Taking the Offensive October 1966-September 1967 (The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War).pdf

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T
he
U.S. A
rmy
C
ampaigns of the
V
ietnam
W
ar
T
AKING
THE
OFFENSIVE
OCTOBER 1966–
SEPTEMBER 1967
Cover: Members of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) landing on a hilltop during Operation
L
ejeune
in
1967. (National
Archives)
CMH Pub 76–4
T
AKING
THE
OFFENSIVE
OCTOBER 1966–
SEPTEMBER 1967
by
Glenn F. Williams
Center of Military History
United States Army
Washington, D.C., 2016
Introduction
To many Americans, the war in Vietnam was, and remains,
a divisive issue. But fifty years after the beginning of major U.S.
combat operations in Vietnam, well over half the U.S. population
is too young to have any direct memory of the conflict. The massive
American commitment—political, economic, diplomatic, and
military—to the mission of maintaining an independent and non-
Communist South Vietnam deserves widespread attention, both
to recognize the sacrifice of those who served and to remember
how those events have impacted our nation.
U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia began after World War II
when elements of the Vietnamese population fought back against
the reimposition of French colonial rule. Although the United
States generally favored the idea of an independent Vietnam,
it supported France because the Viet Minh rebels were led by
Communists and U.S. policy at that point in the Cold War sought to
contain any expansion of communism. France’s defeat in 1954 led
to the division of Vietnam into a Communist North (Democratic
Republic of Vietnam) and a non-Communist South (Republic of
Vietnam). The United States actively supported the latter as it dealt
with a growing Communist-led insurgent force (the Viet Cong)
aided by the North Vietnamese. The initial mission of training
South Vietnam’s armed forces led to deepening American involve-
ment as the situation grew increasingly dire for the Republic of
Vietnam.
By the time President Lyndon B. Johnson committed major
combat units in 1965, the United States already had invested thou-
sands of men and millions of dollars in the effort to build a secure
and stable Republic of Vietnam. That commitment expanded
rapidly through 1969, when the United States had over 365,000
Army soldiers (out of a total of a half million troops of all services)
in every military region of South Vietnam with thousands of other
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