In the Vietnam War, the Battle of Khe Sanh broke out on January 21, 1968. Troops of the North Vietnamese People's Army (PAVN) launched a massive artillery barrage on the American garrison at Khe Sanh, about 25 kilometers south of the unarmed South Vietnamese border with Laos. For the next 77 days, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops fought the longest and most disastrous siege of the Vietnam War.
The U.S. military command in Saigon forbade American soldiers to explore beyond the North Vietnamese perimeter net. About 6,000 U.S. soldiers were placed in a foggy, sandbag-piled dirtbag rear section, waiting with about 300 South Vietnamese riot police. In response to the relentless and intense bombardment of the North Vietnamese forces, the American and South Vietnamese forces attacked with about five times more bombardment power, threatening the North Vietnamese forces. The U.S. commander had secretly promised U.S. headquarters that he would threaten Hanoi by occupying Khe Sanh, just as he had invaded Dien Bien Phu, the Order of Caesar.
The Khe Sanh Combat Base had a summit (861 Alpha) near the hill occupied by American troops. It had a metal-covered runway. It was part of the screening defense for the Khe Sanh area. When the fog and incoming fire were not too thick, helicopters torn apart by bullets flew back and forth between the two outposts. Suddenly the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive broke out across South Vietnam, and on February 5 the North Vietnamese forces launched a pre-dawn frontal assault against the highlands of Khe Sanh. About 42 Marines were killed or wounded as they wriggled in the trenches. About 100 or more North Vietnamese soldiers lay dead, their bodies strewn around the barbed wire and trenches. On the morning of February 8, another force around Khe Sanh was breached. Before the attack was crushed, it claimed the lives of about 21 Marines, wounded about 26 more, and left about three missing. On the same morning, the bodies of about 124 North Vietnamese soldiers were strewn about. The rest of the day was almost as brutal in its toll. On April 11, 1968, American troops defended Khe Sanh to the death, but on July 5, 1968, Khe Sanh base was destroyed and fell into evacuation.
At sunrise, the bodies uncovered on the ground were North Vietnamese soldiers. The freshly fallen bodies were immediately buried by the American troops. If a soldier was covered with a poncho on the ground, it was the body of an American soldier who had been killed in action. They were awaiting evacuation to the rear and departure to their families. In war, there was nothing more that could be done for the dead. The battlefield was ultimately a cruel world. North Vietnamese soldiers reacted quickly as artillery shells exploded in a narrow perimeter around the North Vietnamese troops and debris rained down on them as death roamed among you once again, once more accepting the deep surprise you were spared. About 283 of the approximately 6,200 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops were killed in action, and about 1,622 were wounded. The North Vietnamese army had about 3,562 killed in action and about 5,000 wounded.
