Vietnam Studies - Cedar Falls-Junction City: A Turning Point [Illustrated Edition]
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“Operations CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY took place during the first five months of 1967 and were the first multidivisional operations in Vietnam to be conducted according to a preconceived plan. They were to result in a turning point in the war: they confirmed that such operations do have a place in counterinsurgency warfare today; they brought an end to the enemy’s thinking that his third phase of the war-large-scale operations throughout the country-would be successful; they caused the enemy to re-evaluate his tactics and revert to smaller-scale guerrilla operations; they destroyed his camps, pillaged his supplies, and killed hundreds of his best troops; they proved to the enemy that his old sanctuaries were no longer inviolable, thus causing him to depend primarily upon those located over the border in Cambodia; they helped convince the enemy that the maintenance of large bases and main force units near urban areas was risky business; and they enhanced immeasurably the confidence of the allied forces in South Vietnam, a confidence which had been growing since the dark days of the first half of 1965. Thus CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY were to become the most important operations of the war to that time, and perhaps since.
“For the military history buff, Operation CEDAR FALLS will not be nearly so interesting as JUNCTION CITY because it consisted primarily of small unit contacts and the onerous tasks of finding and destroying base camps, storage facilities, and tunnels and of clearing jungles. CEDAR FALLS was unique, however, in that one of its missions was to evacuate some 6,000 inhabitants of the Iron Triangle area and destroy their villages. JUNCTION CITY, on the other hand, was more varied in view of its scope and the fact that there were five battles interspersed among the air assaults and the numerous search and destroy activities."
Lieutenant General Bernard William Rogers
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Vietnam Studies - Cedar Falls-Junction City - Lieutenant General Bernard William Rogers
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Text originally published in 1987 under the same title.
© Pickle Partners Publishing 2013, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publisher’s Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
VIETNAM STUDIES
CEDAR FALLS-JUNCTION CITY: A TURNING POINT
By
Lieutenant General Bernard William Rogers
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY WASHINGTON, D. C., 1989
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
Foreword 6
Preface 8
Chart 9
Maps 9
Illustrations 9
Introduction 11
PART ONE — CEDAR FALLS, 8-26 January 1967 22
CHAPTER I — Background and Planning 22
CHAPTER II — Positioning the Anvil-Operations Fitchburg and Niagara Falls 28
25th Infantry Division 28
1st Infantry Division 29
CHAPTER III — D-Day-Ben Suc 32
25th Infantry Division 32
1st Infantry Division 32
Ben Suc Village 33
The Initial Assault 34
CHAPTER IV — Phase II-The Hammer Swings 40
3d Brigade 40
Task Force Deane 42
25th Infantry Division 43
Small Unit Actions 43
CHAPTER V — The Hammer Strikes 46
25th Infantry Division 46
1st Infantry Division 49
CHAPTER VI — Engineer and Chemical Operations 53
Bridge on the Thi Tinh 53
Jungle Clearing Operations 54
Tunnel Exploration and Destruction 57
The Engineer Navy 60
Chemical Operations 60
CHAPTER VII — The Results 63
PART TWO — JUNCTION CITY, 22 FEBRUARY-14 MAY 1967 68
CHAPTER VIII — Planning and Preparation 68
CHAPTER IX — The Warm-Up Tosses: GADSDEN and TUCSON 74
Operation Gadsden 74
Operation Tucson 76
CHAPTER X — Phase I-The Horseshoe Is Pitched 79
Combat Forces 80
D-Day, 22 February 1967 80
D Plus 1, 23 February 82
D Plus 2, 24 February 83
End of Phase I, 25 February-17 March 85
CHAPTER XI — The Battles of Prek Klok 89
Prek Klok I 89
Prek Klok II 93
CHAPTER XII — Phase II-East to West 97
CHAPTER XIII — The Battles of Ap Bau Bang II, Suoi Tre, and Ap Gu 102
Ap Ban Bang II 102
Suoi Tre 107
Ap Gu 110
CHAPTER XIV — Phase III-Termination 117
Epilogue 122
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 127
Glossary 127
Foreword
The United States Army has met an unusually complex challenge in Southeast Asia. In conjunction with the other services, the Army has fought in support of a national policy of assisting an emerging nation to develop governmental processes of its own choosing, free of outside coercion. In addition to the usual problems of waging armed conflict, the assignment in Southeast Asia has required superimposing the immensely sophisticated tasks of a modern army upon an underdeveloped environment and adapting them to demands covering a wide spectrum. These involved helping to fulfill the basic needs of an agrarian population, dealing with the frustrations of antiguerrilla operations, and conducting conventional campaigns against well-trained and determined regular units.
As this assignment nears an end, the U.S. Army must prepare for other challenges that may lie ahead. While cognizant that history never repeats itself exactly and that no army ever profited from trying to meet a new challenge in terms of the old one, the Army nevertheless stands to benefit immensely from a study of its experience, its shortcomings no less than its achievements.
Aware that some years must elapse before the official histories will provide a detailed and objective analysis of the experience in Southeast Asia, we have sought a forum whereby some of the more salient aspects of that experience can be made available now. At the request of the Chief of Staff, a representative group of senior officers who served in important posts in Vietnam and who still carry a heavy burden of day-to-day responsibilities has prepared a series of monographs. These studies should be of great value in helping the Army develop future operational concepts while at the same time contributing to the historical record and providing the American public with an interim report on the performance of men and officers who have responded, as others have throughout our history, to exacting and trying demands.
The reader should be reminded that most of the writing was accomplished while the war in Vietnam was at its peak, and the monographs frequently refer to events of the past as if they were taking place in the present.
All monographs in the series are based primarily on official records, with additional material from published and unpublished secondary works, from debriefing reports and interviews with key participants, and from the personal experience of the author. To facilitate security clearance, annotation and detailed bibliography have been omitted from the published version; a fully documented account with bibliography is filed with the Office of the Chief of Military History.
Lieutenant General Bernard William Rogers is especially well qualified to write Cedar Falls-Junction City because of a broad and varied military career. His military experience includes action in Korea and Vietnam as well as assignments in Germany. In Korea he served in the 2d Infantry Division as commander of the 3d Battalion, 9th Infantry, and later joined the staff of the Commander in Chief, United Nations and Far East Commands, in Tokyo, Japan. While assigned to the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany, he served as commander of the 1st Battle Group, 19th Infantry, and for fourteen months as chief of staff of the division. In Vietnam he served as assistant division commander of the 1st Infantry Division, where he participated in Operations CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY.
General Rogers attended Oxford University, England, from 1947 to 1950 as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving the B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics. Later from September 1967 to June 1969 he served as commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy. He was Chief of Legislative Liaison on the staff of the Secretary of the Army from January 1971 until November 1972. He is currently Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, U.S. Army.
VERNE L. BOWERS
The Adjutant General Major General, USA
15 June 1973 Washington, D.C.
Preface
Cedar Falls-Junction City: A Turning Point has been written at the request of General William C. Westmoreland, Chief of Staff of the Army, who, concerned about the lack of authoritative accounts of various actions and activities in Vietnam, desired that a series of monographs be prepared to fill the void in the Army's historical library.
Operations CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY took place during the first five months of 1967 and were the first multidivisional operations in Vietnam to be conducted according to a preconceived plan. They were to result in a turning point in the war: they confirmed that such operations do have a place in counterinsurgency warfare today; they brought an end to the enemy's thinking that his third phase of the war—large-scale operations throughout the country—would be successful; they caused the enemy to re-evaluate his tactics and revert to smaller-scale guerrilla operations; they destroyed his camps, pillaged his supplies, and killed hundreds of his best troops; they proved to the enemy that his old sanctuaries were no longer inviolable, thus causing him to depend primarily upon those located over the border in Cambodia; they helped convince the enemy that the maintenance of large bases and main force units near urban areas was risky business; and they enhanced immeasurably the confidence of the allied forces in South Vietnam, a confidence which had been growing since the dark days of the first half of 1965. Thus CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY were to become the most important operations of the war to that time, and perhaps since.
For the military history buff, Operation CEDAR FALLS will not be nearly so interesting as JUNCTION CITY because it consisted primarily of small unit contacts and the onerous tasks of finding and destroying base camps, storage facilities, and tunnels and of clearing jungles. CEDAR FALLS was unique, however, in that one of its missions was to evacuate some 6,000 inhabitants of the Iron Triangle area and destroy their villages. JUNCTION CITY, on the other hand, was more varied in view of its scope and the fact that there were five battles interspersed among the air assaults and the numerous search and destroy activities.
As an assistant division commander of the 1st Infantry Division from November 1966 to August 1967, I had the opportunity first-hand to observe and participate in the planning and execution of the two operations. From a personal standpoint, it was an extremely rewarding experience to serve with the Big Red One during the period when its commanding general for CEDAR FALLS was Major General William E. DePuy and for JUNCTION CITY was Major General John H. Hay, Jr. Their intricate planning, rapid and decisive execution of actions, and employment of new concepts, coupled with the bravery and skill of our troops, made these two operations the success they were.
I have expanded this monograph somewhat by including an introduction which covers those major events from the time of our initial commitment in Vietnam to Operation ATTLEBORO in November 1966, events which led to and influenced CEDAR FALLS and JUNCTION CITY. The hope is that the introduction will assist the reader in putting these two operations in perspective.
In assembling the data for this monograph, I have drawn primarily from after action reports and interviews, documented lessons learned, newspaper and magazine articles, personal letters, written and tape-recorded material, and my recollection of events. For the historical information contained in the introduction, I have relied exclusively upon the excellent document, Report on the War in Vietnam, by Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp and General William C. Westmoreland.
I would like to thank the members of the Office, Chief of Legislative Liaison, Department of the Army, who have assisted in the compilation of the material for this monograph. I would particularly like to express my appreciation to Lieutenant Colonel John R. Vilas for researching and organizing this document. The final product is mine, and for it I assume full responsibility.
BERNARD W. ROGERS
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
15 June 1973 Washington, D.C.
Chart
1. Communist Party Dominance in Enemy Organization.
Maps
1. Corps Tactical Zones, Republic of Vietnam
2. Major Battles Near Saigon, 1966
3. War Zones
4. ATTLEBORO (Operational Area)
5. The Iron Triangle and CEDAR FALLS Operational Area
6. CEDAR FALLS (Concept of Operations)
7. CEDAR FALLS (D-Day, D + 1)
8. War Zone C
9. Operation GADSDEN, 3-21 February 1967
10. Operation TUCSON (Concept of Operations)
11. Operation JUNCTION CITY (Phase I)
12. The Battle of Prek Klok I, 28 February 1967
13. The Battle of Prek Klok II, 10 March 1967
14. JUNCTION CITY (Concept, Phase II)
15. The Battle of Ap Bau Bang, 20 March 1967
16. Battle of Suoi Tre, 21 March 1967
17. Battle of Ap Gu, 1 April 1967
Illustrations
1. Elements of the 173d Airborne Brigade Arrive in Saigon From Okinawa, 1965
2. 105-mm. Howitzer Lifted Into Position by Chinook During Operation BIRMINGHAM
3. 105-mm. Howitzer Crew Fires in Support of the 1st Infantry Division
4. Brigadier General Bernard W. Rogers Directs His Troops in Battle by Radio
5. Armored Personnel Carriers Move Through Scrub Jungle
6. Brigadier General John R. Deane, Jr., Checks the Location of a Patrol
7. Private First Class Willie Foxworth Takes a Position Behind Weathered Graves
8. First Sergeant George L. Taylor Inspects Captured Enemy Mortar Rounds
9. Members of the 503d Infantry and 11th Armored Cavalry in Thanh Dien Forest
10. Members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry, Patrolling the Saigon River
11. Tankers from the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, in a Rubber Plantation
12. American and Vietnamese Soldiers Assist Refugees
13. Rome Plow in Operation
14. Preparing Landing Zone
15. Engineers Rappelling off Helicopter
16. Inspecting an Enemy Booby Trap
17. Searching for Tunnels
18. Flamethrower in Action
19. Combined Arms at Work in the Iron Triangle
20. American Adviser and Vietnamese Soldiers Keeping Watch on Viet Cong Captives
21. Infantrymen Move Through Heavy Brush Near the Michelin Plantation
22. Individual Ammunition Issue
23. Elements of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment Guarding Road to Rubber Plantation
24. Moving Through the Jungle
25. Hacking Out a Trail
26. Company Sweep in War Zone
27. An Infantryman Returns Fire During an Enemy Attack
28. First Lieutenant Edward Christiansen Calls for Air Strikes Over a Suspected Viet Cong Position
29. Guiding a Recovery Vehicle Across a River
30. A Huey Prepares To Land Near Awaiting Troops
31. Infantrymen Dash From Helicopters To Move Against Enemy Forces
32. Dropping Supplies North of Tay Ninh City
33. Armored Personnel Carriers Piled High With Captured Rice
All illustrations are from Department of the Army files.
Introduction
The war in Vietnam is as highly complex as any in our country's history. It is a war with no front, no rear. There is often no easily identifiable enemy. The Communists deny that there are any North Vietnamese in the south. Those from the south live among the very persons they threaten. At the same time we engage multi-battalion forces we also fight against individual guerrilla bands numbering but a few men. (Map 1)
We have been facing a Communist aggressor whose avowed objective is to gain control of the government, the land, and the peoples of South Vietnam. We have agreed to support the South Vietnamese against the enemy in order to buy time for the south, time in which the people can prepare to defend themselves and to shape their own destiny.
We are engaged in a conflict in which we are allied with forces whose approach to life is different from ours and whose history goes back centuries before ours. Using sophisticated weapons in the hands of tough, well-trained American soldiers, we, along with our allies, have been fighting a dedicated and disciplined enemy in South Vietnam who employs no air power, little naval effort, and comparatively few mechanized vehicles. Yet he has forced us, the most powerful nation in the world, to fight the longest war in our history.
This monograph concerns two operations conducted in early 1967 which marked a turning point in this conflict from the view-point of the tide of battle and tactical doctrine. The conditions which led to this turning point had been developing over the years from the time of the withdrawal of the French from Indochina in 1954 until Operation ATTLEBORO in late 1966.
At the outset of this twelve-year period the United States endorsed the new Geneva Accords and offered, through President