antiwar movement would force Washington to abandon the war. In July, Thanh, an ideological zealot known for motivating his soldiers with class hatred, convinced the Politburo that success would only come by the loss of so many American lives that the growing U.S. Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap had been criticizing Thanh for ordering near suicidal battles with American combat forces in the South during the past year instead of choosing less costly hit and run guerrilla tactics. General Nguyen Chi Thanh, Viet Cong (VC) commander of the Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN), won a bitter argument in the Politburo. It began from the brigade's partially complete base camp in a manioc field just west of Tay Ninh (manioc is a large thick-skinned tuber, that is poisonous when raw and untreated, but like the potato when boiled and used as a vegetable in many tropical countries as well as a source of tapioca).Īt the same time the 196th was enroute to Vietnam, events leading up to Operation Attleboro for the enemy began in the summer of 1966 in Hanoi, North Vietnam. Their first combat was code-named "Attleboro" after the Massachusetts town from where many of their men came from. The brigade arrived in Vietnam, by sea and air, in August 1966 and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. The brigade left Boston in July on the USN ships William O. It was one of four brigades formed to build up the US Army's reserve forces after the United States began to send troops to Vietnam. The 196th LIB was activated in August 1965 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts as a 'train-and-retain' unit tailored to the concept of light infantry's capabilities for maneuver. A smaller variation appears for the ending day of the operation, with the majority reports settling for November 25, 1966. Some reports and articles on the internet say Operation Attleboro began as early as September 2 but the majority of official unit reports and major news clippings from 1966 settle on Septemat the start of the operation. Even so, we are not in a position to pass judgment on them. We are unable to note all of them but will note a few. Because of the World Wide Web, for the first time in history, any participant in a battle can put, before the public, her or his account of events. Please keep in mind that accounts differ in detail. Size forces, to do search and destroy missions, it increased in scope to an 11 company battalion, brigade, and a division operation.īut by its close, Operation Attleboro was commanded by II Field Force, one of the two corps headquarters in Vietnam. Starting off as an infantry battalion, using company Operation Attleboro, at that time, was the largest US operation in Vietnam. Province and provided information for the article. Weyand who directed the operation involving some 25,000 American troops in Tay Ninh Operation Attleboro cracked open one of the toughest and oldest of the Viet Cong's strongholds In the Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Times, Tuesday, November 29, 1966, on page three, it states Operation Attleboro ended Saturday,
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |