On January 21, 1968, after months of gathering thousands of troops and supplies at the border
with Laos, the North Vietnamese Army surprised and encircled the isolated American base of Khe Sanh.
There was no way in or way out, but the Devil Dogs trusted each other, cleaned their rifles,
and fixed their bayonets to get the job done. For over 77 days, the US Marine garrison
would fight against overwhelming odds without a single day of rest.
The 6,000 Marines had to resist the violent push of over 16,000 NVA eager to overrun the base,
and the Tet Offensive would be drained from men that could have been used elsewhere.
Artillery bombardment, mortar fire, and airstrikes carrying explosives or napalm
would lead to a daily cacophony that tested the guts of the outnumbered leathernecks.
The Siege of Khe Sanh ultimately became one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
Circling Khe Sanh Khe Sanh
was a village near the border with Laos and south of the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone,
divided into North and South Vietnam. During the 1960s, the village was the
local seat of the government of the Bru Montagnard, a local tribe that made a
living out of coffee plantations. In 1962, the United States Military
Command–Vietnam, or MACV, began building an Army Special Forces Base near Khe Sanh.
The purpose of the base was to train local men to fight against the Northern communists
and serve as a deterrent of enemy forces that sought to reach the city of Laos.
From this base, the Army also launched patrols into Laos to conduct reconnaissance operations
in the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Then, in 1963, the Army built an airfield near an old French port.
Three years later, the US Marines built their own base next to the Special Forces section,
from where they would begin organizing their own operations in the region.
Soon, the small Marine position was reinforced to regimental strength as NVA or North Vietnamese
Army activity increased in the surrounding hills. Operation Prairie 4 was then launched in April of
1967, followed by Operations Crockett and Ardmore. During this time, Marines and NVA
firefights continually broke out to control the hillsides surrounding the Khe Sanh base.
As October closed in, NVA activity and movement in the region dramatically increased. The
Communist forces began to gather and concentrate thousands of troops for a possible offensive.
Artillery and ammunition depots and artillery pieces were sighted by intelligence forces,
which alarmed the US military command about a significant NVA threat around Khe Sanh.
Still, some officers doubted that the Communists would dare attack the US forces
when peace talks were already underway for the Tet talks.
But others, like President Lyndon B. Johnson and General William Westmoreland,
commander of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, believed otherwise.
Both men considered that the NVA was deliberately targeting Khe Sanh and other South Vietnamese
regions and cities to gain a political edge over the Americans for the upcoming peace talks.
Westmoreland based his suspicions around what happened during the First Indochina War,
in which the French were encircled and defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, giving
the Vietnamese enough leverage to obtain their independence during the Geneva peace conference.
Now history could repeat itself. Preparing for the Offensive
The NVA troops that surrounded Khe Sanh comprised two infantry divisions and several artillery
and armored regiments, and between 20,000 and 30,000 Communist soldiers, including
support troops, were rounded up in the vicinity. As the US military command realized the extent of
the offensive, they only had two options: abandon the base or reinforce it for an imminent attack.
President Johnson and Westmoreland wanted the base to be held at all costs.
In contrast, Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of the 101st
Airborne during World War 2, wanted the position to be abandoned due to its isolated location.
In the end, the President's suggestion became an order,
and Operation Scotland was launched to prepare the Marines for a possible NVA attack.
The positions surrounding the base were then reinforced with supplies and men, and by January
of 1968, 6,000 Marines and Army troops were entrenched and expecting an enemy attack soon.
General Westmoreland also entertained the idea that if an all-out confrontation broke out near
the Demilitarized Zone and Khe Sanh was overrun, chemical or nuclear weapons could be used.
Still, the few men that knew about this top-secret course of action hoped that the Marines could
handle the defense with conventional weapons. Because of the timing and location, the only
way to deploy more troops or supplies was through airdrops or helicopter landings, as the NVA had
slowly surrounded the base from all flanks. Still, morale was high among the American
soldiers, and they would need it as the air stiffened as the days went by.
Then, on January 21, 1968, the sky lit up. Havoc rained down from the sky as
thousands of enemy artillery and mortar rounds began to pummel the isolated American base.
It was time to fight. The Attacks
The massive artillery bombardment from the NVA was delivered with pinpoint accuracy. It was midnight,
and although the Marines were on high alert, they were surprised by the sheer scale of the attack.
While the leathernecks raced for cover, the NVA launched a series of coordinated
attacks from several positions. Then, at 3 in the morning, the NVA’s 6th
Battalion attacked the Marines on Hill 861. An hour later, a second artillery barrage leveled
most of the ground defenses that protected the base. Some of the shells hit the main ammunition
dump and detonated most of the artillery and mortar rounds the Marines had stored,
causing more damage inside the base. Even worse, another shell hit a stache of tear
gas that saturated an entire area and forced the Marines to leave the area or fight with gas masks.
Fourteen Marines were lost, and another 50 were wounded. Then, after the barrage ceased,
the NVA retreated. However, a series of explosives set around the base detonated
before the Marines could breathe fresh air. To exacerbate the situation, the top brass
was fooled by the Communist's forces by making them believe that most of their forces were
centered around Khe Sanh. But they were not. The NVA and Vietcong launched over 70,000 men
in a series of attacks that overran the entire DMZ on more than 100 different locations. It
was the beginning of the Tet Offensive. The Army then sent Huey helicopters to
support the outnumbered American and South Vietnamese personnel before evacuating them.
For the following weeks, the Marines kept resisting at Khe Sanh and its surrounding
outposts, but the NVA never let them rest, and morale began to take a blow.
In addition, ammunition and food soon began to run short,
and aircraft delivering supplies were under constant heavy fire.
The military command then launched Operation Niagara, a massive close air support campaign
carried out by the Seventh Air Force to support the Marines at Khe Sanh and other nearby areas.
Fighter aircraft and B52 bombers dropped tons of explosives and napalm in the surrounding
hills to force the NVA to retreat, but the enemy was relentless and kept coming back.
Over 9,000 sorties were flown between January and March of 1968
and dropped more than 15,000 tons of bombs. By April, the combat strength of the NVA finally
started to show signs of weakness after losing around 9,000 troops from the bombing campaign.
But the fighting over Khe Sanh was not over yet, and the Marines were still surrounded.
Operation Pegasus After the success of Operation Niagara,
Westmoreland ordered General John J. Johnson, commander of the First Cavalry Division,
to begin planning Operation Pegasus. The operation’s objective was to relieve the
Marines at Khe Sanh by weakening the NVA through a series of air and ground attacks along Route 9.
Then, after some firefights, the Marines were able to move out from the base
and extend the range of their patrols. In coordination with the Air Cavalry,
the US and South Vietnamese began to suffocate the pockets of resistance in the hills.
A fierce campaign was eventually launched to decimate the NVA in the A Shau Valley,
and in early June of 1968, the evacuation of Khe Sanh began.
Wounded Marines and soldiers were taken away, and undamaged equipment was picked up.
The rest was destroyed or left behind. The last Marines were evacuated from Khe Sanh on
July 11 under cover of darkness. After 77 days of fighting, the base was finally abandoned.
Although the NVA used the evacuation as a propaganda victory,
statistics showed the contrary. While the US death toll was less than 300 with 3,000 wounded,
Communist forces surpassed 15,000 casualties and 3,000 wounded.
Still, the evacuation of Khe Sanh helped fuel the anti-war sentiment back home. Eventually,
President Johnson withdrew his candidacy for reelection and Westmoreland was replaced by
General Creighton W. Abrams to lead the MACV. The war would rage on for 7 more years.
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And let us know in the comments below what you think of the siege of Khe Sanh.
Do you think it would have been a better option to retreat from the very beginning of the blockade?