American involvement at Khe Sanh first began in 1962, when Army Special Forces units established a Civilian Irregular Defense Group to
prevent North Vietnamese incursions across the Laotian border. Khe Sanh resides in the northwestern corner of the Quảng Trị Province along Route 9, amid the peaks of the rugged Annamite Range covered in triple canopy foliage.
Route 9 runs from Laos, through the town of Lang Vei and intersects with the Ho Chi Minh Trail – the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) supply line to its troops and to communist Viet Cong (VC) guerrillas in South Vietnam –
at multiple points. In 1966, U.S. Marines built up the Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB) adjacent to the Army camp. Discussions on the importance of Khe Sanh have revolved around the suggestion the NVA were looking for a victory
reminiscent of the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, where the last vestiges of French colonialism were dealt a blow by the Vietminh, or that that Khe Sanh was a strategic ploy to divert U.S. troops and material to the fringes of
the country in preparation for the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Major American involvement at Khe Sanh can be broken into four operations. The first, Operation Scotland, took place between November 1, 1967 and March 31, 1968. General Westmoreland, Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command,
Vietnam (COMUSMACV) sent the 26th Marines to reinforce the KSCB, bringing the total number of troops to around 6,000. The Marines stockpiled ammunition and refurbished the airstrip at the base, all in preparation to counter a
possible NVA attack to seize South Vietnam’s northernmost regions and put themselves in a stronger position prior to any future peace negotiations. On April 14, a joint U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air campaign codenamed
Operation Niagara was launched in support of the Marines manning the base. Operation Niagara called for sensors to be installed along the nearby Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), reconnaissance flights to pinpoint targets, 24,000 tactical
fighter-bomber sorties and 2,700 B-52 strategic bomber sorties.
What has become known as the Siege of Khe Sanh began on January 20-21, when the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. The NVA 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 325C Division attacked the Marines on
Hill 861, while the NVA 7th Battalion, 66th Regiment, 304th Division, attacked the Huong Hoa District headquarters in Khe Sanh Village. The fight was intense. Defenders involved in the attack included the South Vietnamese militia as
well as U.S. Army advisers and Marines attached to a Combined Action Company platoon at the KSCB. Those forces were pinned down and escaped with the assistance of Niagara operations and airlifts by the 1st Air Cavalry (Cav) Division.
Operation Pegasus (April 1-15, 1968) called for elements of the 1st and 3rd Marine Regiments to attack up Route 9 towards Khe Sanh, while the 1st Air Cav moved by helicopter to seize key terrain features along the line of advance.
As the Marines advanced, engineers worked to repair the road. Operation Scotland II began the day Pegasus ended and lasted until July 11, when the Marines were withdrawn from the area. Essentially a police action, the 3rd Marine
Division assumed responsibility for the KSCB and began actively seeking out NVA forces in the Khe Sanh Plateau and the western portion of the Quảng Trị Province.
Casualty numbers remain elusive concerning Khe Sanh. The Battle of Khe Sanh took place between January 21 and July 9, 1968; however, most of the official statistics provided pertain only to Operation Scotland, which ended on March 31, or to the 77-day period beginning what is classified as the Siege of Khe Sanh, where the 26th Marines were pinned down until Operations Niagara, and Pegasus freed them from NVA artillery and infantry attack. Ray Stubbe, a Navy chaplain, has done extensive research on the battle and estimated U.S. casualties for Khe Sanh from the beginning of Operation Scotland to the withdrawal from the base at near 1,000, and enemy casualties at roughly 5,500. The DPAA and its predecessor organizations have conducted 28 Joint Field Activities in South Vietnam to recover the remaining 1,252 missing personnel still missing in Vietnam. Those activities involve field investigations, excavations, conducting oral history interviews with Vietnamese veterans, and work with the Ministry of National Defense archives to locate missing Americans.