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00:00I
01:00For the Americans in South Vietnam, 1966 was to be a year of dramatic expansion.
01:07U.S. forces were planned to double to just under 430,000 men.
01:13While the build-up was going on, the priority was to secure key parts of the country.
01:20By far the most important was the capital, Saigon.
01:30Saigon was a teeming city of 2 million people.
01:34It was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and the location of South Vietnamese and American military headquarters.
01:43Above all, Saigon was the symbol of the South's independence from the Communist North.
01:58For the commanders of the Viet Cong guerrillas, the capital was the ultimate prize.
02:03The tens of thousands of Viet Cong, based within 50 miles of Saigon, were already drawing a noose tight around
02:11the city.
02:15Powerful guerrilla units were pushing right up to Saigon's doorstep.
02:26In the countryside around the city, traditional Viet Cong base areas had all the facilities the combat forces needed to
02:33prepare their attacks.
02:38Since American infantry units had first arrived, they had been trying to disrupt the guerrillas' activities around the capital.
02:46On January 8, 1966, they launched the most ambitious sweep yet.
02:53Operation Krimp deployed 8,000 troops, making it the biggest American operation of the war so far.
03:01Its aim was to capture the Viet Cong's headquarters for the whole Saigon area.
03:25The Viet Cong headquarters for Saigon was believed to be somewhere in the Ku Chi district, the Communist stronghold barely
03:3420 miles from the capital.
03:42The attack would be launched by the American 173rd Airborne Brigade, a battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, and a
03:50brigade of the 1st Infantry Division.
04:01North of Ku Chi town was the disused Phil Hall Rubber Plantation and the forested area the Americans called the
04:09Hobo Woods.
04:17Beneath the whole district ran the massive Ku Chi tunnel complex, about which the Americans still knew almost nothing.
04:29In the tunnels were the Viet Cong's Ku Chi military headquarters.
04:36A signals intelligence unit, two hospitals, the Saigon political office, and the Saigon regional military headquarters, the one the Americans
04:49were looking for.
04:56As with every American search-and-destroy sweep, Operation Krimp began with massive airstrikes and artillery bombardments.
05:16NLF agents had, long before, warned that a big American operation was coming.
05:26Guerrilla commanders had already moved several thousand troops out of the Ku Chi area.
05:32Only a thousand local guerrillas were left behind, mostly inexperienced teenagers.
05:38But with the tunnels to fight from, they were confident they could inflict serious casualties on the Americans.
05:55Right from the start, as the Americans attacked into the Hobo Woods, they faced rifle fire, grenades, and booby traps.
06:10NLF snipers opened up from hidden firing positions, and within seconds vanished back into their tunnels.
06:16The Americans hardly ever saw the enemy who was firing at them.
06:26As the days went on, the Americans grew ever more frustrated and demoralized.
06:32Dozens of men were killed or injured.
06:34Every path seemed to lead to a trap.
06:40Only slowly did units begin to discover trenches and bunkers.
06:46They also found a handful of tunnel entrances.
06:53Still, no one had any idea of the sheer scale of the complex beneath their feet.
07:05Although the Ku Chi guerrillas had suffered casualties, they had achieved their main objective.
07:11The tunnel complex and headquarters had survived virtually intact, as had the whole Viet Cong organization in the area.
07:30In late January 1966, only a few days after the end of Operation Krimp, troops of the 25th Infantry Division
07:38arrived at Ku Chi.
07:43Their orders were to secure the area for the 25th's main base.
07:53The Americans succeeded in pushing out a perimeter, using every ounce of firepower they could muster.
08:05But from the first day, they faced constant harassing attacks from the Ku Chi guerrillas.
08:19For months, the 25th Infantry Division was plagued by mysterious gun and grenade incidents inside its camp.
08:27Slowly, to the horror of the Americans, it was discovered they came from tunnels dug under the base itself.
08:39They were eventually found and sealed.
08:44But the main tunnel complex, only a few miles away, would keep its secrets for years to come.
09:06In February 1966, the American 1st Infantry Division mounted four big search-and-destroy operations just north of Saigon.
09:21The result was disappointing.
09:23There were clashes with units from two Viet Cong regiments, but there were no major battles.
09:36What the first commanders wanted was a set-piece fight with the most powerful and dangerous enemy force in the
09:42region, the 9th Viet Cong Division.
09:47The 9th was made up of veteran regiments and was constantly on the move.
09:52The division was now poised to launch its spring offensive.
10:08The Communist leadership had ordered the Viet Cong to avoid head-on clashes with the Americans unless the odds were
10:15very favorable.
10:20But NLF leaders still meant to fight aggressively.
10:26General Tan, the energetic commander of the NLF, strongly believed that the soldier was more important than his weapons.
10:35Tan was certain that what the troops of the 9th lacked in hardware, they would make up for in revolutionary
10:42zeal.
11:03From the 9th Division's bases in War Zone C,
11:08two regiments headed into the Viet Cong strongholds of the Iron Triangle and War Zone D.
11:18At the same time, the 2nd Brigade of the American 1st Division was pushing into War Zone C,
11:27and the 3rd Brigade was moving into the Iron Triangle.
11:35The first clash came on March 5th, 1966, when the whole 272nd Regiment attacked a battalion of the 3rd Brigade
11:45at Low Key.
11:51Intense U.S. air and artillery strikes drove off the attackers.
11:58Two days later, the American 1st Brigade, with a battalion of the 173rd Airborne, swept into War Zone D.
12:10An entire Viet Cong regiment attacked the airborne's positions.
12:15Again, devastating U.S. artillery fire turned back the assault.
12:29In the March battles in the Iron Triangle and War Zone D, skillfully directed American firepower had averted disaster.
12:42Hundreds of Viet Cong had been killed by artillery and air strikes.
12:48However, to the intense frustration of U.S. commanders, after the fights, the Viet Cong regiments had simply melted away.
13:03During the weeks that followed, the Americans kept up the tempo of search and destroy operations in front of Saigon.
13:10Commanders were determined to make contact with the enemy.
13:21In late April, they launched a major operation into War Zone C to try and find the Viet Cong 9th
13:29Division.
13:36Operation Birmingham lasted for three weeks.
13:41More than 5,000 American troops of the 1st Infantry Division took part.
13:46They were backed by huge numbers of helicopters and armored vehicles.
14:01Although there were hundreds of vicious small-scale actions fought by platoons and squads on both sides,
14:08the big battles the Americans hoped for never did materialize.
14:12In three weeks, only 100 Viet Cong were killed.
14:23Most disturbing of all for American commanders,
14:26most of the fighting that had happened had been started by the Viet Cong at the time and place they
14:32chose.
14:56From the start, the Vietnamese had followed the seven principles of guerrilla warfare laid down by the Chinese leader Mao
15:03Zedong.
15:09To these, General Jap had added four more steps.
15:13If the enemy advances, we retreat.
15:17If he halts, we harass.
15:20If he avoids battle, we attack.
15:24If he retreats, we follow.
15:38Almost every search-and-destroy operation the Americans had launched had been met with Jap's tactics.
15:48The places the Americans were most likely to land their helicopters were set up for ambushes.
15:57Trails were quickly booby-trapped and mined and snipers left in place.
16:04If the Americans did stumble onto a big NLF unit, the chances were it was occupying prepared fortifications with tunnels,
16:12bunkers, and trenches.
16:23It was when the Americans set up a defensive perimeter for the night, or created artillery fire bases, as they
16:29did during every operation, that the Viet Cong would attack in strength.
16:40Always, the guerrillas had a plan for breaking off the battle if the opposition got too tough.
16:56At first, American tactics had been totally unsuited to dealing with a skilled guerrilla enemy.
17:06With hard-won experience, that was changing.
17:09Commanders learned that helicopter landings had to be fast and aggressive.
17:18Sergeants taught their men not to bunch up, but to stay spread out.
17:23Otherwise, a machine gun or a mortar round could kill several men at once.
17:33When camp was made, perimeter defenses had to be strong, with clear fields of fire all around.
17:42Above all, American soldiers learned they had to be vigilant at all times.
18:04By mid-1966, the U.S. Commander General Westmoreland was getting more and more impatient.
18:13His whole strategy depended on causing the enemy to lose men and equipment faster than they could be replaced.
18:21For that, Westmoreland needed big battles.
18:29He ordered the 1st Division to make more substantial contact with the Viet Cong.
18:39Most of the battles that did happen were started not by the Americans, but by the NLF 9th Division.
18:50Route 13, linking Saigon to the Cambodian border, was the site for major ambushes.
18:57In some, the guerrillas struck with 1,000 troops at a time.
19:13In one attack after another on Route 13,
19:17U.S. tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed.
19:23On June 30, 1966, a major battle nearly ended in complete disaster for the Americans.
19:31It was fiercely effective air and artillery support that saved the day.
19:42Soon after the battles, the whole NLF 9th Division moved back into its most impenetrable base areas.
19:56Some crossed over into Cambodia.
19:59There, General Tan meant to rebuild the division for a new campaign in November, the start of the next dry
20:05season.
20:25In the past year, the strength of the North Vietnamese regular army inside the south,
20:30had risen to upwards of 60,000 men.
20:33Of these, 10,000 were concentrated in the remote Central Highlands.
20:44It was this area that General Jap, the North Vietnamese Army commander, saw as a killing zone,
20:51a battlefield on which enormous casualties could be inflicted on the enemy.
21:04Jap believed that the forests and mountains of the Central Highlands were especially well suited to big military operations.
21:17Whole regiments could be hidden and the Highland weather could be relied on to disrupt American air power.
21:23The troops would also be close to supplies and reinforcements across the Cambodian border.
21:38As fighting units, the NVA were tough, well-disciplined, and well-trained.
21:45For months, they had been constantly on the offensive.
21:49Their main target was the South Vietnamese Army, but isolated American Special Forces
21:55camps were also hit.
22:04Increasingly, attacks were carried out by units up to 2,000 strong.
22:22The North Vietnamese Army units in the central highlands of Vietnam were part of a strategy
22:28meant to keep the Americans off balance.
22:35There were powerful NVA divisions on the demilitarized zone, separating North and South Vietnam.
22:44And there were the NALF regiments opposite Saigon.
22:51Communist forces could present the Americans with a challenge in any of the three areas,
22:56and force them to react.
23:06By the middle of 1966, North Vietnamese units crossing the demilitarized zone had successfully
23:13drawn the U.S. Marines north.
23:20In the highlands, the NVA 24th Regiment had engaged elements of the 101st Airborne Division.
23:31The 1st NVA Division had pulled a U.S. Infantry Brigade and the 1st Air Cavalry towards the
23:37Cambodian border.
23:49The Americans in the Central Highlands did succeed in inflicting thousands of casualties
23:54on the North Vietnamese Army.
23:57But in some of the most arduous fighting country in Vietnam, the Americans found it impossible
24:03to trap large enemy units.
24:12Time after time, they succeeded in slipping through the net.
24:25Although the American military were killing five North Vietnamese soldiers for every one
24:31of their own losses, Northern commanders were still confident.
24:36General Jap was sure that his forces could stay on the offensive and take heavy casualties
24:42as long as there were no dramatic defeats.
24:48The manpower potential of North Vietnam had barely been tapped.
25:10From the start of its war in Vietnam, the U.S. Army had found the conflict to be unlike
25:15any other.
25:16other.
25:18As Viet Cong attacks proved every day, there was no front line.
25:24Each side controlled only the territory immediately around its positions or its bases.
25:32the army was calling it area war.
25:43Area war meant that the roads linking U.S. bases to other units and to their supply depots were
25:49never completely secure.
25:55Viet Cong's strategy was to try and isolate American forces and to pin down large numbers
26:02of U.S. troops on base and road defense.
26:06That way, there would be fewer men available for offensive operations.
26:30The supply lifelines for the 25th and the 1st U.S. infantry divisions were the roads linking their
26:37major bases to Saigon, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh, the biggest supply depot in Vietnam.
26:49The roads were constantly patrolled by armored vehicles and aircraft.
26:57In August 1966, the 25th Division was tasked with clearing the way for a new American unit, the 196th Light
27:07Infantry Brigade.
27:12The 196th was to be based at Tan In to secure Route 22, running through the NLF base area of
27:21War Zone C.
27:29By October 1966, the NLF 9th Division had almost recovered from the battles of the previous July.
27:36Its losses in men and equipment had been replaced by supplies and reinforcements sent down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
27:43from North Vietnam.
27:52With the dry season coming, the 9th was busy in War Zone C, preparing for its next offensive.
28:05The renewed activity of the 9th Division did not pass unnoticed by the Americans.
28:11Special Forces units mounted an intense reconnaissance effort deep inside Viet Cong territory.
28:21The reports they brought back seemed to show that the 9th's next target might be the Special Forces' own base
28:28camp, northeast of Tan In City.
28:38American commanders were determined to disrupt the Viet Cong's plans.
28:45The 196th Brigade was ordered to mount aggressive search-and-destroy sweeps near the Special Forces camp area.
28:52The sweeps, starting on September 14th, 1966, were codenamed Operation Attleboro.
29:19Operation Attleboro was launched by the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, together with 22,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and G.I
29:27.s from the 1st, 4th and 8th Division.
29:30And 25th Infantry Divisions.
29:32Almost at once, huge supply caches belonging to the NLF's 9th Division were found by the Americans south of the
29:40Michelin Rubber Plantation.
29:42It was believed the NLF were somewhere between the plantation and the American Special Forces base at Suida.
29:56While one battalion made a helicopter landing, the other battalions pushed towards it on foot.
30:04When the landing zone was ambushed, both sides sent thousands of reinforcements rushing to the area.
30:13By the following day, full-scale battles were raging.
30:25In the first days of Operation Attleboro, almost every fresh American unit sent in was ambushed.
30:38Nor were the Americans safe behind the defensive perimeters of their nighttime camps.
30:44NLF units struck with thousands of men at a time and came close to wiping out whole American formations.
31:03It was intense air and artillery support that, in the end, as in so many battles, saved the Americans from
31:10disaster.
31:17Even then, many of the NLF battalions were attacking out of bunkers, trench lines, and tunnels,
31:24and were sometimes able to withstand the most punishing bombardments.
31:31The inexperience of the 196th was also telling.
31:36Tactical coordination between the brigade's units was poor.
31:46Although the situation was desperate, American commanders in Saigon also saw a major opportunity.
31:53Attleboro might be a chance to fight the kind of big battle they had been looking for.
32:04The 1st Infantry Division raced two brigades to the area and unit after unit was piled on.
32:16The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, only just arrived in Vietnam, was also thrown into the battle.
32:23Within days, there were 22,000 American troops in the Attleboro area.
32:36The massive buildup of American forces was the NLF's cue to disengage.
32:45Although fierce firefights continued wherever the two sides came into contact,
32:50the 9th Division began to withdraw.
32:56Its big units broke down into smaller groups and slipped away towards Cambodia,
33:02where the Americans were forbidden to follow.
33:11In Operation Attleboro, the Americans had failed to destroy the 9th Division in an all-out battle.
33:18On the other hand, in six weeks, more than a thousand NLF had been killed
33:22for the loss of 155 American dead and fewer than 800 wounded.
33:36U.S. troops had captured a massive amount of enemy stores and documents,
33:41and Viet Cong plans for the coming months had been badly disrupted.
34:04By the end of 1966, American forces in Vietnam had grown to 385,000 men,
34:12plus another 60,000 sailors off Vietnam's shores.
34:17As the force levels had risen, so too had the casualties.
34:25The year had seen more than 6,000 Americans killed and 30,000 wounded.
34:34The biggest problem for American commanders was that their timetable was slipping badly.
34:42By now, the Viet Cong should be losing men faster than they could be replaced.
34:47General Westmoreland had to concede that U.S. forces had come nowhere near achieving that goal.
34:54An estimated 61,000 Viet Cong had been killed in the past year,
34:58yet their troops had gone up to more than 280,000.
35:21Part of the problem was that the American bombing campaign against North Vietnam and its supply routes to the south
35:28was still failing.
35:30More men and materials were reaching the guerrillas than ever before.
35:38The Viet Cong had also stepped up their recruiting.
35:46There was one cause for optimism on the American side.
35:50Operation Attleboro had seemed to show the Viet Cong would fight if their base areas were threatened.
36:01The latest plan was to go back into War Zone C with even greater forces.
36:07But first, the Americans wanted to solve an immediate problem.
36:11The districts just in front of Saigon, the Iron Triangle and Cu Chi, were still major Viet Cong strongholds.
36:30The American plan was to attack into the Iron Triangle with more than two divisions.
36:36The guerrillas would be trapped in their own base areas and annihilated.
36:41At the same time, another attempt would be made to capture the Viet Cong Saigon military headquarters.
36:48The whole area would then be systematically destroyed.
37:05Before the attack, American aircraft dropped 20,000 leaflets telling the population to leave at once.
37:26The Iron Triangle was an area of 60 square miles lying between the Saigon River and Route 13,
37:33with the village of Ben Sook on its western side.
37:38A major Viet Cong tunnel complex ran under the whole district.
37:46The 272nd Regiment of the NLF was operating there,
37:50along with two battalions of NLF main force,
37:53two independent NLF battalions, and the Phu Loi Battalion.
37:57But on the eve of the American offensive, most troops were withdrawn.
38:03Only local NLF companies were left to defend important installations.
38:12The American plan for Operation Cedar Falls was that the 25th Infantry Division
38:18and other units would occupy blocking positions on the western side of the Saigon River,
38:24forming an anvil.
38:29The 1st Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade would assault from the north and the east,
38:38with a battalion landing at the village of Ben Sook.
38:44Meanwhile, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment would act as the hammer smashing through the center of the triangle.
39:02Operation Cedar Falls opened with four days of attacks by B-52 bombers.
39:12Artillery and air strikes followed.
39:15And a wall of fire was laid down to cut off the NLF's retreat.
39:24On January 8th, 1967, 16,000 U.S. and 14,000 South Vietnamese Army troops moved out of their bases
39:34in fleets of helicopters,
39:36armored personnel carriers,
39:40trucks and boats.
39:46In the first hours of Operation Cedar Falls, the village of Ben Sook had been captured with barely a shot
39:53fired.
39:54The local company of 100 NLF fighters had been taken completely by surprise.
40:05As the village's 6,000 inhabitants were rounded up for interrogation,
40:11bulldozers began to level every building in sight.
40:22The American operation to smash the Iron Triangle lasted 19 days.
40:28With only local Viet Cong left to defend the area and most of those hidden in tunnels,
40:34there was almost no heavy fighting.
40:37American losses were 72 killed and 337 wounded,
40:42mostly to snipers and booby traps.
40:52In Ben Sook and in the Tandine forest,
40:55the Americans uncovered dozens of tunnel entrances.
40:59By now they were better prepared.
41:03Specialists known as tunnel rats had trained to go down tunnels and explore.
41:18In the cramped spaces underground, they faced gunfire, booby traps and mines.
41:26The problem was, there were only a handful of tunnel rats and the complexes were enormous.
41:37Whenever tunnels were found, the Americans made determined efforts to destroy them.
41:43Demolition charges, explosive gas, and flooding were all tried.
41:50Riot control agents were pumped in to try and force the Viet Cong to come out.
42:00Nothing really worked.
42:02The tunnels were designed so that neither gas nor water could penetrate far.
42:14The Americans had discovered only a small number of the Viet Cong installations hidden in the Iron Triangle.
42:23But those they did find yielded astonishing quantities of material.
42:30There was enough rice to feed 13,000 gorillas for a year,
42:36along with over 7,000 uniforms,
42:40a huge underground hospital,
42:42and over a ton of medicine.
42:48Half a million documents were discovered,
42:50including detailed maps of air bases
42:53and the private addresses of Americans in Saigon.
43:02Some US commanders immediately hailed Cedar Falls as a major success.
43:12Westmoreland was much more cautious.
43:15The main NLF military headquarters had not been found.
43:20Neither had any sizable enemy unit been brought to battle and destroyed.
43:26In the end,
43:27720 Viet Cong had been killed for the loss of 72 Americans.
43:40One aim of Operation Cedar Falls was achieved.
43:44The Iron Triangle was completely and utterly destroyed.
43:50After its inhabitants were moved out to refugee camps,
43:53the district was turned into an uninhabitable wasteland.
43:56Huge Rome plows cut 20-foot-wide avenues criss-crossing the forest
44:02to make any movement instantly visible from the air.
44:06These massive machines could plow the tallest trees into the ground.
44:1160 square miles of forest near Saigon were plowed under in the Iron Triangle.
44:17Afterwards, Operation Ranch Hand aircraft sprayed lethal defoliance
44:22to destroy the jungle cover and make it impossible to grow crops.
44:31After the Americans had pulled out,
44:33almost the whole of the Iron Triangle was designated a free-fire zone.
44:38Artillery or bombs could be rained down at will,
44:41and anyone that moved could be attacked from the air.
44:52Yet to the astonishment of the Americans,
44:55within weeks of Operation Cedar Falls,
44:57the Viet Cong were active again in the Iron Triangle.
45:18By mid-February 1967, American commanders had again turned their attention
45:23to War Zone C and the NLF's 9th Division.
45:27The new offensive was codenamed Junction City.
45:36Westmoreland had ordered his commanders to think big,
45:40and they had planned the most ambitious search-and-destroy operation of the war so far.
45:4530,000 American troops would take part,
45:48together with 5,000 men from the South Vietnamese Army.
46:00The main targets of Operation Junction City were the Viet Cong's biggest base areas,
46:06and their main military headquarters for South Vietnam.
46:10This was known as the central office for South Vietnam, or Khaz Vin.
46:16However, Khaz Vin never existed as a place.
46:21In reality, the military and political leadership of the Viet Cong were always mobile.
46:41The Viet Cong base areas of War Zone C held the 9th Division's three regiments,
46:48a regiment of the NLF's new 5th Division,
46:52and two North Vietnamese Army regiments.
46:56Altogether, more than 10,000 troops.
47:02There were also thousands more local Viet Cong scattered throughout the region.
47:13Operation Junction City called for two American brigades
47:17to block the Viet Cong's escape to the west over the Cambodian border.
47:23Two more would block to the east.
47:31Infantry and airborne forces would close off the north,
47:35by helicopter and parachute landing, forming a giant horseshoe.
47:44Armored cavalry and infantry brigades would then sweep northwards,
47:48overrunning all enemy units in their path.
47:57In the second phase of Junction City,
47:59a series of special forces camps would be built,
48:03along with a bridge over the Saigon River.
48:07And operations would shift to the east.
48:16By February 21st, 1967, the Americans were ready to launch Junction City.
48:23The blocking forces to the west and the east were in place.
48:31All that remained was to insert the northern force.
48:40In one of the largest air-mobile assaults ever,
48:44240 helicopters swept over Tanin province.
48:50Fighter bombers and helicopter gunships hammered the landing zones.
49:03Within hours, 2,000 troops were deep inside Viet Cong territory.
49:12At the same time, in the first parachute drop of the Vietnam War,
49:17nearly 800 men of the 173rd Airborne completed the American horseshoe.
49:28The day after the massed air-mobile landings,
49:31infantry and mechanized units began pushing north into the horseshoe.
49:38The terrain was dense forest.
49:43The whole area was riddled with Viet Cong fortifications, tunnels and bunkers.
49:54Although there were scattered firefights,
49:57and the Americans lost men to snipers and booby traps,
50:00there were few big actions.
50:07often, guerrilla installations were found abandoned.
50:17The battles that did happen were started by the Viet Cong.
50:22Powerful units twice attacked elements of the 1st Infantry Division at Prec Loc.
50:32Furious American bombing and artillery fire drove off the assaults.
50:46Because the Viet Cong had begun the battles,
50:48they were also able to break off the fight whenever they chose.
50:56Nor were the American blocking forces able to trap them and make them fight.
51:02The dense vegetation meant the guerrilla battalions could break down into platoons
51:08and filter through American lines.
51:11By now, the Viet Cong military leadership the Americans were searching for
51:15for the war, had also slipped away across the border into neutral Cambodia.
51:41The second phase of Operation Junction City centered around the building of the Saigon River Bridge,
51:48and the Special Forces Camp at Anlak.
51:56Convoys of trucks shuttled up and down Route 13 with building materials.
52:03For defense, artillery firebases, including Fire Support Base 20, were scattered along the road.
52:13Fire Base Gold and Landing Zone George were created for search and destroy sweeps.
52:25Starting on the night of March 18th, 1967,
52:29each of the three regiments of the NLF 9th Division attacked in full strength,
52:35a thousand men at a time.
52:43Each attack was driven off by overwhelming American air and artillery fire.
52:52Viet Cong losses were heavy, but the regiments escaped complete destruction.
53:03Operation Junction City lasted 72 days.
53:07By its end in May 1967, this operation, coupled with the Cedar Falls Offensive,
53:14had cost 282 American lives and 1,500 wounded.
53:23Nearly 3,000 Viet Cong had been killed.
53:27Guerrilla bases had also been overrun and installations destroyed.
53:32American troops had captured large quantities of stores, equipment, and weapons.
53:45Although some American commanders hailed Junction City as a turning point in the war,
53:50the operation was barely over before doubts began to surface.
53:56Like Attleboro and Cedar Falls before it,
54:00Junction City had inflicted casualties, but there had been no great battles of annihilation.
54:06The Viet Cong's regiments were bruised, but still intact.
54:11Nor did the Americans or the South Vietnamese army have the forces to occupy the area indefinitely.
54:23As soon as they had gone, the Viet Cong regiments returned to rebuild their base areas and reclaim War Zone
54:31C.
54:53In July 1967, the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara flew to Saigon
54:59to discuss strategy with American and South Vietnamese leaders and officials.
55:12By now, the Viet Cong's big units were supposed to be smashed.
55:17Instead, Viet Cong numbers were still growing and there was no sign the enemy was about to give up the
55:23fight.
55:31McNamara had already recommended an increase in U.S. troop strength to more than half a million men.
55:36But now, he doubted even that would produce victory soon.
55:47Back in Washington, McNamara advised President Johnson to plan for a long war in Vietnam.
55:55There should be less emphasis on battlefield victories.
55:58More attention should be paid to long-term measures like helping the South Vietnamese government win control of the villages.
56:16Meanwhile, the cost of the war in casualties and dollars should be kept down in case the American public lost
56:24patience.
56:34In the summer of 1967, just as the Americans resigned themselves to a long war, the Vietnamese communists changed their
56:44strategy.
56:47For two years, the Viet Cong had been patient, content to inflict casualties and keep on fighting.
56:57Now, they meant to risk an all-out offensive.
57:02In 1968, they planned to leave their tunnels and bunkers and win the war in open battle.
57:09No.
57:11No.
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