Battle of Hue

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Battle of Hue

Date	1968
Location	Hue, South Vietnam
Result	Decisive Allied victory

Combatants

Vietnam War
Ap Bac – Binh Gia – Song Be – Dong Xoai – Ia Drang – Long Tan – Dak To – Tra Binh Dong –Ong Thanh – 1st Tet – Khe Sanh – 1st Saigon – Lang Vei – Hills 881 & 861 – 2nd Tet – Hamburger Hill – Binh Ba – Ripcord – FSB Mary Ann – Easter '72 – An Loc – Kontum – Phuoc Long – Ho Chi Minh – Buon Ma Thuot – Xuan Loc – 2nd Saigon – Barrell Roll – Rolling Thunder – Pony Express – Steel Tiger – Commando Hunt – Linebacker I – Linebacker II – Chenla I – Tiger Hound – Lima Site 85 – Tailwind – Chenla II – Cambodia

The Battle of Hue was probably the bloodiest and the longest battle of the Vietnam War. With the beginning of the Tet Offensive on January 30, 1968, the Vietnamese lunar New Year, American forces had been committed to endless combat upon South Vietnamese soil for almost three years. The Communist offensive was carried out through main-force and guerrilla tactics upon more than forty province capitals, cities, and military installations throughout South Vietnam. North Vietnamese Army (NVA) General Vo Nguyen Giap, who was the chief architect of the Viet Minh victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, planned it.

1 Hue's History and Strategic Value
2 The Fighting
3 Aftermath
4 Notes
5 References
6 Internal Links

[edit] Hue's History and Strategic Value

Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam when the nation was one, and later with the division of the country, the capital of Thau Thien Province. [1] Since the city was a symbol of Vietnamese culture and religion for more than a century, its defeat through the hands of the NVA could bring about an end to the War. General William Westmoreland summed-up the city’s strategic value as follows: “Taking it would have a profound psychological impact on the Vietnamese in both the North and the South and in the process the North Vietnamese might seize the two northern provinces as bargaining points in any negotiations".[2]

Hue was a city of historical, religious, and cultural value, primarily known for the Citadel, Imperial Palace, and the Forbidden City. Highway One passed through the city and over the Perfume River (the river ran through the city dividing it into both northern and southern areas) creating a supply line from the coastal city of Da Nang to the DMZ for the Allied forces. Hue was also a base for U.S. Navy supply boats. The city, considering its value, should have therefore been well-defended, fortified, and prepared for the Communist offensive but it was actually poorly defended and unprepared for the twenty-five-day battle that was fought throughout its buildings and streets. Hue's only defenders at the opening of the battle were a reserve battalion of Brigadier General Ngo Quang Truong's First South Vietnamese Division with their headquarters in the Citadel, and a few U.S. military advisers.

[edit] The Fighting

The battle began with the attack of two battalions from the NVA Sixth Regiment upon the western bank of the fortress-like Citadel located on the northern side of the city. A simultaneous attack by the NVA Sixth Regiment was also launched on Hue's headquarters of the U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) Compound on the southern side of the city near Highway One. [3] Upon their initial success the North Vietnamese turned Hue's formidable Imperial Palace into their central command post.

A few hours after the attack, one company of U.S. Marines were sent from the U.S. Marine Command at Phu Bai, approximately ten miles southeast of Hue; eventually the total Allied commitment amounted to three understrength marine battalions, six U.S. Army battalions, and eleven South Vietnamese battalions. The Allies original battle plan was for the U.S. forces to retake the southern area of Hue that included the MACV Compound, while the South Vietnamese cleared the northern area of Hue above the Perfume River that included the Citadel, Imperial Palace, and the inner Forbidden City, but as the battle progressed the Marine and Army Airborne battalions were in the midst of the fighting at the Citadel and Imperial Palace as well. Over the course of the battle street-to-street and house-to-house fighting was continuous claiming numerous Allied and NVA casualties. Due to Hue's religious and cultural status, Allied forces were ordered not to bomb or shell the city, for fear of destroying the historic structures but as the intensity of the battle increased, the policy was eliminated. [4]

As the fighting was coming to an end, the looting in Hue increased (the majority was carried out by the South Vietnamese, although U.S. forces also took part on a smaller scale) and an ugly incident occurred between several Marines and South Vietnamese law. After the Marines had fought their way through the southern area of Hue they crossed the Perfume River and proceeded to raise an American flag. But, shortly thereafter were ordered to lower their' flag, for in accordance with South Vietnamese law, no U.S. flag was permitted to be flown without an accompanying South Vietnamese flag. [5] The Marines objected to this law and threatened to shoot a few American Army officers who were instructed to take down the flag, but the grunts eventually took it down themselves under an order from their superior officer. The battle finally ended on February 24 and the elite Black Panther Company of the First South Vietnamese Division tore down the NVA's flag, which had flown since the battle's start on January 31.

[edit] Aftermath

The Battle of Hue was costly not only in the lives of its combatants, more than 5,000 NVA, 1,000 Americans, and over 2,000 South Vietnamese, but was also costly in civilian lives. In the battle's aftermath, South Vietnamese and American soldiers unearthed numerous shallow mass graves inside the city and on its outskirts containing the bodies of approximately 2,800 people killed by the NVA and their systematic way of eliminating those who were considered as a threat to Communist victory, although it has been stated that a South Vietnamese intelligence unit may have killed some of these victims who were said to have aided the enemy. But, perhaps Hue’s aftermath can best be described by a Marine Captain Myron Harrington who commanded a one-hundred-man company during the battle: “Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it”? [6]

Militarily, Hue was considered an Allied victory, for the NVA forces (ultimately numbering more than a full division) were driven from the city, but from the opinion of the American public, Hue was the beginning of the end. From this time forward the American people became disgusted with sending their teen-age boys and men off to die in Vietnam, and during the next five years American involvement slowly but steadily decreased until 1973 when the last American troops left Vietnam only to see their sacrifices end in utter disaster two years later.

[edit] Notes

1. Dougan and Weiss, The Vietnam Experience: Nineteen Sixty-Eight (1983), p. 24.
2. Dougan and Weiss, The Vietnam Experience: Nineteen Sixty-Eight (1983), p. 24.
3. Dougan and Weiss, The Vietnam Experience: Nineteen Sixty-Eight (1983), p. 26.
4. Oberdorfer, Tet! (1971), p. 218.
5. Nolan, Battle For Hue; Tet, 1968 (1983), p. 76.
6. Karnow, Vietnam, A History: The First Complete Account of Vietnam at War, p. 534.

[edit] References

Dougan, Clark, Weiss, Stephen, and the Editors of Boston Publishing Company. The Vietnam Experience: Nineteen Sixty-Eight. Boston: Boston Publishing Company,1983.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, A History: The First Complete Account of Vietnam at War. New York: The Viking Press, 1983.
Nolan, Keith William. Battle For Hue; Tet, 1968. Novato: Presidio Press, 1983.
Oberdorfer, Donald. Tet! Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971.