Name: Combat Operations: Staying the Course, September 1967-October 1968 (Hardcover)
Author: Villard, Erik B.

Combat Operations: Staying the Course, September 1967-October 1968 (Hardcover)

Title:

Combat Operations: Staying the Course, October 1967-December 1968 (Paperback)

Agency Publisher:

Department of the Army

Center of Military History (CMH)

Format:

Paperback

USA Price:

$35.00 Display Foreign Price

Stock:

Low stock

GPO Stock Number:

008-029-00626-0

ISBN:

9780160942808

Description

This publication describes the twelve-month period when the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allies embarked on a new and more aggressive strategy that shook the foundations of South Vietnam and forced the United States to reevaluate its military calculations in Southeast Asia. Hanoi's general offensive-general uprising brought the war to South Vietnam's cities for the first time and disrupted the allied pacification program that was just beginning to take hold in some rural areas formerly controlled by the Communists. For the enemy, however, those achievements came at a staggering cost in manpower and material; more importantly, the Tet offensive failed to cripple the South Vietnamese government or convince the United States to abandon its ally. As the dust settled from the Viet Cong attacks, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered his military commanders to press ahead with their current strategy unchanged apart from some short-term tactical adjustments and a modest increase in the U.S. troop deployment. His decision to stay the course seemed to bear fruit as the allies repaired their losses and then forged new gains throughout the summer and autumn of 1968. Even so, the allied situation at the end of this period appeared to be only marginally better than it had been in late 1967; the peace talks in Paris had stalled, and American public opinion had turned decisively against the war.

Get a first-hand account of this book on our blog: https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2018/03/29/national-vietnam-war-veterans-day...

Table of Contents

PART ONE

Opening Battles

Chapter Page

1. A Question of Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Westmoreland’s Strategy for 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Chain of Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The U.S. Army in Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The South Vietnamese Armed Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Hanoi’s Decision to Launch a General Offensive–General

Uprising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2. Opening Moves: Battles North and West of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Planning the Dry Season Offensive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

The Other Side of the Hill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The Battle for Loc Ninh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Second Wave at Song Be and Bo Duc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Thunder Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Screaming Eagles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Assessing the Campaign North of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Tropic Lightning Strikes War Zone C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

The Situation at the Beginning of the New Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

3. Protecting the Heartland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Binh Duong and Hau Nghia Provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Gia Dinh: A Province in Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

East of Saigon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Opening Highway 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Long An Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Taking Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

4. Operations in the Mekong Delta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Taking the Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Firebase Cudgel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Coronado IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Supporting the South Vietnamese Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

The Delta at Year’s End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

5. Across the Central Highlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

New Threats in the Highlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

The Battle Begins, 2–6 November. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The Allied Counteroffensive, 7–15 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

xvi

Chapter Page

Into the Dak Klong Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

The Pursuit Continues: 15–18 November. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Hill 875: 18–24 November. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Results and Interpretations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Good Neighbors in the Highlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

6. Defending the Central Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Pacification Support in Binh Dinh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Battling the Yellow Star Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Fighting for Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa Provinces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Defending Southern II Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

The Balance Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

7. Reinforcing I Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

The Struggle for the Que Son Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

The 2d Division Attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

The Battle for Quang Tin and Quang Ngai Provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

The Balance Sheet in I Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

8. The Gathering Storm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Enemy Preparations for Tet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Warning Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Khe Sanh Besieged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Allied Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

PART TWO

The General Offensive Begins

9. Tet Unleashed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

First Strikes on the Central Coast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Clashes in Binh Dinh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Hard Fighting in the Highlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Initial Fighting in Southern I Corps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

The Thrust at Da Nang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

10. Saigon Embattled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

The Capital Military Region on Alert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Attacks Downtown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

The Battle for Tan Son Nhut Air Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

The Joint General Staff Compound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Cholon and the Phu Tho Racetrack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Battles on the Periphery of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Battles Outside of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Assessing the Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

xvii

Chapter Page

11. Mekong Firestorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

The Delta in Flames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

The Mobile Riverine Force to the Rescue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Firebase Jaeger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Coronado XI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

The Post-Tet Situation in IV Corps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

12. Fighting in the Northern Provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 381

The Assault on Quang Tri City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Target: Hue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

A City Besieged: 31 January–1 February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Enter the Cavalry: 2–10 February. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Going on the Attack in the Triangle and the Citadel:

2–10 February. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

West of Hue: 11–20 February. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Stalemate in the Citadel: 11–20 February. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

The Final Push: 20–25 February. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Aftermath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

PART THREE

Thrust and Parry

13. Reverberations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

The Communist Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

The View from Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

America Reacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Whither from Here? The Reinforcement Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

14. The Allies Strike Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Restoring Security in Central III Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Regaining the Initiative in the Northern Mekong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Operations on the Central Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Patrolling the Highlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

The Americal Division in Southern I Corps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

The My Lai Massacre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

A Sense of Urgency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

15. To Khe Sanh and the A Shau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Operation Carentan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Operation Pegasus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Into the A Shau Valley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

16. The General Offensive Renewed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Fighting on the Demilitarized Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Safeguarding Hue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

xviii

Chapter Page

The Fall of Kham Duc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Ambush in Binh Dinh Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Renewed Pressure at Ben Het and Dak Pek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

17. Mini-Tet in Saigon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Opening Clashes to the East and North of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

The Fight on the Western Outskirts, 5–12 May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

The Battle for South Saigon, 7–12 May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Saigon: Interlude and the Second Phase, 13 May–7 June. . . . . . . . . . . 583

Assessing the May Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

18. A Summer of Attrition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

Continuity and Change in I Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Operations in II Corps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614

II Field Force and the Approaches to Saigon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

19. Thwarting the Third Wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Allied Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

The Battle for Tay Ninh Begins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

The Offensive Widens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Fighting Continues in Tay Ninh Province. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

The September Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

20. An Evolving War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Bibliographical Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681

Map Symbols and Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Index. Contents

PART ONE

Opening Battles

Chapter Page

1. A Question of Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Westmoreland’s Strategy for 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Chain of Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The U.S. Army in Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The South Vietnamese Armed Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Hanoi’s Decision to Launch a General Offensive–General

Uprising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2. Opening Moves: Battles North and West of Saigon . . . . . . . . . . . 43