The Battle Of Ia Drang: Vietnam War

The Battle of Ia Drang
Eric P. Driscoll
American History Since 1877
American Military University
Professor Charles Grear
World War I
The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major confrontation in the war in Vietnam between units of the United States Army and units of the Army of North Vietnam, also known as the People’s Army of Vietnam. The battle took place in the Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands of then South Vietnam, the battle started on the 19th of October, 1965 with North Vietnamese soldiers attacked a Special Forces camp near Pleiku and ended on the 26th of November, 1965 after many engagements that, in the Americans eyes, lead to an American victory (Tucker, 2011, p. 527).
There were many parts or mini battles that
took place during the timeframe spanning from October 19th to November 26. Starting with the already mentioned attack by the North Vietnamese Army on the Special Forces camp on October 19th, this camp was backed up by units from the American Army’s 1st Cavalry Division and soldiers from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. After this attack, the 1st Cavalry Division received orders to find and eliminate the elements of the North Vietnamese Army commanded by General Chu Huy Man (Tucker, 2011, p. 527). The American units did not have a clear location as to the whereabouts of their enemy forces until the 1-9 Cavalry located some North Vietnamese soldiers near Plei Me. After additional reconnaissance of the area, American units located enemy forces in the Ia Drang Valley and on the Chu Pong Massif (Tucker, 2011, p. 527).
The main parts, or engagements, of the battle, took place between the 14th to the 18th of November, 1965.
From 14 to 16 November 1965, heavy contact was made between the American 1-7 Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Moore, and elements of the 9th Battalion, 66th Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army at a landing zone on the Chu Pong that the Americans named landing zone X-Ray. The two sides continued to fight through both days until the North Vietnamese Regiment withdrew during the night of November 15th (Tucker, 2011, p. 527). After the fighting on the 14th and 15th of November 2-7 Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDade, replaced the 1-7
Cavalry.
The continued bombing of enemy positions on the Chu Pong Massif, on November 17th forced the 2-7 Cavalry, along with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Tully’s 2-5 Cavalry, forced the American units to try and locate the enemy elsewhere.
The 2-7 Cavalry marched towards landing zone Albany, and the 2-5 Cavalry marched towards landing zone Columbus. When the lead elements of McDade’s column reached the landing zone, Lieutenant Colonel McDade gathered his company commanders away from their units, not knowing that the enemy commander, Colonel Nguyen Huu An, had a Battalion marching towards landing zone X-Ray to engage American forces there. Not knowing that the Americans had left X-Ray the North Vietnamese commander established an ambush for the American units as they closed in on landing zone Albany, asking for assistance from a nearby Battalion of the North Vietnam’s 33rd Regiment. When the North Vietnamese attacked the column, the fighting was brutal; many of the American unit’s commanders where away from their men with McDade and the North Vietnamese got in close and stayed close to the Americans to prevent the use of air support and artillery against them (Tucker, 2011, p.
528).
After the American’s were finally able to mark their own positions with smoke, the North Vietnamese attack was arrested as artillery fire and air support was finally able to distinguish the enemy from the American troops, during the airstrikes and artillery both enemy battalion commanders were killed. A company from 1-5 Cavalry fought its way from landing zone Columbus to assist the ambushed column of the 2-7 Cavalry, along the way they established two separate areas to collect the dead and wounded from the 2-7 for evacuation by helicopter. The remaining North Vietnamese forces withdrew from the battle before dawn on the 18th of November (Tucker, 2011, p. 529).
During this battle and many others fought in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam the American military used their air mobility, artillery fire and close air support to accomplish battlefield objectives. The Army of North Vietnam and Viet Cong guerilla forces, also known as VC, learned that they could neutralize that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. North Vietnamese Colonel Nguyen Huu An, included his lessons from the battle at X-ray, in his orders for Albany, "Move inside the column, grab them by the belt, and thus avoid casualties from the artillery and air" (Moore, 2008, p. 12).
Both sides in this battle claimed victory over the other. The Americans by their body count, although often inflated, and the North Vietnamese by driving the American’s away. A new type of warfare, we were not fighting to capture land. We, the American’s, were fighting battles and counting the bodies to ensure that we killed more of the enemy than they did of us, then we would leave the area just to allow the ‘enemy” to reoccupy the area. For the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong they were fighting to liberate their country that they saw as being divided by outside influence after the French left. Both Vietnamese sides in this war probably wanted a unified country so families would not be divided, however, without the American Support the will was just not there in the South as it was in the North. Having served in war it all comes down to you fighting for those brother’s and sister’s fighting next to you, you fight for your survival and for the survival of the friends around you.

References
Death in the tall grass. (1992). U.S. News & World Report, 113(14), 50.
Moore, H. G., & Galloway, J. L. (2008, 12). BACK TO IA DRANG 'you killed my battalion! '. Vietnam, 21, 26-33. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195758883?accountid=8289
Tucker, S. (2011). The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War : A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.