One of the first major battles of the Vietnam War, the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley took place from 14 November to 18 1965. The battle was located in South Vietnam, where the Drang River flows into Cambodia. Since the war had started, this territory had never been occupied. It was a fierce five day battle between the United States 1st Cavalry Division and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). In the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, American military commanders took the approach that it was solely a search and destroy kind of mission. Each side of the battle had different views of its importance. The United States wanted to fly into a landing zone and recon the area so they could find the People’s Army of Vietnam and destroy enemy elements in South Vietnam. Americans were going to fly into the valley with the 1st Cavalry Division and drop them off by helicopter because of the terrain. If the United States could take over some of the territory in South Vietnam, they could get a foothold to start defeating the enemy. For the U.S. this was a key battle to see if they could defeat an enemy that no ally was able to fight before this point. This battle was composed primarily of the 1st Cavalry Division, which was a new mobile air unit of the Army. The United States had roughly 1,000 personnel, while the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong had around 2,000 soldiers. From a technology standpoint, the United States had the upper hand. Although the Viet Cong were able to bunker themselves in with machine guns, the U.S. was able to do gun runs using new helicopter technology throughout the battle. Once the U.S. Army was able to secure the landing zone they were able to fly in supplies and transport out the wounded. The Viet Cong had the advantage that they owned the land were able to set up using the terrain as an
The Americans were inexperienced with the terrain and tactics used in Vietnam. Their inability to adapt could have easily lead to their downfall. As described by a Vietnamese soldier (Source F) the Americans were “well armed but slow and clumsy …they were elephants“ in an environment where such things as traps and ambushes were utilised against them and their unfamiliarity led to many
Senior Leaders have analyzed wars for years in hopes of finding the most efficient way to conduct war. This paper explores the events of that took place during the Battle of Bien Hoa in 1968. Research was conducted through internet and non-internet sources to provide the most accurate facts concerning this battle. The 29th of January 1968 was the beginning of Battle of Bien Hoa when the Bien Hoa Air Base went under attack. On 31 January the first Tet Offensive began by the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam in order to shift the invading army and regain control by the Vietnamese. A total of 39 encounters were recorded in this battle fought by brave Soldiers from the 17th Calvary, the 11th Armored Calvary, the 101st Airborne Division, the 47th Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 199th Infantry Brigade, the Air Force, Marines, and the South Vietnamese Army, against enemy forces (North Vietnamese Army, and the Viet Cong). Pleiku, Phan Theit, Ban Me Thuot, Thu Duc, An My, and Kontum are some of the cities near the Saigon area where the encounters took place. (Starry, 1931) Before the battle begun there was a huge dilemma about engaging armored vehicles in Vietnam; however once fully engaged the results created an atmosphere of change, innovation, power, and confidence that changed the strategies of war forever.
In late October of 1965, troops of the 1st Brigade were sent into the battle. After the enemy was repulsed, the 3rd Brigade replaced the 1st Brigade in early November (X-Ray). After three days of patrolling without any contact, Hal Moore's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry was ordered to air assault into the Ia Drang Valley on Nov 14. Moore's plan was to move Bravo and Alpha northwest past the creek bed, and Charlie south toward the mountain. Delta Company, which comprised special weapons forces including mortar, recon, and machine gun units, was to be used as the battlefield reserve.
In conclusion, I think that the United States became increasingly involved in the Vietnamese War because of the policies they had made as a promise to fight communism, and because they had sorely underestimated Vietcong’s ability to fight back using Guerrilla warfare. They refused to pull out of the war in fear of losing face before the world, but this pride factor scored them massive losses in the war. In the end, with both side sustaining heavy losses, the US were still seen as mutilators in the war, with advanced showing what their intervention had costed, and Vietnam was still fully taken over by Communism – they had achieved nothing and lost a lot.
In June 1950, following World War II, North Korea and China invaded South Korea and the Korean War began . Seventeen countries in the United Nations and the United States sent armies to help defend the people of South Korea. The Battle of Chipyong-Ni was an important battle and victory for COL Paul L. Freeman and the United Nations, especially after the defeat in the previous days before this battle. This battle is sometimes described as the Gettysburg Battle of that era . Even with the fear of being over ran by the Chinese, COL Freeman was extremely successful using mission command during his two-day battle at Chipyong-Ni.
The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. Due to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S Marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnam's air defenses. Unfortunately this did not stop the North's support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly being attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the draft quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was "peace with honor" in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towards Vietnam mostly before the protests began.
Introduction The Battle of Hue is one of the longest battles within the realms of the Vietnam War. The United States sent two Army battalions and three under strength US Marine Corps battalions, which together with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) defeated ten North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC). The battle highlighted the challenges the U.S. Marines faced in an urban battlefield. The NVA and VC forces entered the city of Hue under the cover of darkness on January 30, 1968. Under a unified front, they seized most of the city except two strategic locations: ARVN 1st Division Headquarters and the U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) compound.
The Vietnam War was one of the most prolonged wars in US history. Although there were no exact dates, it is believed that US involvement lasted for around 20 years. The US went into this war hoping they could stop the spread of communism and defeat the northern Vietnamese. The battles were like nothing they had seen before and it was very difficult for the soldiers to differentiate between the enemies and civilians. To make it even more difficult for the soldiers, their “information was based on faulty intelligence”. Võ Nguyên Giáp, a northern Vietnamese general, believed that the US and the southern Vietnamese had an unstable relationship. He hoped that through the Tet Offensive the US would believe they were no longer worth defending. Fighting was done using guerrilla warfare which blurred the lines of legitimate and illegitimate killings and this had effect of bringing peoples morales down. Support for the war had always been split but this battle caused even the government to reconsider their involvement. The Tet offensive changed the US's attitude towards the Vietnam war by leading to further anti-war protests, a credibility gap in America, and for President Johnson to negotiate peace and not seek reelection.
advance for the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, but also gave the United States a
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
The book, We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, begins at a pivotal point in American history. The year was 1965; the year America began to directly interfere with the Vietnam affairs and send our young men to defend the notion of "freedom." During this year, Vietnam interested and concerned only a few Americans. In fact, the controversy of American involvement in Vietnam had hardly begun. But this all changed in November 1965 at the Ia Drang Valley in distant Vietnam. The Battle at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany was the first major battle of the Vietnam conflict; a conflict that lasted decade and caused American turmoil for many more years.
After Vietnam erupted into civil war, both sides started employing clever tactics and new t...
In retrospect, it’s clear that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese ability to combine both methods of warfare played a major role their victory. Their strategy provided them the tools they needed to win. In the end, they recognized that each type of warfare complimented the other to achieve their strategic goals.
There were many events that lead up the Vietnam War, it started in 1945 with the hostilities between the French and Vietminh. “Geopolitical Strategy, economics, domestic US politics, and cultural arrogance shaped the growing American involvement in Vietnam” (Anderson 1). As a matter of fact, the Vietnam War was several wars, but it was not until 1962 that America had their first combat mission, however, Americans were killed during ambushes by the Vietnamese before the first combat mission. There is much controversy over the reasons for the Vietnam War, supported by the several different books and articles written about the war. “The most famous atrocity occurred in a tiny hamlet called My Lai in March 1968” (Detzer 127). History shows that the reaction of many Americans to the attack by US soldiers on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War was opposition, and the actions of the US soldiers during the My Lai Massacre will be forever remembered as a significant part of the Vietnam War and American History.
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States approached military action and helped establish the role of the United States within the new world order.