MCVTHF, 707 S.W. 350th Ct., Ste. #1 

January 21, 1968 - General William C. Westmoreland, Commander USMACV, ordered a temporary halt to work on the "McNamara Line", the barrier and anti-infiltration system south of the DMZ.  

Significance: This for all practical matters ended the work on the McNamara Line which officially terminated on October 22, 1968.    

January 21 - April 15, 1968 - NVA troops began shelling the base at Khe Sanh and the strongholds in the surrounding hills. This rocket, mortar, and artillery barrage initiated the 77-day "Siege of Khe Sanh".
Significance: The Siege of Khe Sanh would be one of the defining battles of the Vietnam War. Supplied by air and supported by massive artillery and air bombardments including B-52 strikes, the 6,000 man Khe Sanh garrison would hold out against elements of an estimated two North Vietnamese Divisions until relieved by U.S. forces on April 14 in Operation Pegasus.

January 30 - February 28, 1968 - Communist forces launched a country-wide offensive during the Vietnamese Tet holidays. On January 30, their Main Force units launched an aborted attack upon Da Nang. Units from the U.S. Army's Americal Division would reinforce the 1st Marine Division at Da Nang. Fighting in the Da Nang sector would continue sporadically until the end of February. Communist offensives would also occur in Hue, Quang Tri City, Hoi An, and Quang Ngai City in I Corps
Significance: While providing the Communists with the some political and propaganda successes, especially in the United States, the defeat of their nation-wide offensive would cost the Communist forces dearly in manpower in both their regular forces and especially among their Viet Cong infrastructure and local forces.

January 31 - March 2, 1968 - In the Battle for Hue City, the North Vietnamese in Division strength on January 31 captured most of the city except for small pockets of resistance. Elements of the 1st Marine Division Task Force X-ray, the South Vietnamese 1st ARVN Division, and the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division in month-long house to house fighting retook the city with significant losses suffered by both sides.
Significance: The capture of Hue, the ancient Imperial capital of Vietnam had significant symbolic reverberations throughout the country and was the one partially successful element of the enemy Tet offensive. The defeat of the Communist forces at Hue prevented them from possibly taking over the two northern provinces of South Vietnam.    

January 28 - March 19, 1970 - Redeployment of Marine units from Vietnam, now codenamed Keystone Robin, continued to include the 26th Marines, MAG 12, and several aviation squadrons.
Significance: U.S. redeployment plans call for III MAF units to be among the first U.S. units to depart Vietnam.  

January 30 - April 6, 1971 - On January 30 the South Vietnamese begin Lam Son 719. In phase 1 which lasted to February 8, the South Vietnamese supported by allied forces opened up the Khe Sanh base. In Phase II, the South Vietnamese forces which included the Vietnamese Marine Corps Division. U.S. advisors, including U.S. Marine advisors, were not permitted to accompany their units into Laos, they were allowed, however, to coordinate supporting fires (ARG)/Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) remained off the Vietnamese coast, but was not committed.
Significance: Militarily, this operation was much less successful than the Cambodian incursion and called into question the capability of the South Vietnamese command to coordinate division-size forces. Again U.S. Marine units in Vietnam played almost no role in Lam Son 719 as they redeployed or planned to redeploy from Vietnam.

Selected Named Operations During January

This photo is said to have been taken at Khe Sanh during the 1967/1968 siege. Email your answer. 

By LtCol Ray Stewart, USMC (Ret) 

Let me start this month's "Book Review" section by pointing to the January issue of the Leatherneck Magazine of the Marines. There you will find in the "Books Review" section, page 63 my review of Eric Hammel's Always Faithful. And by following the link www.mcvthf.org to our web sight where it is also posted.

This month we've looked at another dimension of the Vietnam War. A perspective that is often ignored by those who missed a lot of showers, ate cold canned "food", drank warm water, looked at the scenery through rear sights (or aiming stakes or vision blocks), donated blood - to leeches, used comm wire for boot laces, and "decorated" our frayed, filthy utilities with a mixture of white sweat salt and red mud. The "air war" we saw comprised primarily helicopters, C-130s, and occasional close air support (CAS) A - and F - 4s all in support of our face-to-face get togethers with VC "Charlie" and his better armed and trained NVA - "Mr. Charles". We did our job well and little did many suspect that we won our many battles in spite of the improper use of America's overwhelming air power superiority.

In "Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect" Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp, USN (Ret.) who commanded the U.S. Pacific forces during the Vietnam War, paints a disturbing picture of the checkered use of U.S. strategic air resources to cut off the aid for North Vietnam's prosecution of the war against the South from China via the bridges across the Red River and from Russia via ships, primarily through the main port of Haiphong. The idea, of course, was the interdicting of war supplies from its two main sources would inevitably result in the collapse of the NVA sent south.

U.S. politics drove the decisions for the on again/off again bombing of North Vietnam. The strategy of gradualism in the application of pressure against North Vietnam allowed the North Vietnamese to repair infrastructure damage while building one of the best air defense systems on the planet, hazarding American air (yes, and finally tank and Ontos) crews sustaining needless loss of men, equipment, and materiel by not permanently destroying the North Vietnam logistics system that fed the NVA and VC in the South as it was upgraded from a trail to multiple trails to paved highways. POL, initially delivered via back packing porters was ultimately moved via a network of pipelines and pumping stations that reached from Haiphong Harbor all the way to Cambodia to provide fuel for the more than 600 hundred Soviet-made tanks just across the border from Saigon.

As disturbing as it is to know that every bullet launched at American and Allied forces in South Vietnam could have - should have - been interdicted and stopped, in the opinion of Adm Sharp, proper use of Air Force and Naval assets against North Vietnam, it's the more disturbing to read of the undue influence of Secretary of Defense Robert Strange (indeed!) McNamara and his gaggle of "Wizkids" in the influencing of President Johnson who was being battered senseless by North Vietnam's encouragement of the American - and world-wide - anti-war movement.

Adm Sharp believes that the debacle - "our frantic, pathetic retreat " - that became Vietnam is a repeatable story. The opinion that the Vietnam War - because of failure to carry it in full force to the North - was pursued half-assidly is summed up by Adm Sharp with "The Marine who steps on a land mine that was not interdicted at the enemy's supply port does not die halfway."

ALWAYS FAITHFUL: U.S. Marines in World War II Combat - The 100 Best Photos. By Eric Hammel. Published by Osprey Publishing. 200 pages. Stock #1849085382. $36 MCA Members. $40 Regular Price.

If "A picture is worth a 1,000 words" Eric Hammel's latest - and probably his last - book speaks volumes. This 200 page masterpiece of the Marines' combat in the WW II Pacific Campaign is surely a "page turner" but not in the usual sense.

While the reader will surely be eager to turn the page, the mental "grip" of the photo is not easily loosened. Each provides a unique and specific story. The book tells the story of the Marines' nearly unfathomably costly victory over the Japanese and each picture - image by image - captures the essence of the war, providing graphic pieces of the battles and campaigns that led the Marines through that long, brutal, bloody war to victory.

Hammel briefly explains in his "Introduction" how war reporting evolved and how the first brutally graphic combat photos of Tarawa, published in the Dec.13, 1943 issue of Life Magazine, rather than demoralizing the American public as feared by the national civilian leaders, actually steeled its resolve.

At the beginning of each of the 12 chapters Hammel prepares the reader for the story of what the photos to follow, with only the date and place, will reveal. The beach assault; the hot, infested, rotten, stinking jungle; the Marine rifleman going toe-to-toe; supporting arms; closing with, attacking, and killing the enemy; taking it to the enemy with "blunt force"; pain, fear, and being human; brutal but simple - kill the enemy; "Docs" and no Marine left behind; exhaustion; the fallen; and finally "Adieu."

Found on a battlefield grave on Guadalcanal:

                                                And when he gets to Heaven,

                                                To Saint Peter he will tell,

                                               "One more Marine reporting, Sir

                                                 I've served my time in Hell."

Eric Hammel began writing military history books at age 15 with Guadalcanal: Starvation Island and since, during a 50 year career as an author, has published more than 40 books and nearly 70 magazine articles. He's also been involved with TV documentaries about Marine Corps operations in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Beirut. According to Hammel, he "'retired' in 2008 and took up writing as a full-time hobby". To that he has recently added with a slight caveat - "Always Faithful is meant to be last call. I honestly have nothing left to say."

If it be so, Always Faithful, an exceptional coffee-table-size book may well be the last Hammel jewel with which military historians in general, and Marines in particular, crown their professional libraries.

LtCol Ray Stewart, USMC (Ret)

President, Marine Corps Vietnam Tankers

Historical Foundation

2012 VA Compensation Rates

USMC ONTOS REUNION ~ May 2013, Details to Follow.