Hill Fights

Rod Andrew, History Division Staff Marine Corps University (U.S.)

"In the spring of 1967, some of the most vicious and bloody fighting of the Vietnam War occurred in the remote northwestern corner of the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam. Khe Sanh lies in the mountainous northwest corner of Quang Tri Province. As an otherwise insignificant village that few people from the outside world had ever heard of, Khe Sanh's location astride Route 9 near the demilitarized zone separating North and South Vietnam and just 10 kilometers east of the Laotian border made it strategically significant to American military planners and their North Vietnamese foes. Later, in 1968, the legendary siege of Khe Sanh, partly coinciding with the larger Communist Tet Offensive, would make this small village a household name among Americans and a well-known heroic chapter in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps. This narrative does not tell the story of the 1968 siege, but...