Khe Sanh was one of the longest and bloodiest battles in all of the Vietnam war. Today my goal is to teach you about the events that lead up to the battle, the battle of Khe Sanh, and the aftermath of the battle. During the summer of 1967 the Vietcong had small combat operations around the Khe Sanh Combat base. The American command located in Saigon believed that these operations were just part of a series of minor North Vietnamese offensives. Their opinions quickly changed when command discovered that the North Vietnamese were moving large amount of forced into the Khe Sanh region. Beginning in October 1967, the Communists greatly increased their forces in the Khe Sanh area to total two infantry divisions, two artillery regiments and an …show more content…
The Marine Corps casualty reporting system was based on named operations and not geographic location because of this it was unknown at the time, but Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. During the time of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of planned attacks against American positions beginning the Battle. One of the main events of the battle was the operation of Niagara, which was composed of two parts. Niagara 1 was the comprehensive intelligence-gathering effort to pinpoint the available targets, and Niagara 2 was the planned shelling and bombing of the targets that had all available air and artillery. The next operation was Operation Pegasus. In March 1968, an overland relief expedition was launched by a combined Marine–Army/South Vietnamese task force that eventually broke through to the Marines at Khe Sanh. American commanders considered the defense of Khe Sanh a success, but shortly after the siege was lifted an American commander decided to dismantle the base rather than risk similar battles in the future. Many historians believe that the Battle of Khe Sanh may have distracted American and GVN attention from the buildup of Viet Cong forces in the south before the early 1968 Tet