, the POWs had been moved and the
raid was unsuccessful.

“The NVA responded

to the SOG missions
with Chinese-trained
Operators wore locally
hunter-killer units
manufactured, non-US issue
tiger-stripe pattern camouflage equipped with
fatigues to help them blend in
with the jungle tracking dogs”

50
A group of Montagnards show off the severed Above: US Army Special Forces train
heads of Viet Cong they have collected, 1963 indigenous personnel in small arms

A Chinook lifts off from Command and

Control Central base in Kon Tum

In a curious twist of fate, many of the Their most audacious psy-op, however, Although the exact numbers are hard to
Chinese advisers who had trained the North was undoubtedly known as Paradise Island. confirm, thousands of strategic reconnaissance
Vietnamese hunter-killer teams were quartered Indigenous SOG operators from the Maritime missions were launched and at least a handful
in a secondary school near the Son Tay prison. Studies Group would interdict North Vietnamese of successful Bright Light recovery missions
It was assaulted by the US raiders to stave off fishing boats, seizing the crews and transporting were undertaken. At the height of the unit,
any interference with the main rescue mission, them, blindfolded, to a secret island location. some 2,000 US personnel were assigned to
killing the bulk of the Chinese training cadre. There they were told that they had been MACV-SOG, along with about 8,000 South
Even more in the shadows, SOG conducted captured by the SSPL and held for a short time. Vietnamese, Montagnard and Nung Chinese
some of the most audacious and fascinating During the three weeks or so of captivity, the agents. According to a US Senate report,
psy-ops missions of the war. In perhaps the fishermen were treated to medical and dental 13 MACV-SOG operators were later awarded
Psychological Studies Group’s finest hour, the care for any ailments, given new clothes, and classified Medals of Honor.
legend of the Sacred Sword of the Patriots fed well and often – in stark contrast to their All of that came at significant costs to the
League (SSPL) was created. The objective? To lives in North Vietnam. unit. 57 SOG operators were listed as missing
convince the North Vietnamese people that an When they were released, they were supplied in action. Even today, ten Recon Teams remain
entirely fictional, anti-communist resistance group with gifts including an SSPL radio set to take unaccounted for, although the members of one,
was alive, well and flourishing in North Vietnam. home with them. Some were trained as double- Recon Team Maryland, were recently laid to
Using covert radio broadcasts, airborne leaflet agents, others were simply told to tell their rest, some 43 years after they were killed in an
drops and faked SSPL membership cards, the families and villages of the fair treatment of ambush in Laos. Their remains were discovered
story of a 10,000-strong resistance front was the SSPL. Although Paradise Island may have in 2009 by a Laotian farmer and the men were
Images: Alamy, Getty, Shutterstock, TopFoto

gradually developed. SOG recon teams would had some successes, at least some fishermen finally interred in Arlington National Cemetery in
plant fake SSPL documents on the bodies of planned their re-capture by SOG, as they 2012 with full military honours.
NVA troops they killed in ambushes to sow apparently enjoyed the all-expenses paid holiday. Indeed, MACV-SOG suffered the highest
seeds of doubt and mistrust. Radio sets rigged MACV-SOG officially operated between 1964 casualty rates for a unit of its size since the
to only play SSPL propaganda stations were and 1972, when US efforts began to focus American Civil War. At one point in 1968, for
even covertly distributed to villages in the North. on the drawdown of US forces in Vietnam and example, almost half of those assigned to the
Perhaps the most successful SSPL campaign the eventual transition of the war to the South RTs were killed in action, while every single
saw the Psychological Studies Group mail Vietnamese. SOG was credited with severely operator was wounded in action at least once.
thousands of expertly faked letters alleging impeding the resupply of enemy forces in South In all, 243 SOG operators lost their lives in
involvement in the SSPL to North Vietnamese Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh trail, capturing their secret, undeclared war in North Vietnam,
officers and communist party officials. Spies and killing large numbers of high-value targets Laos and Cambodia. It can only be hoped that
reported that at least some of those who received and spreading disorder and doubt among the the jungles of Vietnam will one day reveal the
the letters were later relieved of their duties. senior ranks of the NVA and communist party. whereabouts of those still missing.

51
 ANZACS AT
AN INTERVIEW WITH LIEUTENANT COLONEL
HARRY SMITH SG, MC (RETD.)

“The Vietnam Veterans

Association of Australia later
selected this engagement as
the most iconic moment of
their war”

52
LONG TAN
This decorated veteran successfully commanded 108 men against thousands of
enemy soldiers during Australia’s most remarkable battle of the Vietnam War
WORDS
TOM GARNER

he Battle of Long Tan was a brutal event that came to

T
define Australia’s experience of the Vietnam War. Largely
fought in a monsoon on 18 August 1966, 108 Anzac
troops, primarily from D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal
Australian Regiment (6 RAR), fought off thousands of
determined Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers and inflicted
hundreds of casualties.
The Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia later selected this
engagement as the most iconic moment of their war. Nevertheless, the
battle was a torrential nightmare for D Company’s commander, Major
Harry Smith. This retired lieutenant colonel fought two battles as a
result of Long Tan. The first saw him lead drenched and inexperienced
soldiers to victory against overwhelming odds in terrible conditions.
The second was his decades-long fight to persuade the Australian
military establishment to properly recognise his men’s courage. Smith
now reveals how he won them both.

Australian troops
during their tour of
duty in Vietnam

53
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

“The communists had tried to take over South Korea

and we thought they were trying to do the same in
South Vietnam. However, we were basically going on
a suicide mission”

Smith leads D Company in a marching

rehearsal for a parade in Brisbane prior to
embarkation to Vietnam, 1966

An officer in Malaya between October 1955 and July 1957. The “A suicide mission”
Born in 1933 in Hobart, Tasmania, Smith was ‘Emergency’ was actually a bloody guerrilla war As company commander, Smith trained
a metallurgist apprentice before he was called where Malayan communists fought against his men hard for the forthcoming conflict
up for national service in January 1952. “By the British rule. Commonwealth troops were to help their future performance. “I had one
time I got back to my old job they said, ‘Mate, deployed alongside British forces and Smith attitude to my soldiers, which was ‘one singer,
sorry about this but your job’s gone. We couldn’t was posted as a platoon commander with 9 one song’. Whatever I wanted it had to be
afford to keep it vacant.’ I said to my father, ‘I’ve Platoon, C Company, 2 RAR. done. For instance, where other companies
been in the cadets and done national service, Fighting primarily in the jungle, Smith’s might have run in sandshoes, I ran them in
I’d like to join the regular army. He experiences in Malaya were invaluable given boots. Some of them fell by the wayside but in
wasn’t terribly pleased but I what was to come. “We used to be taken by the main they got through it. I’m sure that the
said ‘That’s what I want to British Saracen APCs [Armoured Personnel resulting confidence they had in their ability
do’ and he said ‘OK’.” Carriers] and go up 3,000-4,000- metre hills to do things under pressure certainly helped
Smith enlisted as covered in jungle. We usually stayed there for them out at Long Tan.”
a private in the at least ten days. We’d maybe get an airdrop by Among the soldiers of D Company were large
Australian Army, but parachute from New Zealand aeroplanes, which numbers of inexperienced but determined
his father encouraged I think included Bristol Blenheims. They’d come conscripts. “They were very keen to show
him to widen his over and drop the rations whenever we called for the regular soldiers what they could do and
ambitions. “He said ‘Son, them and the British would give us a bottle of I thought they were a very good bunch. I
if you’re going to stay in the rum, which was great!” ultimately had 68 national servicemen in my
army why don’t you try and As platoon commander, Smith would distribute company at Long Tan, which was a majority of
get yourself a commission?’ I special rations to keep up morale. “I’d go around those I commanded.”
said ‘OK’, got selected, went to the lines at ‘Stand To’ at night and dole out a Despite the vigorous training Smith admits
Portsea Officer Cadet School in capful of rum into their chocolate. We didn’t have that he and his fellow Australians knew little
Victoria and graduated as an coffee in those days so we used to melt our about the war in Vietnam. “We didn’t know a
ungodly second lieutenant in chocolate down and add a bit of milk and rum, lot except that we thought it would be similar to
December 1952.” which became our nightcap.” Korea. The communists had tried to take over
After a few years, Upon his return from Malaya, Smith – who South Korea and we thought they were trying
Smith gained his first was already a qualified paratrooper – trained to do the same in South Vietnam. However, we
combat experience to earn his green beret as a commando while were basically going on a suicide mission.”
when he participated in remaining in the infantry corps. By July 1965 Although Vietnam now seemed like a
the Malayan Emergency he was a major and posted to command daunting prospect, it was a challenge that
D (Delta) Company, 6 RAR, at Enoggera, Smith and D Company were willing to accept.
Smith pictured as a platoon Queensland. Smith was soon advised that the “I use the old story that if you have a pack of
commander during the Malayan battalion would be given a new deployment in racehorses you’ve got to give them a run and
Emergency in 1956 June 1966: Vietnam. that’s what we were doing.”

54
 ANZACS AT LONG TAN

Smith (centre) pictured with other Australian

soldiers during the Malayan Emergency D COMPANY’S SMALL ARSENAL
Harry Smith’s men were well equipped but their weapons paled in
comparison to the formidable armoury of their enemies
At the Battle of Long Tan, the various elements of the Viet Cong forces had a variety of weapons and
plenty of ammunition at their disposal. This included AK-47 and SKS assault rifles, recoilless rifles,
RPG-2 rocket-propelled grenades, light machine guns and mortars. By contrast, D Company were
lightly armed with patrol weapons when they were unexpectedly hurled into the heat of battle.

L1A1 RIFLE
D Company were primarily armed with this semi-automatic, magazine-fed rifle. It was the standard-
issue rifle of the Australian Army between 1960–92 and is a British version of the Belgian FN FAL. The
L1A1 was a reliable weapon in Vietnam because it could be used successfully in all environmental
conditions. Each rifleman at Long Tan carried three, 20-round magazines: one in the weapon itself
and two more in their webbing. There were another 60 rounds in boxes within their packs, but their
small supply of ammunition meant that every shot counted.

Lines of tents at Nui Dat. Smith recalls “The L1A1 was a

that D Company only had sleeping
bags at the Task Force base reliable weapon
in Vietnam”

M60 MACHINE GUN

This American-designed weapon was one of the iconic weapons of the Vietnam War. A belt-fed
machine gun with a sustained fire of 100 rounds per minute, the M60 was used in every conceivable
role, although it was most widely used by US infantrymen. It was also heavy and difficult to carry in
the jungle. The two-man machine-gun teams in D Company carried six belts of 100, 7.62 rounds and
also had the same number in their packs. There were three M60s per platoon, with one per section.
Nui Dat There were also three in Smith’s company headquarters support section.
On 8 June 1966, D Company flew from
Brisbane to Saigon and eventually arrived at
the French resort of Vung Tau. Smith recalls
that the atmosphere was surprisingly tranquil.
“It was just like being on the Gold Coast in
ARMALITE RIFLE
D Company had approximately 30 of these American assault rifles, which were mostly carried by
peacetime. There was no war going on there
commanding soldiers. Smith recalls there were problems with the Armalite bullet cases because
and we went in for supposed acclimatisation there were no cleaning rods to push the rounds out.
training for two weeks.”
The atmosphere changed when the company
was deployed 50 kilometres north to the 1st
Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat in Phuoc
Tuy Province. They arrived a week ahead of
schedule. “There were rumours that the North
Vietnamese 275th Regiment was coming down
from the north and might take on the base.”
Located on a rubber plantation, the OWEN GUN
Known as the ‘OMC’ (Owen Machine Carbine), this
base was new and the troops lived in basic
conditions. “We initially just had plain sleeping “The OMC Australian submachine gun was designed in 1939
and saw service in WWII as well as Korea and
bags, but after a month we got standard-
issue canvas tents that we formed into a was of Vietnam. During the 1940s it was nicknamed the
neat barracks area. All the tents were ‘Digger’s Darling’ for its reliability and rumoured to
sandbagged up to chest height and a lot of little use be highly thought of by American troops. However,
Smith recalls that, “The OMC was of little use over
work went into that. Fire trenches, command
posts etc. were also constructed, and as a
over longer longer distances in the rubber and scrub, and the
9mm rounds would not penetrate enemy webbing.”
Vietnam base it was quite good.” distances”
Chancing upon the enemy
In the early hours of 17 August 1966, Nui Dat
was unexpectedly attacked. “At about 2.30
a.m. we got mortared and rocketed by the Viet
Cong and, as we later learned, some of the
North Vietnamese. My company area didn’t get
hit but 80-odd rounds fell and 40 people were
wounded, with one who later died.”

55
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

The attack alerted Brigadier Oliver Jackson Smith held D Company back to assess the
to the base’s vulnerability to Viet Cong attacks situation. “We got a few mortar rounds fired
and A, B and C Companies of 6 RAR were from somewhere down south that landed near
sent out the following morning to locate the us. I moved the company about 300 metres to
enemy’s firing positions. B Company patrolled the northeast and decided that’s where I would
east and discovered mortar bases and rocket have a defensive position if anything happened.”
positions towards Long Tan. They remained in At this point 11 Platoon was attacked full on.
the field overnight before D Company relieved “I wouldn’t say that they were ambushed but
them. “We had been looking after the APC they were attacked by the North Vietnamese,
area but we went out next morning to take who obviously moved forward into the rubber
over because B Company had gone out without when they heard the sounds of the contact. I
equipment and rations.” pulled them back to join us and we formed a
Smith was in command of 108 men that company position.”
included 105 soldiers of D Company. These This assault, which lasted about ten minutes,
were split into 10, 11 and 12 Platoons plus led to the battle beginning in earnest. “There
a company headquarters support section. was so much smoke from the artillery shells that Second Lieutenant Dave Sabben, commander
There were also three forward-observation you couldn’t see a lot, but they finally located of 12 Platoon, guards a captured Viet Cong
where we were. They started to put in what I gun the morning after the battle
artillerymen from 161 Battery, Royal New
Zealand Artillery. The soldiers of D Company believe was battalion-sized attacks on us.”
believed the Viet Cong had since departed and Smith briefed the world press about Long
were small in number. “We estimated that there Monsoons and bombardments Tan in Saigon shortly after the battle
were only 40–50 of them and that they’d long D Company was now faced with a large enemy
gone back to their home base in the jungle to force of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops
the east of Long Tan. There was no way in the primarily from 275th Regiment but also from
world that we expected anyone to be there.” 5th Division and D445 Provincial Battalion.
Long Tan was an abandoned village that To this day, Smith does not know how many
was dominated by a rubber plantation some opposing soldiers he fought. “There are all
four kilometres east of Nui Dat. After relieving sorts of figures. The enemy history has been
B Company and sharing lunch with them, D rewritten many times, and their impression is
Company took over patrolling duties. Smith they had three battalions each of about 600
decided to push further forward. “At around men. That would mean we were potentially
2.30–3.00 p.m. I decided to head east fighting 1,800 enemy soldiers. We were
because I reckoned that if the enemy was significantly outnumbered, but then again they
going to go anywhere they would have gone weren’t all up front in the line.”
into the jungle to the east of the plantation. I Smith was with the company headquarters
also didn’t want to be there overnight; it was that consisted of the company sergeant major
bad for mosquitoes and it was much better to (CSM), a batman, two signallers and three
be in the jungle for security.” machine-gun crews. His platoons were further
There was initially no sign of enemy spread out and the terrain made visibility
activity but Smith spread his platoons out difficult. “The plantation had trees that were laid
to widen the search. “B Company had gone out in rows but there was a lot of ‘dirty growth’
halfway through the plantation that morning that had been untended since the task force
and saw nothing. However, I spread my arrived. A lot of weeds had grown up between
company out just in case to ten metres the trees and although it wasn’t impassable it
between men so we were covering two made it difficult to see down the lanes.”
sections in each platoon. We were covering The visibility was also compounded by the
400 metres across and in depth onset of a monsoon. “It started to rain at
and we slowly moved east in that formation.” about 4.30 p.m. It rained pretty much every
It was 11 Platoon who first encountered the afternoon but on this particular day there were
enemy. “We’d gone 200–300 metres up an thunderstorms and lightning and it really poured.
oxcart road when up from the south came six It came down like no other rain that I’d ever seen
to eight Viet Cong chatting away nonchalantly. in Malaya or in Vietnam before and after. The
They weren’t aware of us and we weren’t aware ground was just afloat with water and there was
of them until they were right on us. My 11 no point in trying to dig trenches because they
Platoon sergeant, Bob Buick, opened fire and just filled up. We had to lay on the ground.”
knocked one Viet Cong over. His mates dragged The precipitation was so bad that Smith
him away and he left behind an AK-47 assault struggled to even read his charts. “[Captain]
rifle, which platoon commander Gordon Sharp Morrie Stanley was my artillery advisor and he
picked up 11 Platoon quickly followed up and and I were lying side by side trying to keep our
chased the enemy to the east.” maps clean of mud. This was so we could see
exactly where the soldiers were and where we
“My main aim was to were going to put the next battery of fire.”
Throughout the battle artillery support from
kill the enemy, which is Australian and New Zealand batteries located
back at Nui Dat (together with additional
the role of the infantry, American support) proved absolutely
essential in holding the enemy at bay.
and I had to get my “We were saved by the artillery, who fired
soldiers in the best 3,500 rounds. That’s a lot of high explosives,
and I think if we had not had the artillery I
situation where they would not be talking to you now. We had 24
guns firing, including six American 155mm
could do that” self-propelled guns with 90-pound shells.”

56
 ANZACS AT LONG TAN

Smith describes the numerically superior Viet Cong and

North Vietnamese forces he faced as “certainly very
brave and didn’t take cover behind trees”

Smith pictured at Nui Dat

Australian artillerymen
from 105 Field Battery
fire from Nui Dat,
c.1969. At the Battle
of Long Tan the battery
used L5 pack howitzers
to support D Company

57
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

1ST AUSTRALIAN
TASK FORCE
Thousands of troops from Australia and New Zealand served in
1 AFT between 1966–72 and sustained many casualties
When the Australian Government initially became involved in the Vietnam War, it deployed 1 RAR
to serve as the third infantry battalion of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in 1965. It was soon
replaced by a much larger, brigade-sized formation, which became known as 1st Australian Task
Force (1 ATF). Eventually consisting of three infantry battalions, 1 AFT also included armoured,
aerial, artillery, engineering and logistical units. Smith and CSM Jack Kirby (left) with a captured
Based at Nui Dat, 1 ATF also included a peak number of 552 New Zealanders, including enemy machine gun from the battle
artillerymen, infantrymen and members of the NZSAS. At its height, the Task Force numbered
over 8,000 men and saw extensive action from 1966 until its final withdrawal in March 1972.
1 ATF was not confined to operations in Phuoc Tuy and was occasionally deployed outside
of its tactical area of responsibility. This included Operation Coburg and the Battle of Coral-
Balmoral in 1968, which was the Task Force’s largest battle in Vietnam. Long Tan became 1
ATF’s most famous engagement, but there were other significant actions, including the battles
of Hat Dich, Binh Ba and Long Khanh.
In total 478 Australian soldiers were killed and 3,025 wounded during the war along, with 37
New Zealand fatalities and 187 wounded. The majority of these casualties were sustained by 1 ATF.

Private Bruce Larner

“478 Australian soldiers of 5 RAR waves in
an American Huey
Soldiers of 6 RAR participate in a dedication
ceremony to commemorate the fallen on the
helicopter during
were killed and 3,025 Operation Camden,
Long Tan battlefield, 18 August 1969
August 1969
wounded during the
war, along with 37 New
Zealand fatalities and
187 wounded”
Smith (right) pictured
on active duty during
Operation Portsea,
March 1967. He left
with D Company
shortly afterwards
on 30 May 1967

Key to this bombardment was the radio

communication between Smith, the artillery and
his platoon commanders. “We constantly talked
to each other. They would advise me where the
enemy was coming in and I’d tell the artillery
commander to move the artillery to where
it was required. The platoon commanders
Below: Australian soldiers controlled their own platoons and they did a
march through Sydney
bloody good job. I didn’t tell them what to do.”
before leaving for Vietnam
On the battlefield itself Smith remained
focused. “My main aim was to kill the enemy,
which is the role of the infantry, and I had to
get my soldiers in the best situation where
they could do that. Whenever there was a
lull in the battle I would go around the three
platoons and check on how they were doing.
I would also make sure that their machine
guns were lined up and covering each other
so that we had fields of fire where they could
fire on the enemy.”
The challenges of coordinating the battle
meant that even fear itself was an afterthought.
“People have said to me ‘Were you frightened?’
but I always say I wasn’t because I was too
busy. You’re giving orders to platoons, passing
information back to the CO and talking to the
artillery commander. Certainly, whenever the
enemy put in their main assaults they gave us a
hard time but they never got inside our forward
lines. They were just mown down by artillery
 ANZACS AT LONG TAN

“The battlefield looked like a cyclone had

hit it. All the trees were blown apart
and there were shell craters, blood
trails and bodies everywhere”

Australian troops make their way

back to Bien Hoa Airbase north of
Saigon in South Vietnam

and those that got through were mown down by enemy.” Although he was given artillery support Smith received the full regiment of artillery
my soldiers and their machine guns.” from Nui Dat, Smith had particular difficulty fire after that exchange but his superiors’
Although the Anzac artillery was of critical receiving full support from his senior officers intransigence also extended to flight units.
importance to D Company’s survival, inaccurate away from the battlefield. Fortunately for D Company, airmen of the
small-arms fire from the Viet Cong was also “The problem was with the base Royal Australian Air Force disobeyed orders
significant. “They had a large number of tracer headquarters. There were a number of requests to deliver much-needed supplies. “Luckily
rounds in their ammunition. One thing about I made for artillery and it was very difficult for we got ammunition because there were two
the enemy that was always good for us was them to agree to it. I was a young major and I helicopters that had flown the concert party
that they fired high for some unknown reason. think the lieutenant colonels etc. thought ‘What to Nui Dat. They were initially told that they
The tracer rounds used to go over our head in does Harry Smith think he’s trying to do? Run weren’t allowed to fly out because it was
the main and as dusk came on it looked like the battle?’. I just had to tell them I wanted it contrary to Canberra regulations. However, one
fireflies going past.” and I wanted it now.” of the pilots said ‘I’m the captain of my aircraft,
Nevertheless, D Company was taking His efforts were additionally hampered I’m going. Harry Smith wants ammunition and
casualties and in the final company position because the troops at Nui Dat were distracted I’m going to take it out’.”
the wounded were gathered very close to the by a music concert put on by the famous
fighting. “We had about 22 wounded and they Australian singers Little Pattie and Col Joye. Victory and devastation
had to be taken back to the company aid post, “The majority of people were more interested D Company had now been fighting enemy
which was behind my headquarters. It was just in the concert than they were in all the noise forces for hours, with the North Vietnamese
a hole in the ground that wasn’t very deep and that was 4,000 metres away! It was a bit hard launching repeated and dogged assaults.
the medical orderlies were usually bandsmen. for them to come to terms with ‘Here we are “Tactically, they were in-depth like us and they
However, one of them, Corporal [Phil] Dobson, watching a concert and D Company is out there would pull back, reorganise and come up again.
was better than a doctor. He went around fighting a regiment of North Vietnamese’.” They were certainly very brave and didn’t take
and tended the wounded and not one of them The most visceral disagreement between cover behind trees. Some of our soldiers said,
was lost. I was later able to get a Mention in Smith and his superiors came when he believed ‘We reckon they were drugged because they
Dispatches for him.” that D Company would be overwhelmed. “I just kept on coming’. It was suicidal.”
eventually wanted the whole regiment of Nevertheless, the tenacity of Smith’s men
“You will lose the lot of us!” artillery, i.e. all three batteries firing plus the and the increased bombardment eventually
Despite the dangers posed by the enemy, American 155mm guns, but they said ‘No, you took its toll. At 7.10 p.m. APCs from Nui Dat,
Smith has since written, “I often think I had can’t have them’. I said ‘Fire the bloody guns or along with soldiers from other companies,
more trouble back at base than with the you will lose the lot of us!’” finally arrived to relieve D Company, but as

59
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

Smith pictured just before he received the Military Cross from Brigadier Oliver Jackson. Smith had
been recommended for the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) but his award was downgraded.
Jackson, who was not present at Long Tan, controversially received the DSO instead

Smith explains, “The enemy had already we found them still alive! One of them, Jimmy there was enough information to say that a
withdrawn and the battle had actually finished Richmond, was wounded in the chest and regiment of the enemy was there. We were
in our position before the APCs arrived. There’s couldn’t move or breathe properly. He just lay able to survive but sadly I lost 17 of my
no doubt in my mind that we had defeated there until we got back but he now lives not too soldiers killed and 24 wounded.”
the enemy. The APCs got to within 300 metres far away from me on the Sunshine Coast.”
south of us and they could see the Viet Cong The casualty figures from Long Tan were Downgraded awards
disappearing in the gloom to the east. They grim. Out of 108 men, 17 soldiers from D The incompetence of the Australian high
turned right and chased them until they lost Company had been killed and 24 wounded, command did not end after the battle, and
them in the dark.” along with a corporal from 1 APC Squadron who to add insult to injury, the official recognition
The exhausted D Company were relieved for was mortally wounded. 11 of Smith’s men who of D Company’s gallantry became mired in
the night, but they returned to the battlefield were killed were national servicemen, but the controversy. The Australian public were shocked
with APCs the following morning. A scene of opposing forces suffered even worse losses. at the deaths of the national servicemen,
carnage greeted them. “The battlefield looked The combined fatalities of the Viet Cong and Smith was ordered to make award
like a cyclone had hit it. All the trees were and North Vietnamese troops came to 293 recommendations at short notice. Complicating
blown apart and there were shell craters, as recorded by the Australians, but the true matters was an unusual quota system. “You
blood trails and bodies everywhere. The number is most likely much higher, along with were only allowed one medal per 150 men
amount of high explosives that we landed on an almost unverifiable number of wounded. every six months. There was also only one MiD
the enemy was horrendous and when we went Adding to the bloodshed was the tragic (Mention in Dispatches) per 100 men every six
back in the next morning it was no wonder possibility that the battle could have been months, and there were also no unit citation
that there were 245 bodies in bits and pieces prevented by Brigadier Jackson. “He had awards in those days. We had to be very
on the battlefield. We found another 48 in a all the information provided by the South careful about who we recommended and it
shallow grave just to the east, so the total for Vietnamese forces and civilians plus SAS was a very difficult procedure.”
the battle that they couldn’t drag away, and patrols. If he had added two and two together Smith did what he could and recommended
they did drag a lot away, was 293 bodies.” many of his men for prestigious awards,
Despite the devastation, D Company “The incompetence of including a Victoria Cross for CSM Jack Kirby.
managed to find two of their own missing men However, only a few lower-grade medals
wounded on the battlefield. “They were from 11 the Australian high and MiDs were awarded. Smith himself was
Platoon and when we pulled them back into the
company areas those two were thought to be
command did not end recommended for the Distinguished Service
Order (DSO) but his award was likewise
dead. When we went back in the next morning after the battle” downgraded to the Military Cross.

60
 ANZACS AT LONG TAN

Smith leads men from D Company to receive medals for

gallantry at Long Tan, January 1967. Directly behind him is CSM
Jack Kirby, who Smith recommended for the Victoria Cross. Kirby
was instead awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal

Above: Smith pictured with Australian Australian artillerymen

Victoria Cross recipients Keith Payne (left) prepare to fire a 105mm
and Ben Roberts-Smith. His own Star of gun in support of forces at
Gallantry is pictured at the far left of the Nui Dat, Vietnam
medal ribbon next to the Military Cross

Images: Alamy, Big Sky Publishing and Harry Smith, Getty, Shutterstock
Perversely, Jackson was highly decorated received proper recognition along with an commanding officer of D Company, Smith
for reasons that Smith finds dubious, “The Australian Unit Citation for Gallantry. “There still retains great pride in his men after over
brigadier was given the DSO for his ‘able, were now Commendations of Gallantry so 50 years. “I feel honoured to have been the
personal command of the battle’. This was in those who had been recommended for MiDs commander at Long Tan and very proud of my
his citation, but he was actually 4,000 metres got the commendations. Others who I’d soldiers who fought as well as they did.
from the battle and never had anything to do recommended for the Military Cross got the “I have to say that for young national
with it. Nor did he give me any direction.” Cross of Gallantry. I was certainly very happy serviceman and the regular army guys they
The reasoning behind the downgraded that the Governor-General presented these performed outstandingly. Without them I
awards has long puzzled Smith. “I had a pretty awards in August 2016.” wouldn’t be alive today.”
hard slog to get my own troops awarded the Kirby, who died on another Vietnam tour in
medals that I recommended to them. I didn’t 1967, did not receive a posthumous Victoria
know what the problem was. It was as though Cross but Smith was awarded the Star of Harry Smith is the author of the autobiography
The Battle Of Long Tan: The Commander’s Story,
there was a veto and perhaps a feeling of Gallantry (SG) in 2008 alongside his Military
which is published by Big Sky Publishing.
‘You can’t give awards to national servicemen Cross. The SG is the second-highest military
To purchase a copy visit:
because they won’t be in the army for long. gallantry award in Australia and is surpassed www.bigskypublishing.com.au
However, I really don’t know what went on.” only by the Victoria Cross.
Although D Company received the US
Presidential Unit Citation in 1968, the “They performed outstandingly”
unfairness of the individual awards for Long Tan Although Australian soldiers fought many
deeply frustrated Smith for decades. “I have battles in Vietnam, Long Tan became the
always been very critical of the situation. Of the most famous. It is even the subject of a film
ones that I nominated half were downgraded titled Danger Close, which was internationally
and half were withdrawn. released on 8 August 2019.
“I couldn’t do anything for 30 years because Smith explains why he thinks the battle was
of the official secrecy period, but in 1996 I important, “Long Tan wasn’t a long battle like
started tackling Canberra. I was eventually able Coral-Balmoral, which went on for three weeks
to win and get those recommended in 1966 and had a lot more air and tank support. It was
given the awards that I gave them.” a very short, sharp, nasty battle where you had
A new system of awards had since been a company defeating a regiment of the enemy.
introduced, but many of Smith’s men finally That is what is significant about it.” As the

61
 Operator’s Handbook

UH-1H IROQUOIS
‘HUEY’
The ‘sound’ of the Vietnam War is not just a
symbol of the US’s involvement but also an
outstanding aircraft that changed the rules
of combat survival for the better
WORDS TOM GARNER

T
he Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter is one of the
most iconic symbols of American involvement
in the Vietnam War, and the distinctive noise
of its rotor blades have led many American
veterans to describe it as the ‘sound of our
war’. It first entered service in 1959, and over 16,000
of these powerful helicopters have been produced in the
years since.
During the war the Iroquois was nicknamed ‘Huey’
thanks to its early ‘HU-1’ designation (which was later
changed to UH-1). This name became so common that the
AH-1 attack version was officially named the ‘Huey Cobra’.
From 1965–73 the UH-1 Huey was the most common utility
helicopter used in Vietnam and is the most produced variant
of the model. It was primarily used to transport troops for
aerial attacks, medical evacuations and transporting cargo.
Hueys clocked up a total of 7,531,955 flight hours during the
war and over 2,500 were destroyed.
Over ten per cent of all combat deaths in Vietnam occurred
in helicopter operations, with 6,175 fatalities, but Hueys also
helped to airlift over 90,000 patients. During World War II
and the Korean War, hospitalisation time was measured in
days, but Hueys could transport a wounded soldier from the
field to hospital in less than one hour, dramatically increasing
wartime survival rates.
This particular photographed aircraft is an ‘H’ model, a type
that would have been used in Vietnam. It was stationed on a
US Army base in Germany and now resides in the American
Air Museum as part of the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

62
 UH-1H IROQUOIS ‘HUEY’

UH-1H IROQUOIS ‘HUEY’

MANUFACTURER: BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON (US)
INITIAL YEAR OF SERVICE: 1959
POWER PLANT: LYCOMING T53-L-11 TURBO SHAFT ENGINE DELIVERING 1,100 SHP
MAXIMUM TAKEOFF WEIGHT: 4,100KG
PAYLOAD: 2,200LB (IN ADDITION TO FUEL AND CREW OF 4)
SPEED: 220KPH
RANGE: 510KM
CEILING: 19,390FT
CREW: 4
PASSENGERS: 12 MAXIMUM
ARMAMENT: HIGHLY VARIABLE DEPENDING ON ROLE AND OPERATOR

The UH-1’s official name is

‘Iroquois’, but the helicopter
was commonly named ‘Huey’
and the name stuck

“During World War II

and the Korean War
hospitalisation time was
measured in days, but
Hueys could transport
a wounded soldier from
the field to hospital
in less than one hour,
dramatically increasing
wartime survival rates”

63
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

ARMAMENT Hueys were designed to be adaptable for

different weapons including this minigun
The Huey was lightly armed and
vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.
Most were fitted with M-60D
machine guns manned by the
crew chief on the left and the door
gunner on the right. 2,000 rounds Below: Huey gunships were
usually fitted with a machine
of linked ammunition could be gun operated by a door gunner
carried in the helicopter. These along with other adaptable
two crewmembers also carried weapons such as rocket pods
an M-16 rifle and coloured smoke
grenades to mark targets when
receiving hostile fire or to mark
landing zones.
The officially unarmed pilots
often carried unauthorised
weapons slung over their seats
for personal protection. Hueys
could also adapt to be armed with
torpedoes, miniguns, air-to-surface
missiles and rocket pods.

1960s helicopters were not computerised and

the pilot would spend a lot of time concentrating
to balance the rudders and rotor blades

“Hueys could also adapt to be armed

with torpedoes, miniguns, air-to-
surface missiles and rocket pods”

64
 UH-1H IROQUOIS ‘HUEY’

Including the crew, a Huey

could seat up to 15 people,
usually American infantrymen

CREW AND
PASSENGERS
The Huey was manned by four
crewmembers. The Aircraft
Commander (or A/C) was the main
pilot and in command of the aircraft
at all times during a mission. The
co-pilot assisted the A/C and flew
the aircraft when needed. The A medical helicopter picks up an injured MISSIONS
crew chief was responsible for soldier of the 101st Airborne Division near the
demilitarised zone in South Vietnam in 1969 The Huey’s primary task was to carry
maintaining the aircraft while the
infantry into combat, a procedure
door gunner assisted the crew chief
commonly called ‘combat assaults’,
and manned the right-door gun which involved a ‘package’ of eight to
while flying. All crewmembers were ten Hueys transporting the infantry.
issued with body armour jokingly These were supported by two to three
referred to as ‘chicken plates’. gunships and observed by a command
The main passengers were and control helicopter that would
usually six to eight American hover overhead.
infantrymen en route to, or As a multi-purpose helicopter, the
returning from, combat zones, but Huey had other missions including
the Huey could seat 15 people or supplying food, water, ammunition
house six stretchers. and other necessities to infantry
in the field or at forward bases. It
was also used as a medical vehicle,
transporting wounded soldiers to
safety and treatment. Hueys are still
used by various countries for fire-
fighting missions, humanitarian aid,
research operations and search-and-
rescue duties.

A Huey door gunner poses

with the command chopper Right: A Huey spraying Agent Orange
of Major General John H Hay, over the Vietnam countryside in an
Jr., commanding general of effort to expose hidden fighters
the 1st Infantry Division

65
THE STRUGGLE FOR VIETNAM’S SOUL

“The Huey was one of the first

helicopters to use a turbine
jet engine, which was installed
above the fuselage and close
to the main rotor unit”

Above: This small, empty space

would have housed the turbine
engine, enabling a greater amount
of cargo and passenger space

The rear of a UH-1H turbo shaft.

This small but powerful engine
enabled the Huey to fly at
speeds of up to 220kph and a
range of 510km

Right: A Lycoming T-53 turbine engine powered the

Huey. Since 1955, over 19,000 have been produced
for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft

ENGINE
Piston engines powered early helicopters, but
this increased the aircraft weight and limited
its flight capacity. The Huey was one of the first
helicopters to use a turbine jet engine, which
was installed above the fuselage and close
to the main rotor unit. Turbine engines were
expensive to build but they were durable, had
great longevity and were very light considering
their power output. Its small size meant that
the helicopter could hold a larger cargo and
transport more soldiers.

66
 UH-1H IROQUOIS ‘HUEY’

The unique sound of the rotor

blades led American Vietnam
veterans to describe the Huey
as the ‘sound of our war’

SERVICE IN Salvador Air Force received over 100 Hueys

from the US, and these were heavily engaged
OTHER COUNTRIES in combat. Only 34 survived the war. The
Argentinean Army used nine Hueys against
Although the Huey is thought of as a the British during the Falklands War, and, in
quintessentially American helicopter, it has the 2007 Lebanon conflict, the Lebanese
been used on active service by many other Army modified several UH-1Hs to carry 227
countries in different conflicts. During the kilograms of high explosives, which they then
Salvadoran Civil War (1979–92), the El used to strike Islamist militant positions.

An armed Huey named ‘Death

from above’ lands in an
unidentified village in central El
Salvador in 1984

“The Argentinean
Army used nine
Hueys against the
British during the
Falklands War”
Images: Alamy; Getty; Wiki

This UH-1H Iroquois Huey is housed in the

fully refurbished and reopened American Air
Museum at the Imperial War Museum Duxford
in Cambridgeshire.
For more details visit: www.iwm.org.uk/
visits/iwm-duxford

67
STORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

DEADLOCK IN
THE DEPTHS
OF THE JUNGLE
70 The Siege of Khe Sanh
Awesome American firepower would ultimately settle
a ferocious battle for Khe Sanh Combat Base 78 110
78 A vision of hell
Think your job’s tough? A bad day at the office for
Stuart Steinburg meant death and destruction

88 The My Lai massacre

Uncover the truth behind the worst atrocity of the
entire war

92 The Tet Offensive

Aiming to drive the Americans out of Vietnam, the
forces of the North used the cover of a lunar festival
to prepare a massive assault

98 Storm in the USA

Increasingly aware of the carnage caused by US
intervention, thousands of Americans voiced their
opposition to the war

102 Hamburger Hill

Over 70 American troops and more than 1,000
South Vietnamese soldiers would die to take a
position their commanders would soon abandon

110 Cambodia and Laos

Vietnam’s neighbours were not spared the horrors
of its war
70

102

68
 DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

88

98
92

69
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

SIEGE OF

KHE SANH
The North Vietnamese besieged an isolated outpost in
northwestern South Vietnam held by the US Marines, but their
attack failed in the face of overwhelming American firepower

QUANG TRI PROVINCE, SOUTH VIETNAM 21 JANUARY – 8 APRIL 1968

WORDS WILLIAM E. WELSH

70
 THE SIEGE OF KHE SANH

N
orth Vietnamese artillery and grenade launchers and one-shot disposable communists broke off their attack at dawn. A
mortar shells exploded atop rocket launchers in an effort to check the Marine Corps relief column backed by a section
American-held Hill 64 slightly north enemy onslaught. of M48 tanks arrived after daybreak to mop up
of Khe Sanh Combat Base in the As the fighting grew in intensity, the shouts any remaining resistance.
predawn darkness of 8 February and screams of the combatants were drowned The fight for Hill 64 was typical of the savage,
1968. Communist sappers shoved Bangalore out by the roar of incoming artillery shells fired limited attacks that the NVA made against
torpedoes through the triple concertina wire from American and North Vietnamese mortars the Marine Corps units garrisoning Khe Sanh
on the outpost’s perimeter and unrolled spools and howitzers, as each side brought supporting Combat Base and its outlying hills during the
of canvas so that the assault troops could fire to bear on the contested hill. After 90 77-day siege of the military installation, which
breach the perimeter without being cut to minutes of fighting, the NVA had captured began on 21 January 1968.
ribbons. Khaki-uniformed troops armed with most of the compound, except for the trenches During the course of the siege, General Vo
AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade on the southern side of the stronghold. The Nguyen Giap orchestrated the movements of
launchers and satchel charges streamed into 34,000 soldiers in four divisions. Although Giap
the compound. “Johnson required the never resorted to using human-wave attacks like
The 65 marines of Alpha Company of the those that he had employed to defeat the French
First Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment, reeled members of the JCS to army at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, his forces did
under the shock of the attack. Some of the inflict substantial casualties on the US Marines
marines fought from the protection of trenches sign a pledge that they through their relentless artillery and rocket
and bunkers, while others climbed out of
the trenches and charged at the invaders to
would not allow Khe bombardment and in sharp clashes like the one
for Hill 64.
stop them from reaching the heavy weapons Sanh Combat Base to “I don’t want any damn Dinbinfoo,” US
President Lyndon Johnson famously told
and bunkers. The marines fired M16 assault
rifles and M60 machine guns, as well as M79 fall to the enemy” the joint chiefs of staff in the run-up to the

US Marine tank crews inside

the perimeter of the combat
base watch as jet aircraft
make bombing runs against
enemy positions

OPPOSING FORCES
vs
NORTH US & SOUTH
VIETNAMESE VIETNAMESE
ARMY ARMY
LEADER: LEADER:
General Vo Nguyen Giap Colonel David Lownds
INFANTRY: 34,000 INFANTRY: 6,000
HEAVY GUNS: 200 HEAVY GUNS: 40
LIGHT TANKS: 16 MEDIUM TANKS: 12

71
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

siege. To ensure there was no repeat of the

French military disaster, Johnson required the
“The North
members of the JCS to sign a pledge that they Vietnamese knew
would not allow Khe Sanh Combat Base to fall
to the enemy. that the year-round
The North Vietnamese motive for the attack
remains unclear to this day. On the one hand, cloud and fog would
Hanoi may have been seeking to tie down
Marine Corps units and their supporting
significantly hamper A Douglas A-4F Skyhawk from
the US Navy launches Zuni
aircraft in advance of the Tet Offensive
against South Vietnamese population
American air supply rockets during the siege

centres, which began shortly after Khe Sanh and air strikes”
was surrounded. On the other hand, North
Vietnamese military leaders may have sought known as the crachin (a grey drizzle that In 1962, the Army of the Republic of South
to try to capture Khe Sanh Combat Base in regularly descends across the country) Vietnam (ARVN) built a primitive dirt airstrip
order to gain a great propaganda victory over occasionally caused thick, opaque clouds to three kilometres north of the village of Khe
the Americans. drift close to the ground in the mornings, thus Sanh, and the US Army Special Forces
Khe Sanh Combat Base was perched on a limiting visibility to a kilometre or less. Thick established a Civilian Irregular Defence Camp
triangular-shaped plateau on the south side fog enveloped the landscape at night and well next to the airstrip on the ground that would
of the Rao Quan River in the northwestern into the morning as a result of the interaction later become the combat base. The Special
corner of the Republic of South Vietnam. It was between the cool air in higher elevations Forces’ primary responsibility was to monitor
located 23 kilometres south of the demilitarized and warm air in lower elevations. The North enemy movement south along the clandestine
zone and ten kilometres east of Laos. Vietnamese knew that the year-round cloud and logistics corridor known as the Ho Chi Minh
The higher elevations of the picturesque fog would significantly hamper American air trail, which funnelled men and supplies from
hills of Khe Sanh are painted emerald green supply and air strikes. North Vietnam through eastern Laos and
with double-canopy rainforest, while the lower The only road into the combat base was Cambodia into South Vietnam.
elevations are a patchwork of green and National Route 9, an east-west corridor that the In 1966, a Navy Construction Battalion
brown with tall elephant grass. The Americans North Vietnamese cut in early January 1968. expanded the length of the airstrip and put
deemed control of the handful of hills northwest After that, the Marines relied on resupply by down steel matting that would enable it to
of the combat base essential to its overall helicopter and cargo aircraft such as the C-130 support the weight of cargo aircraft. The
defence, as enemy artillery placed on the hills Hercules and C-123 Provider. The nearest US marines established a small garrison at Khe
would make the base indefensible. Marine installations were 19–24 kilometres Sanh that year, largely at the behest of General
The Marines who garrisoned the combat east at the Rockpile and Camp Carroll, where William Westmoreland, who as commander
base took a beating from the weather as well 16 massive 175mm guns with the capability to of the US military forces in South Vietnam
as the enemy. It rained all year round in the fire beyond the horizon could bring additional had authority over the Marine Corps forces
region. What’s more, a weather phenomenon fire to bear. stationed in the country. Westmoreland had

Spent artillery shells are piled in heaps. The US

forces fired tens of thousands of rounds and
proved crucial in repelling NVA assaults

72
 THE SIEGE OF KHE SANH

his own motives for the build-up of equipment Over the course of the next 11 days the two large-scale attack, but that would change by the
and troops at Khe Sanh. He saw it as a staging sides fought a series of skirmishes as the year’s end. In the meantime, the Navy Seabees
area for a possible strike into Laos to cut the Marines worked to clear the North Vietnamese once again rebuilt the airstrip. Over the course
trail, but US President Lyndon Johnson never from key hills northwest of the combat base. of two months, beginning in August, they put a
approved the idea for fear that it might draw On 28 April the marines secured Hill 861, and foundation of crushed rock under steel matting
communist China into the war. on 5 May they captured Hill 881 North. to deter erosion from monsoon rains. While the
Leaving the Marines to guard the airstrip, the The NVA, as always, proved tenacious on the airstrip was closed resupply of the combat base
Special Forces relocated their camp to Lang defence, and the Americans called in artillery was conducted by parachute drops.
Vei, ten kilometres to the southwest. As Marine fire and air strikes. Fighter-bombers of the First As it became increasingly evident from
operations increased in the Khe Sanh area, the Marine Aircraft Wing flew 1,100 sorties and the intelligence data that the NVA was planning a
NVA stepped up its activities in the locale as big guns at the Rockpile and Camp Carroll fired major attack against the combat base, Lownds
well. A Marine Corps patrol on 24 April 1967 25,000 rounds. In addition, US Air Force B-52 ordered his Marines to take preparations
collided with an enemy force approaching Stratofortress bombers flew 23 strikes. The to safeguard themselves in the event of an
the base over the rough ground to the west. NVA, which like the US Marines removed their attack. He also had combat engineers oversee
The rugged terrain, with its hills and ravines, dead from the battlefield if possible, left behind work details that strengthened the perimeter
offered good cover for the approaching North 940 bodies, and the marines suffered 155 defences. Lownds also fortified the weapons
Vietnamese soldiers. killed and 425 wounded in what became known defences of the hilltop outposts.
The Marines sent two rifle battalions of the afterwards as the Hill Fights. To defend the combat base and hold
Third Marine Regiment to engage the enemy. Colonel David Lownds, the cigar-chomping key positions west and northwest of the
commander of 26th Marine Regiment, arrived to base, Lownds had 5,000 men in the three
take charge of operations at Khe Sanh Combat battalions that constituted his 26th Marine
Base on 12 August 1967. A World War II veteran Regiment. The First and Third Battalions of
A sniper team takes aim during who had served as a platoon commander in the 26th Regiment defended the base, while
the Siege of Khe Sanh Pacific theatre battles such as Iwo Jima, Lownds the Second Battalion of the 26th Regiment
faced the challenge of trying to anticipate the held Hill 558 – a position that would allow
enemy’s plans and movements. When Lownds it to block enemy forces moving through the
arrived there was no imminent threat of a Rao Quan Valley towards the combat base.

“Lownds issued an order in mid-

Below: A marine atop
January requiring the Marines
Hill 881 South uses
a powerful set of US
at Khe Sanh to wear their flak
Navy ship binoculars to
locate enemy targets jackets and carry their rifles with
for air strikes by
fighter-bombers them wherever they went”

73
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

KHE SANH
The key hilltop outposts – Hill 881S, Hill
861 and 861A – were held by company-sized
detachments. The rifle companies defending
the hilltop outposts and the perimeter of the
combat base routinely conducted patrols,

1968
but as the threat grew, platoon-sized patrols
were restricted to within 460 metres of their
perimeter to prevent costly ambushes.
Lownds issued an order in mid-January
requiring the Marines at Khe Sanh to wear
their flak jackets and carry their rifles with
them wherever they went, so that they would
be ready for battle in the event of a surprise
attack. He also directed each Marine to build a
foxhole next to the bunker where he slept, as
well as near the location on base where he was
assigned during the day.
The artillerymen who manned the six 155mm
and 18 105mm howitzers defending the
combat base worked throughout January to
pre-register coordinates of likely targets outside
the perimeter in an effort to ensure that they
could furnish quick and accurate supporting
fire in the event of an attack on any number of
different Marine-held locations. In addition to
the howitzers, Lownds also had a platoon of
M48A3 Patton tanks, as well as two platoons
of M50A1 Ontos vehicles, each of which was
armed with six 106mm recoilless rifles. Lownds
distributed a small number of single 106mm
recoilless rifles and 4.2-inch heavy mortars to
the hilltop outposts to supplement their 81mm
mortars and .50-calibre machine guns.
Westmoreland instituted a comprehensive
bombing operation known as Operation Niagara
at the beginning of January. The first phase
consisted of surveillance and reconnaissance
through aerial photography and electronic
ground sensors designed to pinpoint NVA Below: Airborne troops
destroying enemy bunkers
forces for attack by Air Force, Navy and Marine after an assault on Hill 875
strike aircraft. He planned a follow-on phase in
which fighter-bombers and B-52s would make
air strikes based on the intelligence gathered.
The Marines caught a lucky break on
20 January when an NVA artillery officer
deserted his unit. Eager to cooperate with the
Americans, Lieutenant La Than Tonc informed
the Marines that a major attack would unfold
the next day against the combat base and hills
861 and 881 South. This was part of an effort
from the NVA to capture the high ground, he
said. The North Vietnamese intended to deploy
artillery and mortars on the captured hills in
preparation for assaults on the base. Lownds
immediately put his forces on high alert.
That night the North Vietnamese launched a
battalion-sized attack against the 150 Marines
of Kilo Company 3/26 manning Hill 861, three

“The attack began at

12.30 a.m. with the NVA
firing rocket-propelled A C-123 cargo aircraft downed by North
Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire burns on
the airstrip at Khe Sanh Combat Base
grenades and machine guns
to support troops who laid
bamboo mats and ladders
over the concertina and
tangle-foot wire”

74
 THE SIEGE OF KHE SANH

08 THE RESCUE
CAVALRY TO

The US First Cavalry Division begins

07
FOOT PATROL Operation Pegasus on 1 April with
AMBUSHED the goal of re-opening Route 9 to
A 48-man Marine platoon from Khe Sanh Combat Base. The NVA
Bravo Company, 3/26, stumbles lacks sufficient anti-aircraft guns to
into a devastating ambush impede the Air Cavalry’s offensive
east of the combat base while operations. A week later the Fifth
looking for NVA trenches and Battalion, Seventh Cavalry links up
tunnels. The survivors have to with the First Battalion, 26th Marine
leave 25 fallen Marines outside Regiment, ending the siege.
the perimeter until the NVA
withdraws. On 30 March the
bodies are recovered.

01
NORTH VIETNAMESE RECON
On the night of 2 January movement
was detected outside the western perimeter of
Khe Sanh Combat Base. A Marine rifle squad
fired on a group of six men, killing all but
one who escaped. The dead men were North
Vietnamese regimental officers disguised in
Marine Corps uniforms.

05
CRASH LANDING
A KC-130F transport aircraft
was struck by enemy machine gun
fire as it was inbound on 10 February.
The pilot managed to safely land the
aircraft, but it caught fire. Eight of the
11 crew members perished. The Air
Force and Marines temporarily banned
the large cargo plane in favour of using
the smaller C-123.

03
LUCKY SHOT
The North Vietnamese
launch a pre-dawn bombardment on
21 January against the combat base
with many of its 200 heavy guns and
122mm rockets. One rocket scores
a direct hit on the main ammunition
dump located next to the airstrip,
creating a massive explosion from
1,500 tons of bombs, shells and
bullets. Secondary explosions occur

02 SUFFER REPULSE
for two days as the ordnance cooks AMERICANS
off. The assault marks the beginning
of the 77-day siege. Three platoons of Marines attack
uphill on 20 January against NVA
regulars entrenched on the top of
Hill 861 North. After four hours
of intense fighting in which the
Americans fail to capture the

04 HILL 861A
ATTACK ON summit, they return to their base on

06
PROBING ATTACKS Hill 881 South.
With a massive artillery NVA troops launch a pre-dawn
bombardment supporting their attack on 6 February against a
assault, on 21 February a battalion company of Marines holding Hill
of North Vietnamese troops attacks 861A. The two sides engage in
the eastern end of the combat base fierce fighting with assault rifles,
where the South Vietnamese Rangers grenades and bayonets. American
are stationed. The communists, long-range artillery from the
Map: Rocio Espin

using their trenches to cover their Rockpile base 19 kilometres away

movements, conduct frequent probing fires 24-pound shells that help
attacks from the east for the next break up the attack.
three weeks.

75
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Marines slept in bunkers beneath tall kilometres northwest of the combat base.
stacks of sandbags to protect them Throughout the evening the defenders had
from daily bombardment by North
Vietnamese mortars and artillery braced themselves for the attack. They could
hear sappers working on the northwest portion
of the perimeter to cut paths through the dense
rows of triple concertina wire and tangle-
foot wire – barbed wire laid horizontally in a
chequerboard pattern just above the ground.
The attack began at 12.30 a.m. with the NVA
firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine
guns to support assault troops. They laid
bamboo mats and ladders over the concertina
and tangle-foot wire to breach the perimeter.
The NVA overran First Platoon, which was
defending that section of the perimeter. This
allowed assault troops to hurl satchel charges
into sandbagged positions housing 50-calibre
machine guns and recoilless rifles.
“We’re being overrun!” First Lieutenant Jerrry
Saulsberry shouted over the battalion radio
network at 2.00 a.m. The Third Battalion’s
command group was on Hill 881S with India
Company of the 3/26 at the time. “A Marine
unit doesn’t get overrun,” replied Major Matthew
Caulfield, the battalion operations officer. After
learning that Kilo Company's Captain Norman
Jasper was severely wounded and that the
company’s gunnery sergeant was dead, he
instructed Saulsberry to hold on at all costs. In
the meantime, Kilo Company’s artillery forward
observer coordinated barrages from the heavy
guns and blasted reinforcements being funnelled
into the attack. At the same time the Marines on
Hill 881S began firing their mortars at the North
Vietnamese attacking Hill 861 to the north. By
5.30 a.m. the NVA had withdrawn.
As the ground assault fizzled out, the NVA
began shelling the combat base. They also
conducted a minor probe against the combat
base’s western perimeter and overran the
village of Khe Sanh just south of the combat
base. Helicopters extracted a small group of
Marines, who were in the village when the NVA
attack began.
The ground attack on Hill 861 and
bombardment of the combat base on 21
January marked the formal start of the siege.
From that point on, US Air Force C-130 Hercules
and C-123 Providers resupplied the combat
base, and Marine helicopters carried supplies
to the hilltop positions. The NVA shelled the
combat base on a daily basis during the siege,
making a concentrated effort with its mortars
to target the lumbering cargo aircraft. The daily
shelling also routinely killed Marines going
about their business on the combat base. The
constant shelling took a heavy psychological
toll on the men guarding Khe Sanh.
Lownds received two fresh battalions of
infantry in the first week of the siege: the First
Battalion of the Ninth Marine Regiment and
the elite ARVN 37th Ranger Battalion. Lownds

“Marine artillerymen
fired 500 high-explosive
rounds into the
suspected staging area,
seemingly crippling the
attack force”

76
 THE SIEGE OF KHE SANH

The North Vietnamese launched failed

ground attacks against Hills 861 and
861A early in the siege

HILL 861

HILL 861A

“The ground attack on Hill 861 and

bombardment of the combat base on 21
January marked the formal start of the siege”

ordered 1/9 to deploy outside the combat assault on the Lang Vei Special Forces camp The NVA withdrew at daylight, and the survivors
base’s western perimeter facing Khe Sanh on 7 February, which marked the first time abandoned the camp later that day for the
village, and he instructed the rangers to deploy communist troops used tanks in South Vietnam. safety of the combat base.
on the south side of the combat base to provide At 12.30 a.m. three columns of NVA troops, In March the NVA began slowly withdrawing
an extra layer of defence from that direction. spearheaded by a total of 11 PT-76 light tanks, units to the safety of Laos. By early April the
In this way, the combat base was buffered on smashed through the concertina wire protecting Siege of Khe Sanh was over. The Americans
three sides. There was no need to buffer the the perimeter. Defending the camp were 24 had suffered 199 killed and 830 wounded over
base on the north side because it bordered the Green Berets and several hundred mountain the course of the siege. In addition, they had
Rao Quan gorge. In addition, Westmoreland tribesmen serving as irregular infantry. flown 24,000 ground-attack strikes and 2,700
unleashed the second phase of Operation The tanks rumbled through the camp firing at B-52 sorties, inflicting staggering casualties.
Niagara. As part of the operation, B-52s flying point-blank range at sandbagged bunkers and Although exact North Vietnamese casualties
from Guam pummelled NVA troop concentrations heavy and automatic weapon positions. The din are unknown, estimates place their losses at
and staging areas around the clock. was tremendous as small arms and automatic around 10,000 men.
When the Tet Offensive began on 29 January weapons chattered, mortars popped, rocket- For their part, the North Vietnamese
a lull occurred in the intensity of the NVA’s propelled and hand-thrown grenades exploded compelled the US Marine Corps to strip men
ground operations at Khe Sanh, but US tactical and tank cannons roared. Green tracer rounds and equipment from the heavily populated South
and strategic air strikes continued unabated from NVA machine guns sliced eerily through Vietnamese coast, leaving major cities and
against enemy ground forces in the area. the blackness. The defenders had two 106mm towns vulnerable to communist attacks carried
When electronic sensors indicated the North recoilless rifles and 100 one-shot M72 light anti- out as part of the countrywide Tet Offensive.
Vietnamese were massing to attack Hill 881S tank weapons. The Green Berets knocked out a The Americans technically won the siege by
on 2 February, artillerymen fired 500 high- total of seven tanks during the six-hour battle. retaining control of the battlefield, but it was a
explosive rounds into the suspected staging NVA sappers tried desperately to force those pyrrhic victory that was overshadowed by the
area, seemingly crippling the attack force. manning the camp’s underground concrete communist success in the Tet Offensive, which
As part of its plan to tighten the noose on command centre to surrender. They tried revealed that the North Vietnamese could strike
the combat base, the NVA unleashed a fierce satchel charges, flamethrowers and thermite at will anywhere they pleased in South Vietnam.
Images: Alamy, Getty, Shutterstock

and tear gas grenades but still could not

compel the several dozen individuals to give
up. Lownds refused to send a relief column for FURTHER READING
fear that the column would be ambushed.
✪ JONES, GREGG. LAST STAND AT KHE SANH: THE U.S. MARINES
FINEST HOUR IN VIETNAM (BOSTON: DA CAPO, 2014)
✪ PISOR, ROBERT. THE END OF THE LINE: THE SIEGE OF KHE
Left: A 105mm howitzer fires on enemy
SANH (NEW YORK: NORTON, 1982)
positions. US air and artillery strikes ✪ PRADOS, JOHN, AND RAY STUBBE. VALLEY OF DECISION: THE
inflicted significant casualties on the SIEGE OF KHE SANH (NEW YORK: DELL, 1991)
North Vietnamese

77
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

During the Vietnam War, this bomb

disposal specialist was tasked
with disarming and removing
horrific explosive traps capable of
decimating American units

Interview with Stuart Steinberg, US Army ret.

A VISION
OF HELL WORDS TOM GARNER

Above: Steinberg This photograph

pictured while waiting was taken of mass
for extraction from detonations in the Qui
FSB Rifle, 11 February Nhon Ammunition Dump
1970. The photograph as Steinberg and other
is captioned, “The members of 184th EOD
Thousand Meter Stare” arrived at the main gate
 A VISION OF HELL

I
t is January 1970, and in a remote and sent to Vietnam. I wasn’t opposed to going Duty Pay’. At that time I was only making $90
corner of Vietnam a bomb disposal team there, but I wanted to do something that would a month so 55 bucks was a lot of money. I
is flown in by helicopter to a dangerous give me something to fall back on.” re-enlisted and left almost immediately for
firebase that has been booby-trapped By 1966 American involvement in the Vietnam the first phase of EOD school, which involved
by North Vietnamese forces. This team War was increasingly bloody and controversial, chemical and biological weapons in Alabama.”
is part of the US Army’s Explosive Ordnance but Steinberg recalls that he was largely ignorant Following this initial training, Steinberg learned
Disposal (EOD), and among the specialists is about the conflict: “I couldn’t have even shown more about his new role at a naval ordnance
experienced soldier Stuart Steinberg. where Vietnam was on the map so I was not station in Maryland. His programme included
Steinberg’s been destroying ordnance in really thinking about it when I enlisted.” courses in physics, improvised explosive devices
Vietnam since September 1968 and has been Steinberg underwent basic training before (IEDs) and learning about every kind of ordnance,
called to every hazardous situation imaginable. initially serving as a missile crewman in the including fuses and high-explosive rounds.
Acute danger is an accepted part of the job, but After graduating on 7 January 1968, Steinberg
while he is sweeping the firebase, Steinberg
steps on something suspicious. He stops, digs
“Steinberg was was assigned to Utah, where he experienced a
unique horror that threw him into the deep end
down and finds a black wire that is ominously assigned to Utah, of ordnance disposal.
moving. When he looks up, Steinberg spots a
North Vietnamese soldier pulling on the wire where he experienced Dugway Proving Ground
in the distance. The two men lock eyes for Established in 1942 and located approximately
a moment, and in a split second Steinberg a unique horror that 140 kilometres southwest of Salt Lake City,
realises that a large bomb is about to detonate
all around him. His survival will depend on two
threw him into the Dugway Proving Ground was, and remains, a
US Army facility to test biological and chemical
things: quick thinking and a pair of cutters.
This incident was only one of hundreds that
deep end of ordnance weapons. In 1968 Dugway stored all kinds of
ordnance, including leaking mustard gas rounds
Steinberg had to endure as an EOD specialist disposal” from WWI, and the job of Steinberg’s EOD
during the Vietnam War. He was working in one team was to “monitor all the different types
of the most stressful environments in what Florida Everglades. He found himself doing a of weapons systems, find leakers and then
was already an intense conflict, and his story tedious job with bad colleagues. “What this job destroy them”.
is a raw, visceral tale of technical expertise, ended up entailing was rolling the missiles out Dugway would be a gruelling assignment
boundless courage and profound comradeship. of a barn, cleaning them and pulling them back at the best of times, but on 13 March 1968
in. It was a ‘nothing’ job, and a lot of the people a terrible incident occurred when over 6,000
Enlisting for the EOD that I was stationed with were racists and anti- sheep and other animals were killed after a
Born in 1947 in Washington, DC, Steinberg was Semites. The CO and sergeant were complicit in weapons test went hideously wrong. “They
only 18 years old when he volunteered to join a lot of bulls**t that went on, including one guy were testing a new delivery system of nerve
the US Army on 28 July 1966. Although he was who was a loan shark, and it was just horrible.” gas. A pilot had flown out of Dugway and then
not unwilling to serve, he was keen to avoid To escape his situation, Steinberg consulted made an arch to come back after dispensing
being drafted. “I enlisted because I had flunked a career counsellor, who suggested transferring the weapon. But the weapon malfunctioned
out of college and the draft order was after me. to Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD). “I said, and dumped about a ton of nerve gas on a
They were drafting people into the Marines, ‘Why would I want to do that?’, but he replied, sheep ranch.”
and I didn’t want that because there was then ‘You’ll get a bonus for enlisting and you’ll also Although no people were killed, the nerve
no doubt you were going to be an infantryman get paid $55 extra a month on Hazardous gas was spread over vast tracts of land. “It

Below: Fire Support Base (FSB) Rifle before it was virtually

destroyed in a savage battle on 11 February 1970

Left: The office Damaged ordnance

and quarters being detonated.
of the EOD This photograph
Section of was taken from
184th Ordnance an EOD bunker
Battalion at Qui approximately 2.5
Nhon Airfield kilometres away

79
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

killed everything in a 40,000-acre [162-square at war and as a volunteer I felt that was where I any sort of ordnance that the US and its
-kilometre] area. When I say ‘everything’, a lot needed to be.” allies or the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
of people know that cockroaches can survive a Steinberg would ultimately spend 18 months and Viet Cong (VC) were using.”
nuclear blast, but they can’t survive nerve gas in Vietnam between 4 September 1968 and EOD dealt with all kinds of ordnance that
because they have a central nervous system. 24 March 1970. Six of those months were a were often found by special operations units.
Everything that walked, crawled or flew in this voluntary extension of his original tour, and he “Whenever there was an airstrike there
area was dead.” would be promoted from the technical rank of were always going to be duds. Long-range
Along with other specialists, Steinberg’s specialist 4th Class (corporal) to specialist 5th reconnaissance teams or special ops guys
task was to dispose of the animals’ dead Class (sergeant) during his active service. like the Green Berets or Navy Seals would go
bodies. “Engineers came in, dug a huge pit When Steinberg landed in Vietnam he was out on assessments after these airstrikes and
and everything was shoved into it. We piled shocked by the extreme change in temperature. discover duds on the surface. We would then
on thousands of tyres, set charges, tied it all “When we got off the plane it was so hot and fly in on combat assaults, get to where these
together with detonating cord and then soaked humid it was like walking into a blast furnace. things were and blow them up.”
it all in jet fuel. We set it off, and when the pit We landed at an air force base near Saigon Detonating ordnance was not the only
had cooled down after a few days they pushed and then were trucked to the main army base. method of bomb disposal. “On some
all of the topsoil into the pit and put a fence bombs, the type of fusing they had made
around the area.”
To protect himself from exposure to the nerve
“My feeling was that them extremely dangerous. A lot of the
fuses, particularly the Navy fuses, had anti-
gas, Steinberg was heavily kitted out in protective I was trained for a disturbance devices, so when you approached
clothing. “We wore rubber suits that covered one of these weapons you didn’t touch it. When
your legs, top and boots, as well as a hood. You combat job. My country we destroyed them, we would lay charges of
wore a gas mask, and we sometimes had to use C-4 [plastic explosive] along both sides of the
an air pack so we could breathe clean air. Even was at war and as a bomb, tie it together with detonating cord and
though it was March and still fairly cold you were
sweating like crazy inside these suits.”
volunteer I felt that was then use a non-electric blasting cap with a 15-
20 minute timer on it. You’d pull the fuse lighter
Such was the horror of the incident that
Steinberg chose to go to war rather than remain
where I needed to be” and then use all your ass to get far enough
away so that you wouldn’t have to worry about
in Utah. “The day we finished the cleanup, That’s where they lined you up and sorted you getting hit by shrapnel.”
myself and the other guys on my team went out into whatever units you were going to.” Ordnance disposal could even change
down to the Enlisted Men’s Club and got During his time in Vietnam, Steinberg was landscapes, which was evidenced when
staggeringly drunk. The next day, three of us attached to EOD units in different parts of the Steinberg helped to blow up a foothill in the An
volunteered for Vietnam.” country, including 184th Ordnance Battalion Loa Mountains. “We went into a sophisticated
and 25th and 287th Ordnance Detachments. cave complex that was full of ordnance
An “existential doctor” Despite his various postings, the tasks and weapons. We brought in 40-pound
Despite increasingly negative coverage and remained the same. “The fundamental task [18-kilogram] cratering charges that looked like
protests, Steinberg was resolved to serve in was to identity, render safe and destroy a giant stick of dynamite and were maybe three
Vietnam. “At that time my feeling was that I any type of explosive ordnance, including feet [0.9 metres] long. Various levels of the
was trained for a combat job. My country was improvised explosive devices. This included cave were lined with these charges and put on

A pair of US troops
carefully search for
mines to disarm

An American soldier
inserts a blasting cap
into a Claymore mine

80
 A VISION OF HELL

Steinberg pictured
during his time with
the 287th on Phu
Bai Combat Base

“You’d pull the fuse lighter

and then use all your ass to
get far enough away so that
you wouldn’t have to worry
about getting hit by shrapnel”

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DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

a timer, before we got in our chopper and took The summit of Hamburger Hill. This
off. When they went off they literally brought picture of the aftermath of the famous
battle was taken by Gary Raines of the
down the upper third of this mountain. Looking 287th EOD Ordnance Detachment shortly
back, it was pretty destructive to the terrain.” before Steinberg joined their unit
Another large part of EOD’s role was to
prevent ordnance falling into enemy hands.
“We would blow them up because if the enemy
found these things they would saw them
open, steam out the explosives and then turn
them into IEDs, Claymore or antitank mines…
When we were called out to mines or IEDs we
would actually disarm them and bring them
back to our unit, before destroying them in our
demolition area.”
EOD was crucial for saving many American
lives in the field, and Steinberg and his
colleagues were highly valued. “I always felt
that we were ‘existential doctors’ and we were
really respected by other units, particularly the
infantry. We were saving lives, not only of those
people directly involved but other people who
might get lost, or by preventing the enemy from
getting hold of the ordnance.”

Qui Nhon attacks

In early 1969, Steinberg was based at Qui Nhon
Ammunition Base Depot in central Vietnam for
four months. During this time the base came
under attack several times from the Viet Cong
as part of renewed Tet offensives. “Everyone
seems to think that the Tet offensives of 1969–
70 weren’t much of a big deal by comparison
with 1968, but they were. The Tet of 1969 hit
every major installation in the country, including
the ammo dump, which was maintained by the
184th Ordnance Battalion.”
Steinberg was present when the Viet Cong
attacked Qui Nhon on three separate occasions
– on 24 February, 10–11 March and 23 March
1969. “They got into the dump, set their satchel
charges and then disappeared. They managed
to figure out where to come in and where they
would not be in the line of sight of any of the
guard towers, of which there were dozens. There
were roving patrols including dogs, and outside
the dump there were multiple ambushes.”
184th Ordnance Battalion was dispatched to
an extremely hazardous situation. “My team was
called out each time the dump was hit. We were
actually inside as different pads of various types
of ammunition were mass-detonating. It was
nothing short of a miracle that none of the EOD
people were killed or even wounded. However,
during the third dump attack on 23 March, the
Ordnance Battalion did lose three men.”
Despite surviving the Viet Cong attacks
unscathed, Steinberg was not so lucky when
he was blown up during a clean-up operation
at Qui Nhon on 13 May 1969. “A round I was
trying to get to our demolition area went off in
the back of my truck. We had done everything
to see if it was going to go off before I tried
to move it. I sandbagged it in the back of the
truck, and what saved my life was the spare
tyre because it absorbed most of the blast. In a
matter of seconds I had been blown out of the
truck. I ended up with second-degree burns on
my ears and neck and a lot of shrapnel in my
shoulders. The force of the blast actually hit me
in the lower back and pretty much wrecked my
lower spine. It was a miracle it didn’t kill me.”
Steinberg recalls his disorientation after the
explosion. “I was lying on the ground and my

82
 A VISION OF HELL

“I always felt that we were ‘existential

doctors’ and we were really respected
by other units, particularly the infantry.
We were saving lives”

83
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

eardrums had been perforated. It was like the “All of a sudden, I Decorated for valour
ocean running through my head, and I remember Not long after the incident near LZ Sally,
one of my teammates bending over me and saw something that Steinberg found himself in a precarious
asking if I was OK. I then lost consciousness situation at Fire Support Base Davis on 27
and woke up in military hospital, where they didn’t look right. It January 1970. His EOD team flew into FSB
fixed me up, and four days later I was back at Davis on an ‘artillery raid’: a rapid strike where
work. However, I got wounded a second time was a mound of dirt artillery and infantry units would fly into a
four days afterwards from an incoming attack!”
that looked fresh, so remote area, set up a temporary firebase and
fire rounds onto a particular area in order to
A “friggin’ nightmare” I stopped. I then felt prevent a build-up of NVA forces.
After Qui Nhon, Steinberg went to the 25th Danger was soon discovered. “We were in the
Ordnance Detachment at a large base at An something moving first helicopter along with the pathfinders and
Khe before volunteering for a posting to Phu the artillery unit. We got off the chopper and told
Bai in November 1969 with 287th Ordnance under my foot” the pathfinders to hold the location while we
Detachment. The 287th had recently cleared cleared the area. Almost immediately, we found
ordnance left over from the Battle of Hamburger Steinberg flew with an aero-rifle platoon an enemy mine marker, which was four stones
Hill in May 1969, and Steinberg soon found of the 17th Cavalry Regiment, who were in a diamond shape and one in the middle. That
himself fighting his own engagements. “our security and real badasses”. The EOD’s told us that the area had been booby-trapped.”
On 14 December 1969 Steinberg task was challenging and was made worse Steinberg and his teammate Jim Qualls
experienced his first combat assault, which he when the enemy opened fire. “We stacked worked 90 metres apart while they checked
describes as “a friggin’ nightmare”. A Chinook up artillery rounds, hundreds of grenades the area for mines. “All of a sudden, I saw
helicopter was carrying a sling of ammunition and thousands of small-arms machine gun something that didn’t look right. It was a
and weapons to a firebase west of LZ (Landing rounds. We then set our charges, and most mound of dirt that looked fresh, so I stopped. I
Zone) Sally when it was hit by enemy ground of the platoon men took off to secure the then felt something moving under my foot and
fire. The jettisoned sling contained 150mm LZ. Just before I was ready to pull the timer thought, ‘What the f**k?’ I set my weapon and
artillery shells that were armed with small anti- we started taking enemy fire. This huge pile demolition pack down on the ground, pulled out
personnel ‘bomblets’ that had a variable time of s**t was about to go up, but we returned my knife and started flipping the dirt off in front
fuse. As Steinberg explains, “These things were fire. Fortunately none of us were hit, and the of my right boot.”
really dangerous, and in the field you didn’t enemy eventually broke off contact before we What Steinberg discovered soon turned into
screw with them, you blew them in place.” pulled the shot.” a dramatic life-or-death situation. “I dug down

Mass-detonated 105mm high-explosive artillery rounds litter

Qui Nhon Ammunition Dump after the Viet Cong attacks

84
 A VISION OF HELL

EXPLOSIVE
a few inches and saw a black communications to cope with the extreme pressure, they mainly
wire. I then just happened to look up and saw helped each other to get through the war. “We
an NVA soldier in a tree at the other end of the drank a lot, and near the end of my time with

ORDNANCE
area. We were looking right at each other and the 287th some of us were smoking a little
he was pulling on something. When I looked pot. However, the truth of the matter is, when
down, this wire was being pulled away from you’re in EOD you are all volunteers and you
me. Without thinking, I grabbed it and pulled as
hard as I could. This jerked it out of the guy’s
hands, and I cut the wire with my side-cutters. I
live together, including with the CO and first
sergeant. You were really close with all the
people that you served with because every day
DISPOSAL
then threw a red smoke grenade, and gunships you’re on calls with another member of your The US Army’s EOD specialists
came in and fired at the tree line, which killed team and you’re watching each other’s back.” have their origins in the World
that guy and his buddy.” Wars, where they took their cue
The encounter with the NVA soldier had not “This is what hell looks like”
just been a close shave for Steinberg but for On 11 February 1970, Steinberg experienced from British developments in
most of the American troops in the immediate the worst incident of his entire war when he professional bomb disposal
area. “When we dug down we found that I was was called out to FSB Rifle approximately 24
standing on top of a booby-trap, which was a kilometres southeast of Hue. In the early hours Bomb disposal became a formalised practice
during WWI when the British Army dedicated a
155mm artillery high-explosive round. Had it of that morning, elements of 101st Airborne
section of ‘Ordnance Examiners’ from the Royal
detonated, it would have wiped out a couple of Division and 54th ARVN Infantry Regiment were
Army Ordnance Corps to handle the growing
helicopters and no doubt would have killed me, overrun by NVA units. The North Vietnamese problem of dud shells fired by both the Allied and
Jim and probably some of the pathfinders.” For had planned the attack in advance. “NVA Central powers.
this action, Steinberg was awarded the Bronze sappers had come into the wire one or two Nevertheless, the US Army had no bomb
Star with a ‘V’ device for valour, which was just nights before the attack. They opened up disposal apparatus until WWII, when they took
one of several meritorious medals he received all the Claymore mines and took out the C-4 inspiration from the British, who had specialised
in Vietnam. before putting the mines back in the ground. their bomb disposal units during the Blitz of
During his 18-month tour Steinberg was Therefore, when the attack started and the 1940. American bomb disposal was therefore
called out to approximately 300–400 ordnance infantrymen in their bunkers hit the Claymore initially planned as a civilian function, but in the
disposal incidents in extremely intense chargers, nothing happened other than the wake of Pearl Harbor responsibility fell to the US
environments. He recalls that although EOD blasting caps went off. That’s how the NVA Army for military purposes.
teams often resorted to alcohol and even drugs were able to get in.” From 1942, American EOD soldiers were
trained in Britain and began actively operating
during the invasion of Sicily in 1943. EOD
Ed Vogels of 101st Airborne Division carrying an has been an essential component of the US
M60 machine gun at FSB Rifle before the NVA
attack. Vogels survived the battle
armed forces ever since, and its soldiers have
served in every American conflict since 1945,
including Vietnam. Today, most US Army EOD
personnel are part of the 52nd Ordnance Group,
although some are organised under the National
Guard. Despite the huge size of the army, EOD
specialists number less than 1,200 soldiers and
officers. This small size reflects their expertise
but also the personal risks they are willing to take
to dispose of dangerous ordnance.

EOD members of the

184th Ordnance Battalion
prepare to escort damaged
ammunition to Tuy Hoa
Above: A British NCO prepares to dispose of an
before dumping it in the
unexploded bomb in 1918 during WWI
South China Sea
Below: Lieutenant Mike Runkle of the US Navy (left)
and Staff Sergeant Ben Walker of the US Army prepare
charges to blow up stockpiled ordnance left by Al-
Qaeda near Kandahar, Afghanistan, 23 December 2001

85
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

“They took all the

bodies, put them in a
sling, flew them out over
the jungle and dumped
them. I have never, ever
got over this and it’s
a picture in my mind
that’s always there”

Steinberg and his teammate Paul Duffey

(right) squat next to rocket-propelled grenades
and satchel charges after clearing FSB Rifle

After the base was penetrated, the NVA too, but I couldn’t figure out how many. The NVA NVA dead hours later. “They took all the bodies,
attacked with mortars, rocket-propelled also left behind a couple of dozen bodies.” put them in a sling, flew them out over the jungle
grenades and satchel charges, as well as Gunfire broke out upon the EOD’s arrival. and dumped them. I have never, ever got over
AK-47 fire. A pitched battle ensued inside the “A gunfight broke out right after we landed this, and it’s a picture in my mind that’s always
perimeter with close-quarters fire and hand-to- because the NVA had sent a patrol right near to there. It was a war crime because enemy dead
hand combat, before American gunships arrived the perimeter where our chopper was, and they are supposed to be repatriated. What they
and forced the NVA to withdraw. got ambushed almost immediately. We were should have done is taken the bodies outside the
When Steinberg and his team arrived a few returning fire with four chopper gunners firing into perimeter, wind them up somewhere and allowed
hours later at 7 a.m., they saw a scene of the area, and in the end the 101st lost two more their soldiers to take their dead away.”
devastation. “What happened at Rifle was so men during that ambush.”
bad that I made it the title of my book: This After this, the EOD began the grim task of Leaving Vietnam
Is What Hell Looks Like. This was actually a clearing FSB Rifle. “We then went about our The horror at FSB Rifle came towards the end
comment I made to my teammate Paul Duffey business. We had to strip the ordnance off all the of Steinberg’s tour, which ended on 24 March
as we were flying over the LZ. We looked down dead bodies, disarm a couple of rocket-propelled 1970. He was called out to dispose of ordnance
and could see the destruction, carnage and grenades, two Bangalore torpedoes and ten to even on his last day. “I went out to two simple
bodies all over the place. I turned to Paul and 15 feet [three to 4.5 metres] of tubing that was incidents the morning I left, before I flew out. My
said, ‘Man, this is what f**king hell looks like.’ filled with TNT blocks. They were used to breach CO (Andy Breland) had tried to stop me going out
There were bodies everywhere, both NVA and perimeter wire and were duds.” on calls during the last fortnight, but I said, ‘Andy,
American soldiers. The defenders lost ten or 11 Despite the carnage, worse was to come when that’s not going to happen. I’m not going to sit
men and the South Vietnamese unit lost men a large American helicopter came to collect the here on my butt while other people are taking the
flak for me not being on calls.’”
A large factor in Steinberg’s dedication was
NATIONAL VETERANS RIGHTS ASSOCIATION worrying about leaving his colleagues. “There’s
Stuart Steinberg is the chairman of the NVRA, which provides educational and an old adage that you fought for the men beside
administrative assistance to physically and psychologically wounded US veterans you. I really loved those guys in the 287th, and
who are seeking medical and financial support for injuries suffered as a result of most of us are still alive. I felt guilty about finally
military service. For more information visit: www.nationalveteransrights.org leaving them because by then I knew I was really
good at this job. I was afraid that if I left people

86
 A VISION OF HELL

Above: Steinberg and Jerry Culp (left) Above: The bunker for 25th Above: A pile of damaged Above: Steinberg pictured during an
working on 184th EOD Section’s new EOD Ordnance Detachment ordnance prepared for operation with 173rd Airborne Brigade
building at Camp Vasquez at An Khe Combat Base demolition at Qui Nhon in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

A view from Camp Vasquez of

the Qui Nhon Ammunition Dump
exploding eight kilometres away
during the Tet offensive of 1969

would get hurt, wounded or even killed because I

wasn’t there. That never happened but other guys “I was afraid that if I left To read more about Stuart
on the team got pretty seriously hurt afterwards.” Steinberg’s incredible story, you
Steinberg’s guilt manifested itself on the people would get hurt, can purchase his autobiography,
This is What Hell Looks Like: Life
plane journey home from Vietnam, where he and
other returning soldiers felt unable to celebrate.
wounded or even killed As A Bomb Specialist During The
Vietnam War, which is published by
“When we took off there was this huge uproar
with everybody cheering and clapping. They were
because I wasn’t there” Fonthill Media.
For more information visit:
leaving and getting out of there alive. I did not warfare. The enemy was everywhere: 360 www.fonthill.media
take part in that and pretty much stuck to myself, degrees, seven days a week, all year long. In that
but within a couple of minutes the plane was regard it was very similar to the wars in Iraq and
deadly silent. It was like that all the way back Afghanistan because of the enemy’s ability to
to the States. A lot of us were probably thinking use terrain to their benefit. To me, whether it’s a
about members of our units that we had lost and jungle in Vietnam or some desert area along the
some of them, like me, may have been feeling Iranian border it’s pretty much the same. You’re
guilty about leaving.” out there looking out for bad guys or doing the
After leaving the US Army in 1971, Steinberg job you were assigned to and hoping the enemy
Images: Fonthill Media and Stuart Steinberg

led “a very chequered life” but thrived isn’t going to be there.”

professionally and became an attorney who Now active in veterans’ affairs, Steinberg
specialised in capital murder investigations. He reflects that although the Vietnam War was a
even went back to war many years later when he traumatic experience, he established friendships
served with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime among his EOD teammates that have lasted until
between 2009–10 in Afghanistan. the present day: “It was the best time of my life
Steinberg acted as an advisor in counter- because of the men I served with. They’re just the
narcotics work to a brigade of Afghan police greatest bunch of guys and you could never ask
on the Iranian border and was struck by the for better friends. Any one of us would do anything
similarities between the conflicts in Vietnam we could to help one of our own that was in need.
and Afghanistan. “Vietnam was asymmetrical Today, we’re just as close as we ever were.”

87
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

THE

MY LAI
MASSACRE
The massacre of civilians at My Lai has been called the most
shocking episode of the Vietnam War. But who ordered it,
and more importantly, why?
WORDS VICTORIA WILLIAMS

88
 THE MY LAI MASSACRE

0
n 16 March 1968, around 100
members of Charlie Company were
sent to the village of Son My on a
search-and-destroy mission after
receiving a tip-off that members of
The bodies of the 504 the National Liberation Front had taken over
victims were left on
the area and were hiding out in the village’s
tracks and in ditches
sub-hamlets. The area had already suffered
multiple bombings, its crops and forest cover
had been sprayed with the ‘tactical herbicide’
Agent Orange, and the ground was heavily
mined by Vietnamese forces. Three months
into their time in Vietnam, Charlie Company
had already lost almost 30 men to mines
and booby-traps. Because of these losses
and the transfer of their more experienced
officers, lower-ranking enlistees suddenly found
themselves in leadership positions (the average
age in the company was just 20).
Around this time, US forces had adopted the
approach of destroying everything they could,
with the logic that if they killed and impeded
men faster than the Viet Cong could replace
them, their enemy would have no choice but
to admit defeat. Vietnamese forces relied
primarily on mines, sniper fire and ambushes,
and the US Army was growing increasingly
frustrated with its enemy. Incentives were
offered to encourage US soldiers to up their
tallies – there were reportedly competitions
between units to see which could achieve the
highest body count. Slain civilians were often
counted as enemies killed, and the distinction
between Viet Cong and villager mattered
less and less. The day before the massacre,
at a memorial service for a fallen member
of Charlie Company, captain Ernest Medina
reminded the men of their losses and called
for aggression in the face of the enemy. The
company was told that anyone found in the
Son My area should be assumed to be a VC
member or sympathiser, and orders were given
for the destruction of the entire village.
The company approached the sub-hamlet
of My Lai just after daybreak. They found no
Viet Cong – just women, children and old men
preparing breakfast. Despite no sign of the Viet
Cong they had been sent to find, the company’s
leader – Second Lieutenant William Calley, a
man known for his hatred of the locals – issued
the order to begin shooting. A few soldiers
questioned Calley’s instructions, but within
minutes the massacre had begun.
Unarmed civilians were shot with M16 rifles.
Mothers died trying to shield their children.
One report recounts a grenade launcher being
fired into a group of people. Calley reportedly
rounded up several dozen inhabitants and
forced them into a ditch before executing them
en masse with his machine gun.
Sergeant Michael Bernhart was one of the
company members troubled by Calley’s orders.
He later told a reporter, “They were shooting
women and children just like anybody else…
we met no resistance and I only saw three
captured weapons. We had no casualties. It
was just like any other Vietnamese village – old
papa-sans [men], women and kids. As a matter
of fact, I don’t remember seeing one military-
age male in the entire place, dead or alive.”
The company did not stop at shooting the
villagers: women were raped and maimed
before they were killed. Soldiers set fire to huts

89
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Charlie Company laid waste

to the hamlet, destroying
wells and burning buildings

and
shot
livestock.
Encouraged to treat all Witnesses
Vietnamese as potential
enemies, some US troops recall old men
committed war crimes being bayoneted
and soldiers
shooting women and
children as they prayed.
One soldier later admitted to scalping victims
and cutting out their tongues.
The massacre ended with the arrival of
warrant officer Hugh Thompson. The helicopter
pilot was on a reconnaissance mission in the
area when he spotted the fires and the piles
of bullet-ridden bodies. “We kept flying back
and forth … and it didn’t take very long until
we started noticing the large number of bodies
everywhere. Everywhere we’d look, we’d see
bodies. These were infants, two-, three-, four-,
five-year-olds, women, very old men, no draft-
Lieutenant William Calley (front, right)
age people whatsoever.” leaves a pre-trial hearing accompanied by
Thompson landed his helicopter between the his attorneys. A jury of six officers would
soldiers and the fleeing villagers, threatening later convict him of 22 counts of murder
to open fire on Charlie Company unless the
massacre ended. Ignoring Calley’s assertion decision was made to downplay the events. The Pentagon and even President Richard M. Nixon.
that it was none of his business, he called US Army portrayed it as another victory. The When he received no replies, he took the story
in other pilots to help evacuate survivors. cover-up efforts might have been successful to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
In 1998, he and two members of the crew were it not for Ron Ridenhour and Ron On the day of the massacre, combat
received the Soldier’s Medal in recognition Haeberle. Ridenhour was a helicopter gunner photographer Ron Haeberle had accompanied
of their bravery. By the time a senior officer in the 11th Brigade who had not been in My Lai the unit. He recalled confusion on their arrival
picked up the radio calls and ordered an end to on the day of the massacre but heard accounts in My Lai. “I heard a lot of firing and thought,
the shooting, 504 villagers had been killed. Of from friends in Charlie Company. He found ‘Hell, we must be in a hot zone.’ But after a
the victims, 173 were children and 182 were out as much as he could, then waited until his couple of minutes we weren’t taking any fire,
women – at least 17 of which were pregnant. military service ended. A year later, he began so we started walking toward the village. I saw
Officers knew that news of the massacre to shed light on the true events, writing letters what appeared to be civilians. Then I saw a
would create an enormous scandal, so a to congressmen, the State Department, the soldier firing at them. I could not figure out

90
 THE MY LAI MASSACRE

Trees pocked
by bullet holes
remind survivors
of the harrowing
events they
witnessed

Captain Ernest Medina (right) and his

attorney, F. Lee Bailey, attend a Pentagon Protestors at the March Against the
press conference in the wake of an Vietnam War in Washington, DC,
official examination of the original My Lai 17 April 1965, organised by SDS and the
inquiry, 4 December 1969 Women’s Strike For Peace

what was going on. I couldn’t comprehend

it.” His shocking photographs of the soldiers,
the village, the wounded and the casualties THE BUTCHER OF THE DELTA
provided evidence of the company’s actions. In light of the attempted cover-up of My Lai, further investigations
Hersh published his interview with Ridenhour were made into US soldiers in Vietnam. It was revealed that in the
in early November 1969, and one of Haeberle’s Mekong Delta, an operation known as Speedy Express had claimed
photographs of murdered villagers was printed the lives of thousands of civilians as part of ‘pacification’ efforts. The
on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer operation was led by Major General Julian Ewell, one of the officers
days later. The exposition of the massacre who promoted ‘body counts’ as a measure of success. Soldiers in
and its cover-up caused an uproar, fuelling the his division came to call him ‘the Butcher of the Delta’. Under his
already-growing anti-war movement and forcing command, Speedy Express employed helicopters, artillery, heavy aerial
Americans to question the popular image of bombardment and around 8,000 soldiers to target VC bases, supply
US soldiers as brave and noble heroes. Troops lines and lines of communication. Between December 1968 and
in Vietnam began to wonder what else their May 1969, over 3,000 air strikes were carried out and whole
superiors were keeping from them. villages were decimated by the combined ground and
Shortly before the story and photographs hit air forces. Thousands of Vietnamese people were
the press, the US Army had finally ordered an killed. The US military claimed the majority were Viet
investigation into the massacre. An inquiry was Cong soldiers, but reports and recorded numbers of
held, led by Lieutenant General William Peers. seized enemy weapons exposed this as a lie. The
US Army inspector general later estimated that the
On 5 September 1969, Second Lieutenant
operation had killed 5,000 to 7,000 civilians.
Calley was charged with premeditated
Ewell went on to be promoted to lieutenant
murder for his role in the deaths of 109 general before taking up position first as a
Vietnamese civilians, although he insisted first military advisor in the Paris Peace Accords
that the deaths were the result of an accidental negotiations, then as Chief of Staff for
airstrike and then that he was following NATO’s Allied Forces Southern Europe. He
orders from his commanding officer, Captain never showed remorse and attempted to
Ernest Medina. Peers’ report implicated at defend his actions in a book written with Decorated career officer Ewell was known
least 26 officers in the cover-up attempt and his former chief of staff. for his obsession with body counts
recommended they all be charged.
The My Lai trial commenced in November
1970. To the horror of many, just 14 men were believed Calley’s sentence was too severe. result of severe post-traumatic stress disorder,
ultimately charged. 13 were later acquitted. Several governors, including future president shared his lasting shame in an interview for
There was only enough substantial evidence Jimmy Carter, publicly disagreed with the the book Four Hours in My Lai : “I did it. A lot of
to convict Calley, who was found guilty of the verdict. Calley did not serve life for his role in people were doing it, and I just followed. I lost
premeditated killing of 22 unarmed civilians. the killings. On 1 April 1971, President Nixon all sense of direction.”
Those soldiers willing to testify confirmed ordered that he be transferred from prison In Vietnam, survivors and relatives of the
that he had ordered the company to kill every to house arrest. Following an appeal, his victims still struggle to discuss the events of
© Alamy; Getty Images

inhabitant of the village, despite the fact they sentence was reduced first to 20 years, then 16 March 1968. A museum has been created
were under no enemy fire. In March 1971, ten. He was paroled in September 1974. on the site of the hamlet, with reconstructions
three years after the massacre, he was The effects of the My Lai massacre are still of razed homes and plaques bearing the
handed a life sentence. As the only soldier to felt decades on. Soldiers who participated in names of those killed. More than 50 years
be charged, some believed Calley was being the massacre were traumatised by their own later the atrocity, one of the largest publicised
used as a scapegoat. A telephone survey found actions. Private First Class Varnado Simpson, civilian massacres by US troops in the 20th
that 81 per cent of members of the US public who went on to take his own life in 1997 as a century, still haunts the public memory.

91
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Despite being repulsed, the

attack on Saigon was a strike
at the very heart of American
imperial power in Vietnam

THE TET
OFFENSIVE It may have been a colossal military failure, but in many ways the
Tet Offensive marked the turning point of the war
WORDS HARETH AL BUSTANI

92
 THE TET OFFENSIVE

I
n 1967, after a year of heavy losses, Ho
Chi Minh and General Giap began to fear
that North Vietnamese morale would
soon begin to fracture. The two decided
on a dramatic shift of policy, moving
away from protracted, limited warfare towards
planning one great decisive battle. Up until now,
the communists had been fighting on three
fronts: maintaining military pressure on the
ground, mobilising support from the people of
South Vietnam, and, crucially, eroding American
public approval for US involvement.
They now believed it was time to concentrate
their forces and seize swathes of strategic
positions all across South Vietnam. This would,
in turn, trigger a widespread general uprising
against the South Vietnamese regime while
simultaneously revealing to the US that the war
was unwinnable, triggering a withdrawal.
In the United States, the anti-war movement
was reaching new heights, with 30,000
protestors chanting "Hey, hey LBJ, how many
kids did you kill today?" outside the White
House – loud enough for President Lyndon
B. Johnson’s family to hear. With an election
year coming up, Johnson was desperate to
reassure the public that the war would soon
be won. Convinced the communists were one
heavy loss from defeat, Johnson and General
Westmoreland went on a propaganda media
tour, asserting that the communists were too
exhausted to launch any further offensive
actions and that the end was in sight.
North Vietnam spent the next six months
preparing for its grand, decisive strike,
luring American forces into the Vietnamese
hinterlands with an assault on Dak To and a
concentration of forces around Khe Sanh. As the
American lines spread thinner, the communists
began scattering 84,000 Viet Cong (VC) and
North Vietnamese Army (NVA) fighters through
safe houses across all the major cities in South
Vietnam. Weapons were smuggled across the
Cambodian border, the tunnels of Cu Chi and
the Iron Triangle and transported to the guerrilla
fighters further south. Women and children
carried these weapons through checkpoints,
hiding them in agricultural produce or coffins.
Instead of traditional hit-and-run style attacks,
Giap organised his army into several small
units, instructing them to take strategic sites
by surprise and hold them until reinforcements
arrived. In Saigon, 35 battalions would split
up and capture the Presidential Palace, the
US Embassy, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, and the
headquarters of both the Vietnamese Navy
and the South Vietnamese Joint General
Staff. Another group would also break into the
National Broadcasting Station and play a speech
by Ho Chi Minh announcing the liberation of
Saigon and a call for a general uprising across
the South.
In the build-up to the attack, the Viet Cong
(VC) staged several trial runs, attacking small
holdings and attempting to hold them before
retreating. US forces knew this was unusual
and even captured documents outlining plans
for a general assault across the South, with the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speculating
“there may be a communist thrust similar to the
desperate effort of the Germans in the Battle of
the Bulge”. However, Giap had made sure each
individual unit only received instructions relating

93
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

to their direct tasks, so the Americans were coast of Danang, deep into the Mekong Delta down, waiting for much-needed reinforcements
unable to piece together the bigger picture. down south, fireworks gave way to gunfire and that would never arrive.
Although the US did speed up troop explosions. Hours later, a wave of chaos swept Although the attacks across Saigon were
movements to Vietnam, it did not believe through the capital of Saigon, as the VC and decisively beaten back, the Western press
the communists were capable of launching a NVA spilled out of their safe houses towards had begun reporting it as soon as the violence
massive assault. More importantly, the military their targets. broke out. One AP bulletin, which made it
had no idea when any such attack might take Dressed as South Vietnamese riot police, into all of the first-edition newspapers on the
place. Keenly aware of the importance of the one group killed the guards outside the radio east coast of the US, read, “The Vietcong
element of surprise, the communists picked station and stormed through, riddling sleeping seized part of the US Embassy in Saigon
the one date no one would ever expect: the Tet ARVN paratroopers with machine-gun fire. early Wednesday... Communist commandos
Lunar New Year Festival. As Tet drew nearer, Armed with the tape of Ho Chi Minh and penetrated the supposedly attack-proof
both sides agreed to a ceasefire, and the diagrams of the layout, they were horrified to building in the climax of a combined artillery
Americans and ARVN believed the communists learn the ARVN had already used a kill switch and guerrilla assault that brought limited
would never risk the public fallout of violating to take the power out. Meanwhile, lacking warfare to Saigon itself.” After the firefight was
the most cherished of Vietnamese occasions. appropriate manpower, the assaults on the over, one Washington Post reporter described
As the US became increasingly navy headquarters and Joint General Staff their bewilderment at Westmoreland “standing
overstretched, spreading military assets across were rapidly repelled. Elsewhere, the in the ruins and saying everything was great”.
the DMZ, Westmoreland grew anxious; he Presidential Palace defences were far too Meanwhile, 24 kilometres north of Saigon
wanted to limit the Tet truce from the agreed strong, forcing the attackers to a nearby was the Long Binh command and logistical
week to just 24 hours. At the last minute, building, where 32 communists would perish complex, which stretched out towards the
South Vietnam’s President Thieu compromised, in a lengthy last-ditch stand. sprawling Bien Hoa Air Base. After steady
cutting it down to 36 hours. Despite these failures the Americans on rocket and mortar fire, the communists
Although most of the pieces were already the ground were overwhelmed as reports launched a co-ordinated ground attack but
in place, this left the VC and NVA with an continued to pour in of attacks bouncing were mowed down by American machine guns.
incredibly tight window to catch their enemy around, according to General Weyand, like a In the northeast, as the 1-5 Armored Cavalry,
off guard. The ceasefire would begin on the “pinball machine”. At the American Embassy, 9th Infantry, made its way towards Long Binh it
evening of 29 January; before the communists 19 VC sappers blew a hole in the compound broke through an ambush only to have a bridge
had time to mobilise their reinforcements. In walls and darted through only to be wiped blown up beneath it. While its ACAVs were able
anticipation of the event, Westmoreland placed out in an arduous six-hour gunfight. Another to ford the stream, it had to abandon its tanks
his troops on maximum alert, with special group of sappers managed to breach the and press on.
focus on major strategic military, logistical and JGS compound, but once again, rather than The Cavalry forced its way through thick
population centres. pressing on, they followed orders and hunkered crowds of people in the city of Bien Hoa only to
On the evening of 29 January, as South
Vietnam embraced the year of the monkey, “They followed orders and hunkered down,
revellers swarmed the streets beneath the
brilliant bursts of traditional fire crackers. waiting for much-needed reinforcements
Suddenly, from the highlands of Pleiku to the that would never arrive”
By the time Johnson announced
his withdrawal from the
presidential race in March,
4,000 Americans had been
killed in the Tet Offensive

94
 THE TET OFFENSIVE

In the defence of Khe Sanh, the US dropped

the equivalent of ten Hiroshimas’ worth of
bombs on the North Vietnamese attackers

The Tet Offensive would help

pave the way for President
Johnson's withdrawal from
the presidential race, helping
Nixon emerge victorious

Although the US was expecting a major VC

and NVA attack, they never thought it would
break out during Tet celebrations

95
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

The battle for Hue was a brutal, protracted

engagement, with the opposing sides
fighting house to house

US Marines crouch behind a

wall during the Tet Offensive

Ultimately, despite their

extensive planning, the VC and
NVA were unable to withstand
superior US firepower

It's estimated that approximately

14,000 civilians were killed during the
Tet Offensive

discover it was surrounded by VC troops. After 200 Americans and Australians in the new defenders turned blocks into virtual fortresses,
an almighty firefight, the squadron commander city’s MACV compound, the fighting was fierce. firing machine guns from the windows while
directed the Cavalry through a maze of streets After initially underestimating the scale of the launching spontaneous counter-attacks using
from his helicopter, guiding them around a attack, the Marine command at Phu Bai called back alleys.
huge VC ambush – allowing them to smash in reinforcements to encircle and cut off the Some of the American tanks went through
through the rear just in time to relieve the air communist supply lines. numerous crews every day, repeatedly rushing
base. On 1 February, when one of the Cavalry Despite some relief, Hue proved and withdrawing under heavy fire, followed
officers heard that five more squadrons were exceptionally difficult to reclaim, as a gruelling by infantry in flak vests. Snipers on either
converging on Saigon, he celebrated: “We knew battle of attrition ground its way through side duelled it out, providing cover for their
that our enemy could never match our mobility, the narrow city streets. During their stay, footsoldiers in the streets, while Jeeps zoomed
flexibility and manpower.” the communists took the opportunity to about offering drive-by bursts of support fire.
The pattern seen in Saigon, where attackers indoctrinate and propagandise as much as Both sides had to wear gas masks as they fired
made initial shock gains only to be beaten they could. As fighting unfolded over the next tear gas at one another.
back, was echoed across the country. The only month, civilians found themselves trapped in Keen to break the deadlock, the United
exception was the old imperial capital city of a dire situation, with the communists torturing States received ARVN permission to bring in
Hue, which was split by a river; the new town and executing thousands suspected of being the big guns and unleashed a storm of artillery
occupied the south bank and the old walled sympathetic to the Southern regime. on the VC positions, razing much of the city
Citadel the north. On 31 January, 8,000 NVA The urban setting of Hue neutralised the to the ground. By the time they recaptured
troops poured in and seized the Citadel, as United States’ two main advantages: superior the Citadel on 24 February, 116,000 of Hue’s
well as sections of the new city. With some firepower and mobility. The battle descended 140,000 residents were left homeless. While
of the 1st ARVN trapped in the Citadel, and into house-to-house urban combat, where the the US lost 216 men and the ARVN 384, a

96
 THE SIEGE OF OFFENSIVE
THE TET KHE SANH

“Snipers on either side duelled it out, providing year, Johnson was in an impossible situation;
he did not want to be seen as throwing the war,
cover for their footsoldiers in the streets” but doubling the number of troops would send
the message that it was anything but won.
When the request was leaked to the public
staggering 5,000 NVA and VC fighters were and maintain momentum. However, while it did little to assuage the growing American
killed in the battle. Westmoreland had considered it a magnificent concerns that the country’s leaders were either
Of the 84,000 communist troops that took victory, Wheeler’s request sent a very different utterly incompetent or lying to them.
part in the Tet Offensive, almost 58,000 were message. Despite the impressive body On 13 March, Johnson denied the request,
killed compared to just 4,000 Americans and counts, the US had nothing to show for it. On instead approving 24,200 army troops
5,000 South Vietnamese soldiers. From a the contrary, given how much Johnson and alongside 6,000 Air Force and support
military perspective, it was a catastrophic Westmoreland had emphasised that the VC servicemen. Furthermore, at the end of the
strategic defeat, forcing the cadres to and NVA were on their knees, the scale and month, with Robert Kennedy and Eugene
abandon long-held territory to regroup. The intensity of the Tet Offensive utterly shocked McCarthy both running on peace platforms,
ARVN, meanwhile, had performed above all the American public. the president delivered a shocking speech,
© Alamy; Getty; Wiki

expectations, and Westmoreland truly believed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, signalling the ultimate personal defeat: “I shall
that with a little more pressure the war could who was about to resign, advised President not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination
now be won. Johnson to reject the request for more troops, of my party for another term as your president.”
With Westmoreland’s blessing, General which would exact a heavy human and financial The US had won the Tet Offensive and yet still
Wheeler requested a call up of 206,000 more toll on the US and jeopardise the future of seemed, to the American public, to be losing
troops in order to deter any future attacks Johnson’s Great Society. Well into an election war. The tide had turned.

97
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

STORM IN THE

USAWhile Vietnam was being devastated by American

machines of war, in the land of the free thousands of
protestors made their voices heard
WORDS BEE GINGER

98
 STORM IN THE USA

I
nitially the Vietnam War protests on authority. Disillusionment was becoming who were bottom of the class would have
began among leftist intellectuals widespread. The war was costing in the their place revoked and instead be drafted.
and peace activists who met in region of $25 billion a year, and the tax-paying The aforementioned peaceful teach-ins now
small groups on college campuses. public had started to worry. More troops were became sit-ins where the students would
However, in 1965, the United deployed and more casualties reported daily. take over administration offices.
States began bombing North Vietnam In the winter of 1969, the US Government Tensions ran high at many campuses,
in earnest and the protests gained implemented the first draft lottery since World like Harvard, where protesters trapped
prominence on a national scale. War II. Each month, as many as 40,000 young the defence secretary Robert McNamara
Over the next three years, protests men were called up under the draft system. in a police car and bombarded him with
and anti-war marches gained a wide base This caused enormous controversy, not to questions about the war. Cornell University
of followers and supporters across the mention a huge number of young men fleeing saw students trying to organise a national
country. Students for a Democratic Society across the border to Canada to avoid being ‘burn your draft card movement’. At the
(SDS) organised numerous marches and conscripted. Yet despite the widespread University of Chicago, students held
arranged what were known as ‘teach- anger directed against the war, the anti-war a three-day event, gleaning huge
ins’, which allowed them to express their movement needed a boost. It would come in national attention.
opinions on and opposition to how the war the form of Martin Luther King, Jr. At the beginning
was being conducted. By the end of 1965, As a civil rights leader, King condemned the of 1967, many
this small, liberal minority was making war, primarily on moral grounds. But he also students
its voice heard over the vast majority strongly opposed the diversion of federal funds tried
of Americans who supported what was from domestic programmes and highlighted more
happening in Vietnam. the disproportionate number of African-
Alongside the students were other American casualties in comparison to the total
intellectuals, members of the popular number of fatalities of the soldiers who fought
hippie movement, prominent artists and so bravely in the conflict.
an ever-expanding number of people said Demonstrations were spurred on by the
to have been embracing the popular drug change in the Selective Service System’s draft
culture at that time and turning their backs policy. It was exposed that university students
Martin Luther King, Jr., at
an anti-war demonstration
in New York, 1967.
He called the war “a
blasphemy against all
99
that America stands for”
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Protestors at the March Against the Vietnam War

in Washington, DC, 17 April 1965, organised by
SDS and the Women’s Strike For Peace KILLING IN THE
NAME OF…
The protests that divided America during the
Vietnam War were often marred by violence
as passionate campaigners clashed with
heavy-handed enforcers of the law. However,
despite numerous incidents of brutality, it
was the Kent State shootings of 4 May 1970
that would be etched in the United States’
collective memory.
On that fateful day, students at Kent
State University in Ohio had been protesting
against the US invasion of Cambodia, an
offshoot of the Vietnam War effort. Tensions
on campus were at an all-time high following
days of on-campus resistance. On 2 May,
panicked authorities called for the Ohio
National Guard. By the following day they
were in place, locked and loaded.
The following day, as some students
continued to voice their condemnation of the
war, a number of Guards advanced on the
crowd. Suddenly, 29 of the officers opened
fire for 13 seconds. In that time they shot 67
rounds of ammunition, killing four students
and gravely injuring nine, two of whom were
walking to class and not even partaking in
the protest.
In the aftermath of the Kent State
shooting a student-led strike forced the
temporary closure of both universities and
colleges nationally. It is believed by political
observers that the events of this horrendous
day shifted the public’s opinion against the
war and may in some part have contributed
Muhammad Ali A leaflet from SDS calling for to President Nixon’s demise.
resisted being drafted, a March on Washington to
declaring himself a end the Vietnam War on 17
“conscientious objector” April 1965

peaceful forms of dissent. They took out civilians. As more news coverage reached the
advertisements in newspapers and college US, this argument was strengthened.
and university publications, and they wrote In October 1966, Dow experienced its first
letters to editors, politicians and state figures. anti-war protest, and subsequent protests
However, it soon became apparent that these spread across the country to hundreds of
traditional tactics were no longer effective and universities. The following year, students
that the government-private firm alliance was a in Wisconsin took over the Dow Commerce
huge contributing factor, as they were thought Building with a sit-in in order to prohibit more
to have an economic incentive to perpetuate recruitment. The police were prepared for this
the Vietnam War. and met them with clubs and tear gas, violently In January 1968, North Vietnamese communist
Activists were now determined to interfere forcing them from the building. The protestors troops launched the Tet Offensive against
with these corporations after realising the retaliated with name-calling and rock throwing, the United States. This not only shocked
monetary role universities were playing in resulting in numerous casualties, ten of which the country but also increased the levels of
supporting them. They benefited from the were police officers, the other 11 protesters discontent immeasurably, bringing about the
universities’ investment and were permitted to who were subsequently arrested. This sit-in most intense period of anti-war demonstrations
recruit on campuses – and many of them were was the first time an anti-war protest had and protests.
involved in the production of wartime materials. turned violent, but it was far from the last. By the beginning of February 1968, polls
Dow Chemicals was one such company. In the years that followed rough showed that a staggering 50 per cent of the
Based in Michigan, Dow specialised in the confrontations became commonplace, with the population were against President Johnson’s
production of napalm (the use of this was culmination of this aggressive approach being handling of the war. It was at this point that
already becoming increasingly controversial) the tragic Kent State University shootings (see members of the Vietnam Veterans Against
and was the sole provider of this lethal boxout), an event that fuelled more violence, the War organisation began attending anti-war
substance to the military. The firm became such as the Sterling Hall bombing, which demonstrations. Many people were won over
a target of anti-war activism and was called resulted in the destruction of the Army Math by the sight of these brave men, many of whom
into question about the morality of military Research Centre at the University of Wisconsin- had been injured in the war themselves, joining
tactics being used in Vietnam at that time. Dow Madison and the death of a young scientist the protesters in their wheelchairs and on
claimed their product was only being used on working there. crutches, standing up to the government and
military targets, but several allegations were While chaos reigned at home, the US throwing away the medals they had previously
circulating that it was in fact being used against continued to suffer horrendous losses abroad. been so honoured to wear. In turn, this led

100
 STORM IN THE USA

ANATOMY OF A
to many of the primary voters getting behind
Eugene McCarthy, an anti-war Democrat.
In the face of such public opposition,

VIETNAM President Johnson decided not to stand for

re-election, enabling Vice President Hubert

WAR Humphrey to run for office. Despite being an

opponent of the war, Humphrey announced in
his candidacy speech that he would continue

PROTESTER to send troops to Vietnam. In the end his

promises proved irrelevant, with Humphrey
losing the race for the White House to Richard
US, 1955–75 Nixon, who swore in his presidential campaign
to effectively restore law and order to the
country following the anti-war protests as
PICKET SIGNS well as the rioting in the aftermath of the
Protesters used strong, HELMETS assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
powerful messages on their The iconic soldier’s helmet was worn by actress
picket signs to take a stance Jane Fonda as she visited troops in Vietnam. While Unfortunately, Nixon’s war policies only
against the Vietnam War. the visit stirred controversy as she sang anti-war served to further divide the nation. In a speech
Messages on signs ranged songs with troops, later the Vietnam Veterans in 1969 he referred to the anti-war protesters
from the peaceful ‘make Against War movement saw thousands of ex- as being a “small, albeit vocal minority”
love, not war’ to much more soldiers uniting against the conflict. who shouldn’t be allowed to drown out the
provocative and controversial
“silent majority” of Americans. This was not
ideas, such as comparing
President Nixon to Hitler. appreciated by the diligent protestors.
FLOWERS Tensions were simmering, and unrest was
Taking a passive stance driven by incidents of official violence at
while protesting against demonstrations. More fuel was poured on the
the conflict, demonstrators fire in 1971 with the first publication of the
armed themselves with Pentagon Papers, exposing confidential details
flower power to fight the about the war that previously hadn’t been
government’s brutality. At
marches, protesters would
released to the public. The American people
BOX OF MATCHES began to further question the government and
carry flowers, placing them
Despite more than 50
in soldiers’ gun barrels and US military’s accountability.
per cent of Americans
wrapping themselves in In response to the widespread criticism,
opposing the war in
daisy chains. the government worked hard to get its side of
Vietnam, the government
reintroduced conscription, the story across to the universities. It gave a
known as the draft. great deal of support to the American Friends
From 1964, students of Vietnam, a pro-administration group. While
and protesters carried this group could never compete in numbers or
BUTTONS AND BADGES
matchboxes with them
Young and open minded, many the intensity with the anti-war demonstrators,
for burning draft cards in
protesters were politically engaged due to the violent consequences of some
response to the unfair and
students. Badges and buttons of the previous protests the government did
flawed conscription for
were the easiest way to show their
such an unpopular war. experience a surge in support, as did some of
affiliation with movements, such as
the Resistance, Greenpeace and the the affiliated companies.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the wake of the bloodshed, a record
DRUGS
It wasn’t just a passion number of university students from Wisconsin
for politics that protesters signed up to work for Dow Chemicals. The
became associated with. local newspaper supported Dow, denouncing
Alongside their anti-war the students, and the pro-war group Young
stance, drugs were a big Americans for Freedom saw a significant
part of the hippie culture.
increase in enrolment. Large majorities were
Legal until the mid-1960s
in the US, some protesters said to feel that the demonstrations were ‘acts
took LSD as a means of of disloyalty’ against the soldiers in Vietnam
escaping the reality of war. and that the Wisconsin protests had hurt the
larger anti-war cause.
The protests continued to divide the nation
BOOTS until the end of the war. Nixon’s decision to
Protesters spent plenty of
invade Cambodia in 1970 proved to be the
time marching and parading
catalyst for protests at over 1,300 campuses,
© Alamy; Getty; Kevin McGivern

against the conflict and its

inequalities, so a sturdy MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 500 of which were forced to close due to
pair of boots was essential. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed an faculty and student strikes.
In fact, one of the largest unprecedented music revival, with the likes Along with putting an end to Johnson’s
anti-war demonstrations was of The Beatles and Bob Dylan advocating presidency, the protests resulted in the
held on 15 November 1969 pacifism. Protesters united over music,
voting age in the US being lowered to 18 and,
in Washington, DC, with more with anti-war folk singers often performing
than half a million protesters at rallies. As these sentiments grew, music ultimately, forced a once-truculent government
campaigning against became more aggressive, and rock took over to listen to the voice of the people and withdraw
involvement in Vietnam. from folk as the music of protest. from the war in 1973.

101
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Wounded men of the 101st

Airborne Division are helped
down Hill 937. The battle proved
a costly victory for the US forces

HAMBURGER
For ten days in May 1969, American and South Vietnamese forces threw
themselves against large numbers of well-defended enemy troops

102
 HAMBURGER HILL

DONG AP BIA,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH
VIETNAM
11–20 MAY 1969
WORDS MARC DESANTIS

T
he Tet Offensive of January 1968
had been an enormous blow
against the Americans and their
South Vietnamese allies, but
not necessarily in the way the
North Vietnamese had anticipated. While the
Americans and South Vietnamese had suffered
heavy losses, the North Vietnamese Army
(NVA) itself had been mauled and the Viet Cong
irregulars in the South had been decimated.
Coming out to fight the Americans in the open
had proven extremely costly. From now on,
the Viet Cong would focus on preserving its
strength. Similarly, several regiments of the
NVA regular troops had been horribly battered
in combat and had needed rebuilding.
It was in the realm of public opinion, however,
that communist North Vietnam, studiously
working to eject the Americans and topple
the South Vietnamese Government, achieved
its greatest results. Never-ending American
casualties for little measurable gain turned
the Tet Offensive into a political victory for the
communists in American public opinion, which
became increasingly negative towards the war.
Among the Americans, there was a change
of strategy too. General Creighton Abrams was
named the new chief of Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam (MACV) in June 1968,
replacing General William Westmoreland in the
post. That same year, US forces in Vietnam
reached a wartime high of 535,000 military
personnel. Despite this huge force, the US and
the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)
had come no closer to achieving victory over
the communist insurgency than when American
involvement had begun years earlier.
Abrams introduced a different objective for
American forces. Instead of Westmoreland’s
‘attrition strategy’, which focused on finding
and destroying the enemy’s ‘Main Force’
units, Abrams emphasised ‘pacification’ of
the Vietnamese countryside, which included
the protection of the civilian populace. The
strategy started to bear fruit, and it caused the
communists severe trouble in sustaining their
grip on areas they had long held.
Abrams, however, did not reject the idea of
taking the fight to Main Force units. If they were
found, they were to be attacked and destroyed.

HILL
One heavy concentration was located in the
A Shau Valley in the far north of South
Vietnam, close to the Laotian
border. The mountainous, jungle-
cloaked and largely inaccessible
A Shau had been a stronghold
for the NVA since 1966, when
a US special forces base
there had been overwhelmed.
The A Shau was a North
Right: General Creighton Abrams, who became
the new chief of Military Assistance Command, Vietnamese bastion filled
Vietnam, in June 1968 with stockpiles of weapons,

103
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

ammunition, vehicles, food, water and many The target for the four companies of 3/187th,
other supplies brought there via the Ho Chi “If the NVA behaved nicknamed the 'Rakkasans', was Dong Ap
Minh trail. This made the valley a prime staging
area for attacks into the South, including the
as they typically did Bia, which the local Montagnards called the
‘mountain of the crouching beast’. US military
devastating Tet Offensive. Intelligence also
revealed that the elite 29th NVA Regiment, as
and bolted, they’d be planners knew it by the more prosaic name
of Hill 937, because it rose to a towering 937
well as the 6th and 9th NVA Regiments, were sacrificing all of the metres in height.
currently present in the valley. To root them out, On 10 May, a giant aerial convoy of UH-1
MACV initiated Operation Apache Snow. myriad supplies that ‘Huey’ transport helicopters lifted off and
This operation would not be the first US headed into the mountain valley. Lieutenant
incursion into the A Shau. In April–May 1968, would be left behind” Frank Boccia, a young platoon leader of
Westmoreland had launched Operation Bravo Company of the 3/187th, compared
Delaware, in which the US 1st Cavalry Division forces there. Frustratingly, the big NVA units the cruising helicopters to “a swarm of
had achieved only mixed results against a dug- would not give battle, either moving away down giant green dragonflies”. The landing zones
in communist force amid terrible weather. the valley or up the steep mountainsides. were pounded by American warplanes and
Operation Apache Snow would be led by the artillery before the paratroopers arrived.
‘Screaming Eagles’ of the US 101st Airborne. Apache Snow Huge, 15,000-pound (6,800-kilogram) ‘daisy
This division had gained immortal fame for its General Abrams gave the 101st Airborne cutter’ bombs were dropped to blast clear
epic defence of Bastogne during the Battle another chance in May 1969. The objective spots for the helicopters to touch down.
of the Bulge in 1944. It had switched to of Apache Snow was to drive the NVA out of The Rakkasans landed without meeting any
helicopters and was now termed ‘airmobile’. the valley. If the NVA behaved as they typically resistance on the first day and spent the
The 101st had also been to the A Shau before. did and bolted, they’d be sacrificing all of the night there before launching their first move
In August 1968, during Operation Somerset myriad supplies that would be left behind. against the western side of the mountain.
Plains, the division had conducted a helicopter The attack was to be spearheaded by The NVA was in hiding up in the mountain
assault into the valley but achieved only limited the 450 soldiers of 3/187th, or the 3rd heights of Dong Ap Bia, waiting in a strongly
success in making a dent in the communist Battalion of the 187th Regiment of the 101st fortified bunker system for the paratroopers
Airborne Division, which was commanded to come to them. On 11 May, the Rakkasans
Left: NVA regulars moving by Lieutenant Colonel Weldon ‘Blackjack’ conducted a reconnaissance in force to make
along the Ho Chi Honeycutt. It was accompanied into the contact with the NVA, making limited contact
Minh trail towards A Shau by the 1/506th Regiment and with their enemy in a series of firefights. They
South Vietnam would soon learn that their prior assumptions
the 2/501st Regiment, also of the 101st
Airborne. US Marines and ARVN forces would about the willingness of the NVA to stand and
also take part, in supporting roles. fight were wrong.

Troops from the US 101st Airborne Division

ascend Dong Ap Bia after the battle
OPPOSING
FORCES

US ARMY
LEADERS:
Major General Melvin Zais,
commander of the
101st Airborne Division;
Colonel Joseph Conmy,
commander of 3rd Brigade,
101st Airborne Division;
Lieutenant Colonel Weldon
Honeycutt, commander of
3/187th Battalion ('Rakkasans’)
INFANTRY: 1,800

vs

PEOPLE’S ARMY
OF VIETNAM
LEADER:
General Ma Vinh Lan
29th NVA Regiment
INFANTRY:
800

104
 HAMBURGER HILL

The NVA had conceived its defence of Dong after time by the ferocious resistance of soldiers were also slain, and losses were likely
Ap Bia as a chance to lure in and destroy an the infantrymen of the 29th NVA Regiment. far heavier, but the NVA adroitly managed to take
entire US battalion from within the security Known as the ‘Pride of Ho Chi Minh’, these many of their dead and wounded with them when
of their maze of bunkers, which were mostly soldiers opened up on the advancing American they made their escape.
protected against the tremendous firepower of paratroopers with AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled
American aircraft and artillery. By allowing the grenades, and many other support weapons. A mountain fortress
Americans to come close to their positions, In the close confines of Hill 937, the The mountainous terrain of Dong Ap Bia, and
the North Vietnamese also aimed to neutralise Americans were at a disadvantage against an the A Shau more generally, made the place
superior US firepower by making them reluctant enemy who were difficult to spot until they fired. a natural fortress. All of the advantages of
to use it at all for fear of hurting their own men. The NVA also launched its own counterattacks height accrued to the defenders higher up. The
The communists said they were ‘grabbing the on the Americans. “My god, what have we men of the 101st also struggled to get their
enemy by the belt’ – that is, holding him close. gotten ourselves into?” Lieutenant Boccia wounded off the mountain in a timely manner.
would wonder. The helicopters that granted the US Army
Battle is joined Elsewhere in the A Shau, the NVA was unmatched mobility in Vietnam were seriously
The 3/187th was badly mauled on the first day, not idle. On the night of 12–13 May, an elite hindered in the A Shau. The choppers’ long
11 May, in a ‘friendly fire’ incident in which the assault force of the 6th NVA Regiment struck blades sometimes made it impossible for
battalion’s command post was rocketed by at Firebase Airborne, an American artillery them to get close enough to the steeply sloped
AH-1 ‘Cobra’ helicopter gunships. Two GIs were base on the top of Dong Ngai, a mountain 6.4 ground to land and pick up the wounded.
slain and 35 others were wounded. Lieutenant kilometres to the north of Dong Ap Bia. The Intense ground fire also made helicopter
Colonel Honeycutt was himself seriously firebase contained three howitzers and two medevac runs extremely dangerous. One
wounded in the accidental strike but remained 81mm mortars, which were to provide support remarkably courageous pilot, 20-year-old Eric
in command of his battalion. fire for Apache Snow. North Vietnamese Rairdon, flew hair-raising missions in darkness
The terrain of Hill 937 heavily favoured the sappers cut their way undetected through the and poor weather in his tiny OH-6 Cayuse
defenders. The approaches to the summit were concertina wires that had been strung around observation chopper to ferry out the wounded.
jungle-choked ridges and slender trackways, their position, and their comrades charged The gallant Rairdon, nicknamed the ‘Saint’,
with the NVA’s bunkers skilfully sited to cover through in the early morning darkness of 13 continued his flying heroics until he was hit in
them. On 12 May, the NVA units ensconced on May. With mortar rounds crashing into the both legs during a mission on 18 May.
Dong Ap Bia revealed themselves fully as the base, the NVA soldiers roamed at will, tossing The terrain was a factor in other ways.
Americans ascended. Deadly ambushes were satchel charges and shooting the stunned Because of the narrowness of the paths
sprung all over the mountain, and the men of Americans, who rushed to mount a defence. leading up to the summit and the threats
the 3/187th were repelled. The Americans succeeded in beating back the that NVA bunkers and other fighting positions
The Rakkasans would mount daily assaults assault but only at great cost to themselves. 26 posed, many of the 3/187th platoons had to
to reach the summit but were stopped time GIs were killed and 62 wounded. At least 40 NVA be detailed to guard the flanks and rears of

101st Airborne
soldiers traverse
the blasted terrain
around Dong Ap Bia

105
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

HAMBURGER HILL
1969
01
10 MAY: THE RAKKASANS ARRIVE
After a heavy air and artillery bombardment of the landing
zone (LZ), at 0710 on 10 May, a large force of paratroopers –
‘Rakkasans’ from the 3/187th Regiment of the 101st Airborne
Division – touch down in the mountainous A Shau Valley.

02
11 MAY: RECONNAISSANCE IN FORCE
Still unsure of enemy strength, on 11 May the
paratroopers of the 3/187th make their first movement up Dong Ap
Bia, or Hill 937, where the NVA’s 29th Regiment is well entrenched.
The 3/187th’s battalion command post is accidentally hit in a
‘friendly fire’ incident.

03
12 MAY: THE NVA RETALIATES
On 12 May, the Rakkasans make another
attack on Hill 937, and the 29th NVA Regiment
shows its full strength, opening up from its many
firing pits and bunkers to hammer the Americans
with rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades. NVA
positions are pulverised by American airstrikes and
artillery, but the hardened North Vietnamese regulars
stay put and will also launch counterattacks from
them on the paratroopers throughout the battle.

04
12–13 MAY: ASSAULT ON FIREBASE AIRBORNE
Led by sappers who cut their way through concertina wire, on
the night of 12–13 May, NVA assault troops storm Firebase Airborne, a
supporting artillery position not far from Hill 937 defended by soldiers of
2/501st Battalion. They are driven off only after severe losses to both sides.
The paratroopers of 3/187th continue to make daily attacks on Dong Ap Bia.

“The gallant Rairdon, nicknamed the

‘Saint’, continued his flying heroics
until he was hit in both legs during a
mission on 18 May”

106
 HAMBURGER HILL

advancing American units. This meant that the

05
14 MAY: CHARLIE COMPANY assault towards the summit could never be
MAULED as strong as the airborne soldiers would have
Charlie Company of 3/187th attempts to loop around the wished. Simply spotting the enemy amid the
NVA bunker line but is shredded by NVA fire on 14 May. jungle foliage was hard. “The canopy was so
Bravo Company is forced to call off its own assault to help dense,” Lieutenant Boccia said, “that we could
pull out Charlie Company’s killed and wounded. US aircraft barely see a few feet ahead of us”.
continue to strafe the NVA positions, which persists in American firepower, in theory overwhelming,
harrying American forces on Hill 937. was also of limited help. A report released after
the battle stated that American artillery landed
18,262 high-explosive shells on Dong Ap Bia,
and that tactical air support had delivered over
1,088 tons of bombs, more than 142 tons of
napalm and 31,000 20mm rounds. Though
US warplanes flew many sorties against the
mountain and artillery continuously lashed the
communist positions, their effect was less
than what the Rakkasans hoped for, and the
deeply entrenched NVA remained immovable.
The close proximity of the opposing forces also
meant that the Rakkasans were sometimes hit
by American munitions. In addition to the Cobra
attack on 11 May, several other Rakkasan
casualties were the result of friendly fire.

The struggle continues

On 15 May, another battalion, 1/506th of the
101st Airborne, started to move against NVA
positions on Hills 916, 800 and 900, which lay
close to Hill 937. It would take days of fighting
for it to finally get into position for an assault
on Dong Ap Bia itself, however. On 14 May, an
attempt by Charlie Company of the 3/187th to
go around the NVA bunkers on Hill 937 turned
06 STALEMATE
15–19 MAY: into a fiasco. The NVA spotted the Americans
and unleashed a hailstorm of fire against
The depleted Rakkasans of the 3/187th them. The Rakkasans’ Bravo Company had to
are reinforced by the 1/506th Battalion
forego its own planned attack up the mountain
of the 101st Airborne Division. On 15
in order to come to the rescue of the torn-up
May, the 1/506th conducts attacks along
soldiers of Charlie Company. Lieutenant Boccia
Hills 916, 800 and 900, which lie to the
south of Hill 937, while the Rakkasans was stunned when he found them: "My god, my
again attack up Dong Ap Bia. On 16 May, god," he said. "Bodies lay everywhere."
the 1/506th moves against Hill 900 Other factors affected the American advance.
and is met by a torrent of NVA fire. The The heat was awful, reaching 37.8 degrees
1/506th will be stymied for several days Celsius. Rain fell hard and turned much of the
by the enemy on Hill 900. mountainside into sucking mud.
Despite the difficulties, the Rakkasans’
demanding commander, Lieutenant Colonel
Honeycutt, kept pushing them onward, making

07 WITHDRAWS
19–20 MAY: THE NVA repeated attacks toward the summit. Some
soldiers complained about their hard-driving
Unable to continue the fight for Dong Ap Bia against commanding officer to press reporters, who'd
relentless American pressure, the 29th NVA Regiment heard about the battle for Hill 937 and had
withdraws over 19–20 May. The 2/501st Battalion of begun showing up in the A Shau.
the 101st Airborne and the ARVN 2/3rd Battalion are “That damn Blackjack [Honeycutt] won’t stop
committed to the battle on 19 May deploying on the until he kills every damn one of us,” one said. It
eastern side of Hill 937. was around this time that the reporters learned
that the soldiers had taken to calling Dong Ap
Bia ‘Hamburger Hill’.
By 18 May, the Rakkasans had taken very
heavy casualties, as its companies had done
08
20 MAY: VICTORY
The soldiers of the 3/187th, the majority of the fighting. Major General Melvin
1/506th, 2/501st and the ARVN 2/3rd Zais, commander of the 101st Airborne Division,
make an attack on Hill 937. Soldiers of the intended to pull them out and replace them
3/187th reach the summit around noon with another battalion, the 2/506th. Honeycutt
on 20 May. The victorious Americans, vehemently objected to this move.
having driven off the NVA, themselves “After all the fighting this battalion’s been
abandon Dong Ap Bia only weeks later. through, after all the casualties we’ve taken,”
Map: Rocio Espin

he barked at Zais, “if you pull us out now, it will

forever be viewed as a disgrace by everyone in
the division”. Honeycutt insisted that the honour
of taking the summit should belong to the
3/187th alone.

107
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

Honeycutt asked for a fresh company as

reinforcements, and Zais agreed to give the
“The paratroopers 39 men killed. The total losses of the North
Vietnamese, who were adept at withdrawing
3/187th’s commander one company from
the 2/506th and leave the Rakkasans in
were facing troops, with their dead and wounded, are impossible to
know for certain, but the Americans afterwards
the fight. In addition, on 19 May even more perhaps two platoons’ counted 633 dead NVA regular soldiers.
reinforcements would be poured into the battle Almost immediately, questions about the
for Hill 937 – the 2/501st of the 101st Airborne worth, that had been cost of taking Hill 937 began to be asked. On
and the ARVN 2/3rd Battalion. a tree trunk, an American soldier had put up a
On the morning of 20 May, after another left behind to make a cardboard sign with the words “Hamburger Hill”
punishing air bombardment, the combined
strength of the assembled American and South
suicidal last stand” written on it. Below them on the sign, another GI
had acidly written, “Was it worth it?”
Vietnamese battalions were thrown at Dong the paratroopers were facing troops, perhaps
Ap Bia. The summit would fall to the men of two platoons’ worth, that had been left behind After the battle
the 3/187th. The North Vietnamese opened to make a suicidal last stand. The Rakkasans The bloody struggle for Hill 937 was different
fire on the Rakkasans with rifles and rocket- blasted any fighting positions they found and from most other clashes during the Vietnam
propelled grenades. The Americans answered reached the summit at noon. By late afternoon War. With a handful of rare exceptions, such
with a storm of rifle fire aimed at the bunker the mountain was in American hands. as the battles of Ia Drang, Hue and Khe Sanh,
openings. The NVA ducked inside and began The cost of seizing Dong Ap Bia was high for the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong rarely
rolling grenades down the mountain towards the 101st Airborne. 70 paratroopers had been stood toe to toe with the Americans in a stand-
the GIs, but the advantage now lay with the killed in the fight for Hamburger Hill and another up fight. Most encounters were instead sharp
Americans. Most of what remained of the 29th 372 wounded. The losses for 3/187th were firefights that lasted only a short while, with
NVA Regiment had already fled to Laos, and especially heavy, with the Rakkasans suffering the NVA melting away before the Americans

108
 HAMBURGER HILL

A derivative of the ubiquitous

‘Huey’ transport, the Cobra served
as a helicopter gunship and
provided close air support during
the Battle of Hamburger Hill

Wounded soldiers of the US 101st Airborne

Division are placed aboard a UH-1 helicopter
for evacuation from Hamburger Hill.
The ‘Huey’ was the workhorse American
helicopter of the Vietnam War

A rocket explodes behind

an American soldier
during the fighting on
Hamburger Hill

could bring their immensely superior firepower On 19 May, Jay Sharbutt, an Associated Yet it was on the same day that Kennedy
to bear. Most Americans who were killed in Press reporter, filed a story on the costly and spoke against the battle that a press report
Vietnam died in one of these short, sharp lengthy fight for Dong Ap Bia. US soldiers announced that US soldiers had christened
combats, which occurred on a daily basis all were criticising their own commanders for Dong Ap Bia ‘Hamburger Hill’. At the highest
over the country. their tactical decision-making and the heavy levels, Vietnam policy was changing. As a
Hamburger Hill was more akin to the battles casualties they were taking at Hamburger Hill. consequence of the notoriety of the battle
for Ia Drang, Hue and Khe Sanh, and since This spurred Kennedy to speak out. On the and its costliness in lives, US Secretary of
it lasted for ten days it attracted attention floor of the US Senate on 20 May, Kennedy Defense Melvin Laird applied tougher restraints
and scrutiny from the American public that complained that it was “both senseless and on further large-scale operations in Vietnam.
tiny firefights, which in aggregate cost many irresponsible to continue to send our young President Nixon himself would announce his
American lives too, ordinarily did not. Despite men to their deaths to capture hills and policy of 'Vietnamisation' on 8 June, less than
serious opposition to the war, little criticism positions that have no relation to ending this three weeks after the battle’s end. US forces
in the US had been levelled at the actual conflict”. With the Paris Peace Conference would begin withdrawing from Vietnam, and the
tactics that American forces were employing. ongoing, Kennedy said, the US should not be burden of combat operations would be handed
Images: Rocio Espin, Getty

Hamburger Hill, with its uphill frontal assaults conducting new military operations. over to the ARVN.
against prepared enemy positions, attracted Kennedy would be strongly criticised by Hamburger Hill had its greatest impact not
heavy condemnation. Republican senators for second-guessing the on the ground in Vietnam but in the minds of
One of the foremost voices raised against military leadership on the ground in Vietnam. American policymakers and voters. In time, the
the battle was that of Democratic Senator of The New York Times chided the Democratic costs of the war would be judged to be too high
Massachusetts Edward Kennedy, brother of senator for criticising military men on tactics to continue, just as the price for taking Hill 937
the assassinated President John F. Kennedy when he was himself a civilian and 19,000 had been soon after the battle. The men who
and a strong opponent of the war in Vietnam. kilometres from the battlefield. died on that hill did not do so in vain.

109
 CAMBODIA
AND
LAOS:
THE CARNAGE SPREADS
Neither of Vietnam’s neighbours were safe
from the conflict raging to the east
WORDS NIKOLE ROBINSON

B
orders aren’t enough to contain access and permission to build permanent with the West, practically inviting the pursuit
conflict, and both Cambodia to bases, as well as opening ports to supplies of communist forces in Cambodia as long
the southwest and Laos to the from China and the USSR. Though Sihanouk as his own citizens were unharmed. The US
northwest felt the devastation still tried to claim neutrality, he seemed to Government had finalised plans to bombard
of the Vietnam War. Along with have picked a side, angering anti-communist Cambodia under newly elected
a great loss of life and inhabitable land, members of his government and dividing the President Richard Nixon, though
political upheaval facilitated and fed the rise of opinions of his populace. these plans were kept quiet so as
nationalist-communist groups in both nations, However, by the end of the 1960s not to invite international outrage.
causing years of civil war and unrest. Sihanouk seemed to have changed These secret bombings, part of
his mind again, feeling the effects Operation Menu, began in March
Cambodia of his break with Washington 1970, and by the end of April 1970
Prince Norodom Sihanouk took a stance and the lack of aid from the the use of American ground troops was
of neutrality in the Vietnam War, though he US. Wanting to regain some approved, with South Vietnamese and
didn’t stop the communists of North Vietnam semblance of neutrality, he US forces beginning a full invasion of
from using bases or supply routes, allowing looked to improve ties Cambodia. The American invasion
the continued movement of troops and stirred support for the Cambodian
arms through Cambodia. Sensing communist movement, the Khmer
a shifting of power, in 1965 Rouge, by appealing to nationalist
Sihanouk forged a deal with sentiments, claiming the United
China and North Vietnam, States was invading to take
allowing northern forces full Cambodia for itself.
This movement was only
furthered by Lon Nol’s takeover

Khmer Rouge fighters were

armed and supported by
North Vietnamese troops

110
 CAMBODIA AND LAOS: THE CARNAGE SPREADS

Operation Dewey Canyon II preceded Lam Son, The Ho Chi Minh trail ran through
clearing routes in South Vietnam both Laos and Cambodia, providing
supply routes for the PAVN

in a 1970 coup and the creation of the anti- “With Pol Pot
communist Khmer Republic, forcing Sihanouk
to take refuge in Beijing. Pro-American Nol of the Khmer
demanded the removal of North Vietnamese
troops, but at the request of the Khmer Rouge
Rouge the victor
they instead launched their own invasion in in Cambodia at
what had become a full-scale civil war.
Wanting to stop the spread of communism the end of the
in Cambodia, the US commenced Operation
Freedom Deal, bombing the eastern half of
Vietnam War,
the country between May 1970 and August there was only
1973, killing many civilians and leaving much
of Cambodia in ruins. And with Pol Pot of the more death US troops arrive in a Cam
town aboard tanks in 197
bodian
0
Khmer Rouge the victor in Cambodia at the end to follow”
of the Vietnam War, unfortunately there was
only more death to follow. Souphanouvong and backed by the Viet Minh. north. Following up with Operation Tiger Hound,
In 1953, an invasion of 2,000 Pathet Lao and fire was focused on the Ho Chi Minh trail in an
Laos 40,000 North Vietnamese troops claimed attempt to disrupt the supply route and block
Trouble was already brewing in Laos before the territory in northeast Laos, beginning a civil war. off access to South Vietnam.
Vietnam War, with the Royal Lao Government The fighting came to a temporary halt Operation Lam Son 719 saw South
clashing with the communist Pathet Lao, a with the forming of a coalition government in Vietnamese troops crossing the border on
guerrilla movement founded by Laotian Prince 1957. However, the US was suspicious of the 8 February 1971 to sever the trail from the
Pathet Lao’s communist ideals, fearing that if ground. American troops were prohibited from
Laos was to fall to communism, neighbouring entering Laos so instead provided air support.
states would follow. Backing the Royal Lao Though good progress was made, destroying
Government and fracturing the fragile peace, supply caches and establishing bases along
within a year the coalition had collapsed. the way, the South Vietnamese were met with
The Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese fierce resistance by the North. The South
forces strengthened their hold on Laos with turned back on 9 March after taking Tchepone,
another invasion in July 1958, fighting along though northern forces tried to cut them off.
the border. During this time, the Ho Chi Minh Both sides would claim victory, though the huge
trail – a crucial supply route through Laos that loss of life on both sides offset any gains.
linked North and South Vietnam – began to By the time the Pathet Lao took power in
take shape, allowing much easier movement of 1975, one-tenth of the population had died
troops and weapons for the communist forces. in the conflict, with twice as many wounded.
Despite the 1962 signing of the International Around 2 million tons of bombs were dropped
Images: Wiki; Getty

Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos setting up on the small nation between 1964 and 1973
a second standstill, peace did not last. Instead, in American campaigns, making Laos the most
a CIA-backed ‘secret war’ began in Laos. The heavily bombed nation in history. With around
US launched an extended bombing campaign, 80 million bombs left unexploded, there are
commencing with Operation Barrel Roll in the casualties of the war even today.

111
STORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

VICTORY FOR
THE NORTH
114 The Easter Offensive
With peace talks looming, the North took the chance
to improve its negotiating position 114
118 The Paris Peace Accords
The summit that enabled America to withdraw

120 The Fall of Saigon

An eye witness recalls the day the North secured its
hard-won victory

124 What if the US had won?

Disneyland Saigon? A McDonald’s on the Ho Chi
Minh trail? What would a US triumph have meant for
the people of Vietnam?

128 The legacy of the war

How Vietnam healed after the guns fell silent

120

118

112
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

124

128

113
DEADLOCK IN THE DEPTHS OF THE JUNGLE

THE

EASTER
OFFENSIVE With American forces
withdrawing, the North
Vietnamese saw a chance to
win the war and launched
an all-out attack
WORDS EDOARDO ALBERT

114
 THESIEGE
THE EASTER
OF OFFENSIVE
KHE SANH

NVA artillery in action,

bombarding Kon Tum

T
he Americans were sick of war. of defending itself against attacks from North Meanwhile, the ongoing talks in Paris were
President Richard M. Nixon Vietnam after the American military had left. making little progress. Neither side was willing
had won the 1968 presidential However, while the peace talks were to concede on their demands. But after the
election in part by promising continuing in Paris, the government of North failure of the ARVN attack on Laos, the first
‘peace with honour’. With a new Vietnam was preparing plans of its own. secretary of the North Vietnamese Communist
election due in November 1972, Nixon needed The armed forces of the South Vietnamese Party, Le Duan, concluded that a determined
to be seen to have delivered on his promise. government, known as the Army of the Republic attack on the South would overthrow the
To ensure that, Nixon’s secretary of state, of Vietnam (ARVN), had faced its first major test government of President Thieu, forcing the
Henry Kissinger, had opened peace talks in in February 1971 when it attempted to attack Americans to agree to North Vietnamese terms
Paris with the North Vietnamese Government and destroy a major NVA supply dump across or return to the battlefield themselves – a
while the American military presence in South the border in Laos. course of action that was clearly politically
Vietnam had been scaled down from 550,000 While the operation achieved some of impossible for President Nixon. So with
to 156,000 men by the start of 1972, with its aims, the part played by the ARVN was the political leadership of North Vietnam
further troop reductions scheduled to reduce characterised by confusion among the convinced that military action could either end
the number of American troops in the country commanders and timidity from front-line the war on their terms or at least give them
to 70,000 by the spring. officers; it took huge American aerial support significantly more leverage at the bargaining
As the Americans removed their own troops, to extricate the ARVN forces. Although the table, the NVA began planning for a major
they were supplying and training the armed president of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, offensive in the South.
forces of the South Vietnamese Government in declared the attack a great success, Hanoi drew The assault began at noon on 30 March
a process known as ‘Vietnamisation’. The idea a different lesson: that the ARVN was a paper 1972, Good Friday in the Christian calendar
was to ensure South Vietnam would be capable tiger that could be brushed aside. (hence the name ‘Easter Offensive’). The NVA

115
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

An NVA T59 tank captured by the South Vietnamese. American air power was crucial in turning back the NVA
Soviet supplies were crucial for the North Vietnamese attack, in particular targeting bridges and supply dumps

had committed 14 divisions and hundreds of

tanks to the assault, which was to have three
“The commander in charge of the defence of
main prongs. the Central Highlands, Lieutenant General Ngo
The first, in the North, saw a force of 30,000
NVA soldiers and several hundred tanks cross Dzu, began to crack under the unimaginable
the demilitarised zone (DMZ), which separated
the North and South Vietnamese forces,
strain and became increasingly incapable of
and attack the string of ARVN strongholds
just South of the DMZ. General Vo Nguyen
making any decisions”
Giap, the commander of the NVA forces, was Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) therefore faced President Thieu sacked the general
aiming to take the towns of Quang Tri and a three-pronged attack, one in the North, responsible for the devastating defeat,
Hue, the old imperial capital. The plan was for another in the centre that threatened to cut the installed a replacement and rushed Southern
this initial attack to suck South Vietnamese country in half, and a third in the South that reinforcements towards the North. Meanwhile,
reinforcements up into the Northern provinces might bring Saigon into the firing line. It was a the weather gods turned against the NVA: the
before following it up with further attacks into huge and difficult challenge for an army that clouds lifted and, with clear skies offering
the central and Southern provinces. was only just finding its feet. ground visibility, the Americans were able to
The second attack, into the Southern In the North, where the attack first began, unleash the full power of their air force upon
provinces, began on 5 April. Three NVA the initial response was chaotic. ARVN forces the units of the NVA.
divisions, operating from bases within fell back in disarray in front of an NVA assault Operating as a conventional army, with
Cambodia, crossed the border and began that was much larger, more determined and tanks, logistics depots and truck convoys,
their advance, with the town of An Loc better equipped than anything they had been the NVA was vulnerable to air attack and the
as their immediate target. Should An Loc fall led to expect. The NVA had timed their attack American response was nothing short of
to the NVA forces, the way would be open to coincide with a monsoon. The low cloud devastating. Waves of B-52 bombers dropped
for an advance upon the South Vietnam base that accompanied the torrential rain payloads of bombs on critical NVA supply lines,
capital of Saigon. hampered the main military element that while F-4 Phantoms and AC-119 and AC-130
The third phase of could have disrupted the advance: American gunships mounted low-level attacks on NVA
the assault plan also airpower. However, ARVN forces began to troop concentrations and artillery bases. With
began on 5 April. stabilise their line around Quang Tri with the American aerial support severely hampering –
Two NVA divisions help of American military advisors. and in many cases destroying – NVA forces as
operating from Laos Although American forces had been drawn they attempted to make their way to the front
launched an attack into back from front-line combat duties, the newly line, the North Vietnamese attack stalled and
the central provinces, instituted ARVN units had American advisors, finally halted on 5 May.
with the city of Kon ostensibly to help with training and tactics. Meanwhile, the attacks in the central
Tun as the initial target But, in the chaos of the retreat and in many and Southern provinces had also made
and the eventual aim of hurried, makeshift defensive actions, the initial progress before being stymied by the
thrusting through to ‘advisors’ became de-facto officers in the overwhelming American aerial response
the coast and South Vietnamese army, issuing orders to and stiffening defence by the ARVN. The
cutting South ARVN soldiers. In particular, Captain John commander in charge of the defence of the
Vietnam Ripley and Major John Smock led the defence Central Highlands, Lieutenant General Ngo
in two. and the mining of a crucial bridge carrying Dzu, began to crack under the unimaginable
The Highway 1 over the Cua Viet River. However, strain and became increasingly incapable of
Army NVA forces managed to bypass the bridge and, making any decisions. This indecision at the
of the in conditions of increasing chaos, Quang Tri top of the chain of command was transmitted
city was evacuated and ultimately fell to the downwards, and the ARVN units began to
NVA on 2 May. disintegrate in the face of the NVA assault.
The pathway to Hue now seemed to lay In these desperate circumstances, the
General Vo Nguyen Giap, wide open for the NVA to march through. American military advisor John Paul Vann
commander of the NVA forces
during the Easter Offensive

116
 THE EASTER OFFENSIVE

An ARVN soldier with anti-

tank rockets takes part in
the defence of An Loc

took over from

General Dzu and
coordinated the defence
himself, issuing orders that ARVN officers,
who were desperate for more determined
and decisive leadership, were more than
happy to carry out.
Vann identified the city of Kon Tum as
the place where the ARVN would make its
stand, and he personally helped organise its
defences. The attack on Kon Tum commenced
on 14 May, and the battle continued for
nearly four agonising weeks until the ARVN
forces, under Ly Tong Ba, a new and vigorous
commanding officer, in concert with American
airpower, forced the NVA to retreat.
In the South, the NVA succeeded in cutting
off and surrounding the city of An Loc. An
initial assault on 21 April was repulsed and
the NVA instead set about besieging the
city, pounding it with artillery and mortars.
The defenders could only be supplied by
airdrops and 448 missions were flown over
the city, dropping much-needed munitions and
supplies. The battle became a classic siege
but one in which the besiegers were subject
to constant American air attacks. The NVA
attempted a final attack on 14 May but the
ARVN forces repulsed it.
Elsewhere, American air attacks were
wreaking havoc on NVA supply lines while, in
response to the North Vietnamese attack,
President Nixon authorised bombing raids on
North Vietnam itself and the mining of its main
supply port. ‘Operation Linebacker’, as the air

© Alamy; Wiki; Pixabay

interdiction was called, began to destroy the
logistics hubs in North Vietnam that allowed
the NVA to conduct the war in the South.
With NVA supplies and ground troops
being decimated, the ARVN launched its own
counterattack, aiming to retake the areas The three-pronged NVA attack on South Vietnam in the
conquered by the NVA. But while the South Easter Offensive of 1972
Vietnamese did manage to regain control
of most of the territory they had lost to the
North, the ARVN counterattack fizzled out, the
South Vietnamese forces not yet having
the experience and know-how to launch a
successful offensive.
In the end, the Easter Offensive did not
achieve the aims that the North Vietnamese
Government had hoped. The South
Vietnamese Government was still intact, its
army had, in the end, acquitted itself well in
defending the country, and the Americans had
demonstrated the strategic importance of
airpower in denying the NVA the ability to move
troops and material to the front lines. More
than 100,000 men had been killed on both
Nguyen Van Thieu, President of
sides of the conflict, and with military options South Vietnam, in Hawaii for a
now stalled for the time being, both sides had meeting with President Nixon
no option but to return to negotiations, and so
An ARVN machine-gun outpost
the Paris talks resumed. waits for the NVA attack

117
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

THE PARIS
PEACE
ACCORDSThe Paris Peace Accords provided the US with
an escape route from an arduous war
WORDS MICHAEL E. HASKEW

118
 THE PARIS PEACE ACCORDS

T
heir political and ideological
differences were substantial – at
times seemingly insurmountable.
However, a path to peace, to
extricate the United States from
the costly quagmire of the Vietnam War, had to
be found.
Years of virtually fruitless negotiations
between the US and its South Vietnamese
allies and the opposing shadow government
of the National Front for the Liberation of
South Vietnam (Viet Cong), along with its
communist ally North Vietnam, had frustrated
the administration of President Lyndon B.
Johnson. The points of contention were
as prominent as the refusal of opposing
Vietnamese governments to recognise the
others’ legitimacy and as apparently trivial as
the type of table, round or rectangular, at which
Diplomats sign the Paris Pea
the negotiators would parlay. Accords on 27 January 197
ce
At long last, however, the Paris Peace 3

Accords, officially known as the Agreement

on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in
Vietnam, were signed on 27 January 1973,
brokered principally by US national security
advisor and future secretary of state Henry
Kissinger and North Vietnamese Politburo
member Le Duc Tho. The diplomats were
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the
achievement, although Tho declined to
accept. Among the major provisions were the
withdrawal of all American forces from Vietnam,
repatriation of prisoners of war, clearing of
American mines from North Vietnamese ports,
withdrawal of foreign troops from neighbouring
An American prisoner of war,
Cambodia and Laos, and a ceasefire followed released under the Paris Peace
by precise delineation of zones of control in Accords, salutes as he comes home
South Vietnam.
The road to acceptable terms for American Nevertheless, in the spring of 1970 he ordered Substantive peace negotiations resumed on
withdrawal from Vietnam through more than a controversial incursion into neighbouring 8 January 1973. A week later, President Nixon
a decade of costly involvement had been Cambodia to eliminate guerrilla bases and announced a halt to American offensive action
frustrating at times, and though President supply caches. Later, the president stepped in Vietnam, and on 27 January representatives
Johnson had called a halt to Operation Rolling up pressure on North Vietnam with Operation signed the Paris Peace Accords at the historic
Thunder, an extensive bombing campaign Linebacker, a sustained bombing campaign in Hotel Majestic. While the treaty allowed the US
against North Vietnam, in October 1968 to response to the communist Easter Offensive of to exit the war, there was no lasting peace.
invigorate peace negotiations, little progress 1972. In early May, Nixon attempted to jump- From the outset, both Vietnamese sides
was made. American public opinion had already start the talks with a major concession. He violated the treaty’s terms. The fighting
turned decidedly against the war, and the would agree to a ceasefire and the withdrawal continued. Nixon assured Thieu that the US
resulting turmoil greatly influenced Johnson’s of American troops from South Vietnam while would respond accordingly if the communists
decision not to seek reelection that November. allowing North Vietnamese troops in the South continued to flout the Accords, but these
After taking office in January 1969, President to remain there. promises proved hollow – particularly as
Richard Nixon pursued public policies of The sustained bombing and the failure of Nixon’s presidency became embroiled in the
peace with honour and ‘Vietnamisation’, the Easter Offensive compelled the North Watergate Scandal.
increasingly handing over responsibility for their Vietnamese to negotiate in earnest, and by The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
own defence to the South Vietnamese. For the autumn of 1972 a tentative agreement subsequently launched a full-scale offensive
several reasons, Nixon also pursued a policy was reached. However, the South Vietnamese in the South in March 1975. Within days,
of detente; diplomatic overtures to improve Government of President Nguyen Van Thieu organised resistance disintegrated, and on
relations with the Soviet Union and communist rejected the terms, particularly the provisions 30 April the communists occupied Saigon, the
China. Among them was the hope that the allowing communist troops to remain in the capital of the South. Images of communist
Soviets and Chinese might exert pressure on South and recognising the Viet Cong provisional tanks bursting through the gates of the
North Vietnam to bring the war to an end. government. Negotiations were suspended, Presidential Palace and the last American
© Alamy; Getty; Wiki

While negotiations in Paris lagged and and President Nixon authorised the “Christmas personnel being lifted by helicopter from
worldwide media coverage conveyed a message Bombing” of the North to force the communists rooftops while throngs of South Vietnamese
of stalemate, Kissinger and Tho began their to make concessions while threatening Thieu panicked in the streets signalled the
own sluggish discussions out of public view. with the interruption of military and diplomatic ignominious end of the Vietnam War, a dark
Nixon initiated steady US troop withdrawals. aid to his shaky government. and convulsive chapter in America’s history.

119
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

120
EYE WITNESS
THE FALL OF SAIGON, VIETNAM 30 APRIL 1975

WORDS BEN BIGGS

B
ack in March 1975, photographer with relative normality.
DIRCK HALSTEAD
Dirck Halstead was taking “As most books will
acknowledge, until the Over the last
snapshots of the rich and famous,
50 years,
staying in plush hotels and last week of the war, award-winning
living a “photographer’s dream Saigon was remarkably photojournalist
Dirck Halstead
assignment” – but he wasn’t happy. The war in unchanged. The bars has worked for
Vietnam had passed a pivotal point and now were still open, the great UPI and Time documenting
the scales had swung firmly in favour of the restaurants were still several wars, witnessing the
attempted assassination
communist North Vietnamese army and the [serving]… The war still of two US presidents and
Viet Cong. had not come to Saigon accompanying Richard Nixon
and life went on very on his tour of China. One of
As they made their relentless march towards
the biggest moments of his
Saigon, the Americans made plans to pull much as it had for most career, though, was being in
out. By 21 April, nine days before the final of the last 20 years. But Saigon in the spring of 1975,
when North Vietnam invaded.
evacuation, Dirck found himself back in the all you had to do was
country that had nearly killed him several look at the map. The tide
years before, with what some from the outside was inexorable.”
looking in might find an unusual perspective… Nine days before the final evacuation, Dirck
“I have had a love-hate relationship with boarded a helicopter to a point on the Saigon-
Vietnam for many, many years and this is not Bien Hoa Highway where he would see some
uncommon. I think if you ask most journalists ‘bang-bang’. A single ARVN battalion was
that worked there they would say the same holding back the entire North Vietnamese army
thing. Covering wars is about the most fun we at a village called Xuan Loc. “I would say that in
get to do, because even though they can be that month leading up to the collapse you had
terrifying, the emotional highs that come with plenty of chances for excitement – if you want
it are equally extreme. I’m not sure that you to put it that way. There were opportunities to
would find as many fans of covering wars these get onto helicopters, go into places like Xuan
days as you did then, because now wars are Loc. Everybody wanted to do that – in fact, I
not fought in fun places generally. nearly came to blows with a Time magazine
“Vietnam was the exception to that. Vietnam correspondent over getting on a helicopter to
was a fun place to be. The food was absolutely Xuan Loc.”
wonderful, it was sophisticated. Cocktail At the village, Dirck had a close call. Xuan
hour sitting on top of the Continental Palace Loc had been torn apart and was eerily quiet,
or the roof of the Caravelle [both hotels] was with just a few friendlies cowering in their
wonderful. So there were a lot of creature nearby foxholes. But as their military escort,
comforts in Vietnam that other wars did not led by General Le Minh Dao, moved down the
have. I think that for me it was a formative road looking for survivors, gunfire split the air
experience journalistically, as wars are for around them and the village erupted. Their
many journalists.” escort fled into the only Chinook helicopter
Saigon had been distanced from the front available, leaving Dirck and a number of press
lines for two decades and, with US Ambassador wondering if that was going to be the end of
Graham Martin planning to evacuate Americans the war for them, until the chopper returned an
and refugees under the radar, life went on hour later to take them away from danger, just

“The invasion had begun in earnest, with

gunships streaking across rooftops, gunfire and
explosions on the streets’’

121
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

of some of the city’s most opulent houses

“They hung around the embassy in throngs, traded in their properties for a pittance, while
the cost of an American visa rocketed. While
trying to squeeze onto the two black on the streets, a less salubrious scene was
buses or over the walls” playing out: American workers swept down
upon young Vietnamese women desperate
as the North Vietnamese armoured division to get out by the dozen and the US embassy
was bearing down on them. As strange as simply allowed them to sign affidavits vouching
it might seem, even at this point Dirck was for their support for these women – effectively,
more embroiled in the unfolding story than in in Dirck’s words, “subsidising a whole flock
fear for his life: “I had great confidence in the of instant pimps”. He continued: “Civilians
capabilities of the military to get us out of there did everything they could to get out of there
when the time came. All of us were privy to the somehow, calling on any help that they could
planning, so we knew that at a certain time we find – especially among the Americans – to
had to assemble at a given point, get picked up escape. Their situation was desperate, but, of
by a bus or put on a helicopter. There was no course, we’re professional journalists so we
anxiety on that score. don’t get desperate – we just get more into
“We were all busy and every day the noose the story.” The same day an explosion tore
tightened on Saigon. So if you wanted to go see apart the presidential suite in the Majestic
some bang-bang, you just had to go a little way Hotel, marking the end of a 40-month period
up the highway. The great thing was that even without incident in Saigon. Meanwhile, in the
during the last week when, literally, the fighting North Vietnamese compound in Tan Son Nhut
was on the bridges coming into Saigon, we still Air Base, the weekly press conference still
met for cocktail hour in the Continental Palace went ahead. The representatives from Hanoi
terrace. It was very strange.” and its chief spokesman, Colonel Ba, were
The climax in the days leading up to Saigon’s answering questions from the gaggle of press
final hour was intense. By 27 April, the weight gathered there. Anticipation was ripe and one
of the 100,000-strong communist PAVN of the questions repeatedly put to the colonel
(People’s Army of Vietnam) was at Saigon’s was who would be safe if they stayed in the
outskirts. In the city itself, the fear was that city once it was taken, to which Colonel Ba’s
the massacre that had occurred in the city of ambiguous answer was, “Anyone who earns an
Hue, perpetrated by the PAVN as the front line honest living will be welcome.”
retreated in 1968, would happen again as the Despite the ominous-sounding words of the
Flames erupt from a smouldering Americans withdrew. Flights full of refugees North Vietnamese colonel, Dirck remained
tank as North Vietnamese troops fleeing to American soil – both legal and illegal unperturbed. “The only personal decision that
storm the city of Saigon
– poured out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, owners I felt was incumbent on me to make was the
basic one: do I stay or do I go?
There were strong reasons for both
BIEN HOA options. In my case, because I was
The city of Bien Hoa was linked to
a contract photographer, I did not
Saigon by two major highways. It was
a South Vietnamese and American necessarily have to go along with
stronghold for most of the war. any decision that Time magazine
made, though it was strongly
recommended I did.
XUAN LOC “All the staff people, with the
The village of Xuan Loc was the exception of the Associated Press
last stronghold for the ARVN – I think [there had been] an order
18th Infantry Division and the
from their New York offices – had to
staging point for the PAVN’s
advance on Saigon. leave and expedite the evacuation
ATTENTION FROM of all Vietnamese nationals working
TAN SON NHUT AIR BASE THE NORTH
Saigon’s main air base was used
for them.”
Having conquered Hanoi
both as the evacuation point to and North Vietnam, a The next day, the invasion had
the awaiting American ships and new Cold War front is begun in earnest, with gunships
a press conference venue for the established at the northern streaking across the rooftops,
North Vietnamese leadership. border to China, whose gunfire and explosions on the
government feels threatened streets. Though most of the
by the US-allied Vietnam. Western press bureaus had cleared
their people, there still remained
a thinning contingent of ‘die-hard
Westerners’ – predominantly
journalists and government
officials, clinging on until the very
last chopper out of there.
Dirck himself was approached
by a Vietnamese colleague – his
darkroom man – trying to get his

122
 THE FALL OF SAIGON

family out. He told him to fetch his family and the city and clearing the last of the South
meet him back there, but the word to evacuate Vietnamese resistance. Nevertheless, it wasn’t
came over the radio as soon as he had gone – about to let the Americans go without a little THE DAY SAIGON
“The temperature is 105 and rising” – leaving
Dirck with little choice but to rush for the buses
encouragement. Tan Son Nhut Air Base had
already come under attack and, while the
WAS INVADED…
to the air base without his workmate. helicopters landed to pick up the remaining
Here, the sheer plight of those unable to press workers and civilians, the Marines l Frequent Wind ends
03.45AM The refugee evacuation –
escape became most apparent. They hung guarding the compound came under a rain of Operation Frequent Wind
around the embassy in throngs, trying to mortar fire. The Swift 22 chopper finally came – which had started the day
before on 29 April, is halted
squeeze onto the two black buses or over for Dirck, taking him out of Saigon to the safety
the walls to the embassy compound while US of a nearby US command ship.
Marines pushed them back. “The evacuation for me involved three 03.50AM l The American
When they couldn’t get on the buses, they different ships. The first helicopter that took ambassador Graham
Martin is ordered
surged in front, forming a line that blocked its me out landed me on the USS Blue Ridge, to evacuate
path. With a Marine barking in his face, telling which was the command ship. That’s where a
him to “Move it!” while pressing a handgun into lot of the high-profile people like [Ambassador] l PAVN 324th
04.00AM
his neck, the driver had no choice but to drive Graham Martin were – they all landed on the Division
starts to
the bus straight into the mayhem, inevitably Blue Ridge. But the problem with that was enter Saigon
crushing several unfortunate people before that it had no fixed-wing capability, so now my
it had cleared the crowd. Well aware of the whole race was to get this film that was sitting
final stages of the American withdrawal, the in the middle of the South China Sea to the 04.30AM l No more Vietnamese
evacuees allowed
PAVN was focusing its attention on securing Philippines and then to New York. That was
a real challenge and we had to petition the
skipper of the Blue Ridge to get us off there, so 05.00AM l Martin escapes
Ambassador Martin leaves the
that we could get to a carrier. US embassy for a US Navy
ship in the South China Sea
“I had been forbidden to leave the Blue
Ridge, so when a helicopter came in from the
Coral Sea to deposit some officers, I made l PAVN moves into
06.00AM
a break for it. They were shouting, “Stop that Saigon en masse
man!”, I jumped on the helicopter and yelled at
the pilot to get me off there. l Final civilians
07.00AM
“[Saigon] is right up there [as a defining and officials
leave via the
moment in my career]. The Nixon trip to China Tan Son Nhut
was the biggest story because there was Air Base
so much competition to get on it and I was
fortunate enough to be selected as one of six
07.53AM l The majority of embassy
photographers to go on that trip. Everything was Marines evacuate the
brand new and so historic… But looking back, city via helicopter just
Under a barrage of explosions, the Marines loaded
before 8am
American and Vietnamese civilians, who feared for I feel I was very blessed to have been able to
their lives, on to helicopters that brought them to go down this path and be there as history was
waiting aircraft carriers 10.24AM l South surrenders
being made in Vietnam.” President Minh announces
South Vietnam’s surrender over
the radio, calling for an end to
‘unnecessary bloodshed’

11 .30AM l Ambassador Martin

lands safely on the
USS Blue Ridge

12.00PM l Independence Palace

falls as tanks crash
through the gates

12.15PM l New flag

North Vietnam
© Corbis; Alamy; Getty; Ian Moores Graphics

raises its colours

– the flag of the
Viet Cong – over
the palace

13.30PM l Final five Marines

are rescued from
the city

16.00PM l All American ships

Dirck Halstead on an evacuation ship in the South China Sea as leave for home
Saigon falls to North Vietnamese troops in April 1975

123
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

WHAT IF...
THE US HAD WON
THE VIETNAM WAR?
VIETNAM, 1955–1975

WRITTEN BY CALUM WADDELL

What would have happened if the United Would they have become involved
DR ANDREW WIEST States had won the Vietnam War? in more conflicts?
Dr Andrew There are a lot of academics and historians Yes, I think the US would have been much less
Wiest currently
lectures at who look at Vietnam as a part of something gun-shy during the 1970s and 1980s. Reagan
the University much bigger – namely the Cold War. So if the tinkered with it, but that use of force to solve
of Southern US had won, the Cold War would probably conflicts didn’t really come back until the first
Mississippi and
is the founding have ended a little sooner and the dawn of Bush and then with Bill Clinton. The reason
director of the Dale Centre that unilateral superpower controlling things the US did not rely on its military, on any great
for War and Society. His
books include The Boys Of
would have come quicker. In Southeast scale at least, to solve problems during the
’67: Charlie Company’s War In Asia, everything would be radically different 1970s and the 1980s was all down to the
Vietnam, Vietnam’s Forgotten – including a faster and more thorough country’s failure in Vietnam.
Army: Heroism And Betrayal
In The ARVN and Vietnam: A confrontation between the US and China.
View From The Front Lines. He I doubt China would have sat by and let an When the Vietnam War began to
has also organised trips for American victory happen without repercussion cross into Cambodia it created the
Vietnam veterans suffering
from PTSD to visit the country – even though they were not exactly fans of the environment in which Pol Pot and the
they once fought in. Wiest has Vietnamese either. I don’t think Beijing would Khmer Rouge came to power. What
developed a ‘study abroad’
programme for US students
have invaded Vietnam to repel the Americans, resulted was a four-year holocaust.
wishing to soak up life in as they did in Korea, but it certainly would have Could this have been avoided?
Saigon or Hanoi. been the US against China and Russia. And it If the US was ever going to win the Vietnam
would have been a war that was not just cold War it would have been during the Tet Offensive
but glacial. American politics would certainly of 1968. That was the turning point and that
have been more tumultuous as well. was when the public, back in the United States,
If you look at the US presidential elections saw the North Vietnamese were not just going
since the 1960s, every one of them has been to retreat and surrender – it was literally a fight
fought over Vietnam to one extent or another. to the death.
It is still the most controversial aspect of a Of course, there was no big, magical
controversial time period. Had they come American victory during Tet, but let’s imagine
out of that smiling, with another greatest there was. Let’s imagine the US had repelled
generation on their hands, US politics would that attack quickly and conclusively and the war
have looked quite different. For instance, it is was essentially over as a result. At that point
hard to see the Republican revolution taking in time, the Khmer Rouge was not a big player
place. Republicans typically have an aggressive in the conflict. It is only after the US began
foreign policy, it is one of their tropes, but its military incursions into Cambodia and the
if Democratic policy had won in Vietnam – government in that country began to fall that
because it was the Democrats who started the everything became out of hand. A victorious
war in Southeast Asia – that would have taken US in Vietnam would not have required any
a lot of heat away from their rivals. entrance into Cambodia and, as a result, you

124
 WHAT IF THE US HAD WON THE VIETNAM WAR?

If the US campaign in Vietnam had proven successful,

we might have seen an even greater influx of American
influence than has already happened

125
 VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

A SUCCESSFUL CHINA
almost certainly would not have seen
CAMPAIGN ATTENTION FROM THE NORTH
Having conquered Hanoi and North
the rise of the Khmer Rouge. They are
intrinsically tied to how the Vietnam War
progressed, no doubt about that.
Vietnam, a new Cold War front is
established at the northern border to
China, whose government feels threatened Would we ever have seen a situation like
by the US-allied Vietnam. in Korea where the communist North and
BURMA NORTH VIETNAM
the democratic South are split down the
middle, even to this day?
No, that was never going to happen. One side
LAOS
was going to reunify the country, no matter
A REVERSAL OF FORTUNE what. So if there was a big American victory,
A successful defence of the Tet
one situation you have is reunification under
Offensive in January 1968 spurs
the US-backed South across the non-communist rule. As a result of that, the
demilitarized zone into North turn towards Asia the US is presently taking
Vietnam, resulting in a Westernised, would have happened then as opposed to now.
unified Vietnam. We would have had an immediate conflict with
IN THE China. Unlike the North Koreans, the North
BALANCE Vietnamese were much less likely to accept
With two THAILAND the scenario where the country remained
superpowers
next door to each ATROCITIES AVERTED split. If you look at their leadership, and their
other, Laos and By avoiding a campaign in Cambodia, pronouncements and their goals, they were not
Thailand become the Khmer Rouge don’t gain traction going to go for a ‘tie’.
fair game for the in the country, avoiding the genocide In addition, the tactical situation in Vietnam
US and China’s under Pol Pot that would otherwise was much trickier. This is because the border
CAMBODIA have taken place. Cambodia is
race for influence between North and South Vietnam is so long
and allegiance in stronger as a result.
Southeast Asia.
and porous that it would be very difficult to
police – and that is why you had the Ho Chi
SOUTH VIETNAM Minh trail, the excursions into Cambodia and
Laos and all of that other stuff. So it might be
convenient to think that we could replay the
Korean War and end Vietnam with a stalemate,
but that was never going to happen. People
forget the wanted reunification too – just under
different circumstances.
“If the US was ever going to win the If John F. Kennedy had not been
Vietnam War it would have been during assassinated, would the Vietnam War
have been avoided?
the Tet Offensive of 1968” That is a controversial question. There have

l The Geneva Conference

HOW WOULD IT BE France agrees to the decolonisation of

Vietnam. Free elections are promised, but
the US suspects the communist Ho Chi
Minh may win. It installs a brutal dictator,

DIFFERENT? Ngo Dinh Diem, in South Vietnam. He is

viewed by Ho Chi Minh and the North as
a puppet ruler.
21 July 1954

l Assassination of Dinh Diem

Real timeline Real timeline Diem – whose anti-Buddhist
policies famously caused
the monk Thich Quang Duc
to immolate himself – is
murdered in a brutal but
1945 mysterious coup d’état.
2 November 1963
l Vietnamese Declaration l Ho Chi Minh contacts
of Independence President Truman
Based on the American The Vietnamese
Declaration of revolutionary writes to
Independence, Ho Chi Minh Truman asking him to
asks the US and the West
to oppose French colonial
“urgently interfere” in the
foreign rule of his country.
Alternative timeline l US reunites Korea
Fears that China would support
the North prove unfounded. The
rule in Vietnam and support Truman fears Vietnam US manages to push back the
what will be “a free and becoming communist and comparatively minimal army of
independent country”. instead backs the French. Kim Il-sung and successfully
2 September 1945 28 February 1946 reunites the two Koreas. Seoul
aligns itself as a Western-friendly
government.
27 July 1953

126
 WHAT IF THE US HAD WON THE VIETNAM WAR?

A man suspected of supporting the Viet Cong is arrested and detained A convoy of US
by US troops tanks in Vietnam

been so many arguments about this – and, all guns blazing. You have to remember that Had he lived longer, with all of his clout, I think
of course, Kennedy’s legacy is such a sacred both Kennedy and Johnson faced the post- that is the best chance we would have had to
thing in the States that it is political kryptonite World War II consensus: to fight a difficult, avoid starting a war out there.
to touch it. The pro-Kennedy forces argue he problematic and long war against what they
wanted to withdraw most of the 16,000 military perceived as a communist threat or to embark Vietnam is now awash with KFC
advisors that were over there. However, before on social changes back home – in particular restaurants, Coca-Cola, multiplexes and
Kennedy there were only 600 military advisors the civil-rights movement. I believe Kennedy other examples of American pop culture.
over there. He had begun a war over there and was also going to veer toward the civil-rights So who really won the war?
I think there are two things that still would have movement – just as Johnson did. But I don’t Well, that is the thing – they are now America’s
hamstrung him even if he wanted out. think you get both – civil rights and the end of staunch allies. It shows that, first of all, as
The first is that he still wanted his political Vietnam. That mixture would have brought the Sun Tzu said, the best tool to win a war is not
party to win another term, and if the Democrats Democrats down at the voting booth. always the military. It was American culture
had wiped their hands of Vietnam there is a that eventually prevailed. If you look at things
good chance they would not have achieved Is there any way you can see that the like Rambo and all these other Hollywood
that. The second is that Kennedy wanted Vietnam War may have been avoided? movies that attempted to justify the conflict,
his brother to be the next man in the White Asking anyone to do the right thing back then it is obvious how much impact it had on the
House. To mess that up, by handing Vietnam was difficult. Had Franklin Roosevelt lived, US. But it was just a blip on the radar to the
to the communists, would have sunk this. I maybe things could have been avoided. He Vietnamese. It cost them many more lives,
would also argue that Robert McNamara, who had a guy on his team who was a communist, but it was all part of a bigger struggle for
was Kennedy’s confidant in the first place namely Stalin, and Roosevelt was not a fan independence. Today, Vietnam has a huge
and the architect of the Vietnam War, was of European colonialism. So he may have young generation and this is all ancient history
going to give him the same advice he gave sided with Ho Chi Minh’s desire to have an to them. They have moved on, but ironically it is
Lyndon B. Johnson – which was to go in with independent Vietnam, free from French rule. the face of the US they now buy into.

l Gulf of Tonkin fabrication l The My Lai Massacre l Paris Peace Accords l Fall of Saigon
North Vietnamese ships are At My Lai, families are raped, Nixon’s government agrees to The war ends with the North
reported to have fired on a US tortured and killed by US soldiers. a cease-fire, with US ground Vietnamese taking Saigon
patroller, the Maddox, in the South Lieutenant William Calley, who troops and POWs returning by force and celebrating a
China Sea. President Johnson instigated the horror, walks home. The reunification of reunified country. Ho Chi Minh,
uses the event to justify going free, but world opinion becomes Vietnam is now a matter who died in 1969, remains a
to war. Declassified documents opposed to ‘America’s war’. between the respective Saigon national icon. Saigon is now
later confirmed that no attack 16 March 1968 and Hanoi governments. known as Ho Chi Minh City.
happened. 2 August 1964 27 January 1973 30 April 1975

l Tet Offensive l Ho Chi Minh at the UN l Gulf of Tonkin fabrication l Failed Tet Offensive
On Vietnamese New Year, the Ho Chi Minh gives a rousing Johnson, respecting Kennedy’s The North Vietnamese conduct
North surprises the South with speech at the UN, but with opposition to communism a failed attempt to take
a sudden offensive. The city of the new Korea becoming in Asia and Latin America, Saigon, Hue and other cities
Hue witnesses extensive fighting. an international trading fabricates the Gulf of Tonkin in South Vietnam. Forewarned
South Vietnam and its allies partner, Western nations side incident to justify entering the about the attack, the US Army
suffer drastic losses. with the US on Vietnamese war in Vietnam. quickly repels their enemies.
30 January – 3 March 1968 reunification. December 1956 2 August 1964 30 January – 14 February 1968
© Daniel Sinoca; Dreamstime

l Free elections l Fixed elections? l Kennedy’s speech l Cambodia’s involvement l Fall of Hanoi
Pressured into elections, US President Eisenhower releases a Concluding with how close the The White House offers to On Ho Chi Minh’s birthday,
fears come true and Ho Chi statement claiming that, “After an world came to nuclear war supply Cambodia’s Communist the North Vietnam capital
Minh becomes president of extensive CIA investigation we can during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Party of Kampuchea guerrilla collapses under the military
Vietnam. However, believing reveal the elections in Vietnam President Kennedy affirms that fighters in aid and arms if might of the US army. The
this would expose the South were rigged.” South Vietnam is all communist countries must be they can offer the US details war is over. China becomes
Vietnamese to communist rule, to continue with a ‘democratic’ treated as rogue states. Military of the Ho Chi Minh trail supply so concerned that Mao
the Eisenhower government regime headed by an interim involvement is increased heavily route. The deal is only revealed immediately agrees to a trade
argues the elections were fixed. coalition of allied countries. in Vietnam. decades later. pact with Coca-Cola.
January 1956 March 1956 October 1962 August 1967 19 May 1968

127
VICTORY FOR THE NORTH

THE LEGACY
OF THE WAR
Vietnam’s road to recovery would start with reunification and re-education
WORDS NIKOLE ROBINSON

W
ith the fall of Saigon on 30 these casualties on the ‘winning’ side, if on boats, continuing into the 1990s as the
April 1975, North Vietnam you could call it that. Millions more were left new government and economy struggled to
emerged victorious in a war scarred – both physically and mentally – by a stabilise. Around 800,000 of these so-called
that had ravaged both sides war that had seen the entire country become ‘boat people’ reached a safe haven between
for almost two decades. The a battleground. Around 3 million people had 1975 and 1995, though the dangers of
fighting had taken a huge toll. Cities, villages no job to return to at the end, and almost overcrowded boats, storms and piracy meant
and farmlands had all been decimated by 900,000 children lost their parents. many never made it, with between 200,000
bombings, mortar fire and landmines – with As tanks bulldozed through the gates of and 400,000 refugees lost at sea.
many of these still live, posing further danger Independence Palace, the South Vietnamese With the surrender of the South, the
long after the war. The weaponisation of seat of power, there was a mass exodus of North consolidated power with the People’s
napalm left the lush greenery of Vietnam South Vietnamese officials, soldiers and Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam, forming
blackened and burnt, while use of the chemical other refugees, fleeing in desperation from the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). They
herbicide Agent Orange and other deadly the repercussions of their opposition to the officially reunified the two halves of the country
concoctions had infected food and water North. US troops that hadn’t deserted Vietnam on 2 July 1976, creating the Socialist Republic
supplies across the country. two years previously played a huge part in of Vietnam. Hanoi became its capital, while
The human cost of the conflict was also evacuations, and almost 140,000 refugees Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in
high. It’s estimated that 2 million civilians lost were relocated to the US as part of Operation honour of the revolutionary leader. The CPV’s
their lives, while around 1.3 million Vietnamese New Life. Others escaped across the border main goal was to build a strong and prosperous
soldiers died for their country, with most of into neighbouring Thailand. Most refugees left socialist state in the image of North Vietnam.

128
 THE LEGACY OF THE WAR

A soldier views
photographs of the
Fall of Saigon

An all-female team searches for unexploded

mines in Vietnam, January 2020

Refugees fleeing Saigon as a Northern victory

begins to look increasingly likely

A Vietnamese-American pays his respects at

a memorial near Little Saigon in California

Renamed Reunification Palace,

this was the former seat of power
for the Republic of Vietnam

However, the war left many obstacles for this The economy had suffered greatly after bringing them into the hands of the state.
new government to overcome. years of military spending, and when the CPV Former owners were forcefully relocated to
Although the National Social Democratic came into power inflation was running up to ‘New Economic Zones’, many of which were
Front had been dissolved, a considerable 900 per cent. Though the US had promised to sparsely populated mountainous forests with
number of its supporters remained. The CPV pay $3.5 billion in reconstruction aid, with its poor living conditions. Rural families were
feared these loyalists – who had been fed pride stung after the South’s defeat, this never organised into agricultural collectives, though
anti-communist propaganda for years – would materialised. The US made life even harder with little profit to be made and surplus
form a reactionary insurgency and try to seize for the CPV by demanding it pay back millions produce expected to be handed over for
back power. Members of the old government borrowed by the old government and imposing redistribution, there wasn’t a lot of incentive for
who had not fled were replaced and sent on a trade embargo, making imports and exports farmers to work hard.
‘retraining’ courses to better align them with with the US and its allies impossible. Later With inflation creeping back up, food
communist ideals. involvement in Cambodia against the vicious shortages and strict rationing, it was clear
South Vietnamese Army officers and Khmer Rouge incurred the wrath of China, socialist measures were failing. In 1986, new
soldiers were also told to report for reform leaving Vietnam with few allies who could leadership turned towards the creation of a
All images © Getty

and retraining. Those of higher rank or viewed provide aid in this crucial time of recovery. socialism-oriented market economy with the
as suspicious were sent to re-education Despite this, the CPV put an emphasis on Doi Moi economic reforms, allowing small
camps, which implemented hard labour, brutal reconstruction and the construction of industry factories, businesses and farms to operate for
discipline and dire conditions. Some were held and developing agriculture. They nationalised profit. This would truly allow Vietnam to begin
without formal charges for over 18 years. businesses and confiscated private property, to heal, but not without a little corruption.

129
THE VIETNAM WAR
IN NUMBERS

Skull icon: Ruedi Luthi; US Flags: Thanga Vignesh, Linseed Studio

2 MILLION 58,200
Gravestone: Francielly_Costantin_Senra

Skull icon: Ruedi Luthi; Flag: Derek_Williams_Green

VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS KILLED

US AND CANADIAN
FATALITIES

1,100,000
VIETNAMESE AND VIET
CONG SOLDIERS KILLED
Bombs: Adrien Coquet

Bombs: Adrien Coquet

Soldiers: ProSymbols

7.5
MILLION
260
MILLION
BOMBS CLUSTER
DROPPED ON
VIETNAM BOMBS 2,709,918
DROPPED ON AMERICANS SERVED
LAOS BY THE US IN VIETNAM
Medal: Adrien Coquet

Magnifying glass: Haykam

Hands: Adrien Coquet

240 70%
All icons provided under Creative Commons

OF US TROOPS

1,611
UNITED
STATES KILLED WERE
SOLDIERS VOLUNTEERS
RECEIVED
THE MEDAL AMERICANS STILL
OF HONOR UNACCOUNTED FOR
Getty Images
 STORY OF THE

VIETNAM
WAR UNCOVER THE CONFLICT THAT TORE TWO NATIONS APART
9021

BIRTH OF VIETNAM THE PATH TO WAR

How the country of Vietnam was shaped Fearing the spread of communism,
by invasions and insurrections the US decided to intervene

THE TET OFFENSIVE FALL OF SAIGON

Determined to drive the US back, the The seizure of the South’s capital spelled
9000

Viet Cong unleashed a stunning assault victory for the forces of the North