A U.S. Marine was killed by the Vietcong in a muddy field of rice paddies in Vietnam with a knife clutched in his right hand. The Marine was desperately wielding a marine knife in the muddy rice fields. He was still clutching the knife in his right hand when he pulled the body out of the muddy rice field on August 18, 1965, the day after the battle.
The U.S. Marines encountered South Vietnamese Liberation Front (Viet Cong) troops on the Van Truong Peninsula on August 16, 1965; during the two-day battle, about 600 Viet Cong were killed and U.S. troops suffered about 50 casualties and more than 200 casualties. The American troops had invaded the Vietcong territory. An American tank was hit by a bullet that penetrated its armor and wounded two American soldiers.
Under the scorching sun, about 30 American Marines were stuck in the mud of the Vietnamese rice fields beside powerfully equipped tanks and armored vehicles. Entering the area on the Viet Cong side, the Viet Cong suddenly and unexpectedly emerged from the bushes and mud. Tanks and armored vehicles were buried in the rice fields. A large number of Marines were killed in the fierce attack from the poorly equipped Vietcong guerrillas. The Vietcong ran up and threw grenades through the hatches of the armored vehicles, killing two Marines. The wounded Marines were shot to death in a rice field where they had slipped through the hatch and jumped down. Even as the Marines swept in with machine guns from armored vehicles, the Vietcong guerrillas disguised themselves around them, making it difficult to tell them apart when they approached. Over and over again, the Vietcong guerrillas attacked the Marines, and the bodies on both sides gradually increased. The development of the Vietnam War turned into a war of attrition.
