Taking the Offensive, October 1966-September 1967

The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War

TAKING THE OFFENSIVE

OCTOBER 1966? SEPTEMBER 1967

Cover: Members of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) landing on a hilltop during Operation Lejeune in 1967. (National Archives)

CMH Pub 76?4

TAKING 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 nonCommunist 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 involvement 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 thousands 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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