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The question, known among American historians as the "riddle of Khe Sanh," has been summed up by John Prados and Ray Stubbe: "Either the Tet Offensive was a diversion intended to facilitate PAVN/VC preparations for a war-winning battle at Khe Sanh, or Khe Sanh was a diversion to mesmerize Westmoreland in the days before Tet."
In early 1968 during the Vietnam War, a large force of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) encircled and besieged two regiments of United States Marine Corps defending the Khe Sanh Combat Base, hoping to draw American relief forces into a series of ambushes in a duplication of their 1954 defeat of French forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
A C-130 takes off from Khe Sanh. The long and bloody Battle of Khe Sanh began with an assault by the PAVN on Khe Sanh Combat Base in northwestern Quảng Trị Province. The combatants were elements of the U.S. III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) and the ARVN against two to three PAVN division-size elements. [28]
On 20 April operational control of the Khe Sanh area passed to the 3rd Marine Regiment. [1]: 35 On 22 April 1967 SLF Bravo comprising 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines supported by HMM-164 had commenced Operation Beacon Star on the southern part of the Street Without Joy straddling Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Provinces against the Vietcong (VC) 6th Regiment and 810th and 812th Battalions.
Khe Sanh is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, [1] located 63 km west of Đông Hà. During the Vietnam War, the Khe Sanh Combat Base was located to the north of the city. The Battle of Khe Sanh took place there. The Khe Sanh Combat Base is a museum where relics of the war are exhibited.
The result was a military disaster, not only decimating the VC as an effective fighting force, but exposing much of their clandestine infrastructure. The Khe Sanh battle, while it did succeed in drawing a portion of American strength, was not sufficient to prevent or divert a strong US/ARVN response in the cities against the assaulting VC.
Map depicting the military regions of South Vietnam including the I Corps/I CTZ area. I Corps (Vietnamese: Quân đoàn I) was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps of the ARVN.
It was the site of the Battle of Khe Sanh in early-1968, one of the bloodiest engagements of the Vietnam War. Khe Sanh was the location of a US Marine base, so it was often attacked by Viet Cong guerrillas as well as North Vietnamese regulars The district is mountainous and rugged, and is around 20 km to the east of the border with Laos.