US Army Special Forces (Detachment A-101, Company C, 5th Special Forces Group) constructed a camp in August 1962 at an old abandoned French fort, about 2km east of the village of
Khe Sanh and just below
Route 9. It served as an outpost of the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDG). Its purpose was to keep watch on
People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) infiltration along the border and to protect the local population. In November 1964, the Special Forces team moved from the French fort to a light-duty airstrip, built by French forces in 1949 on the Xom Cham Plateau, above Route 9 and about 2km north of their former base. This new site, which eventually became the Khe Sanh base, had several advantages. Militarily, it was on relatively level ground and offered good fields of fire in all directions. The terrain provided both good drainage and stable soil, mostly consisting of "laterite clay or weathered iron/aluminum rock." It also contained a few basalt outcroppings, at what was later called the "Rock Quarry". At their new camp, the Special Forces and CIDG personnel built a number of bunkers. In early September 1966, COMUSMACV General
William Westmoreland, fearing that PAVN might skip around the main Marine defenses at
The Rockpile and
Dong Ha and attempt to open a corridor in the northwest corner of Quang Tri province in the mountains bordering both Laos and North Vietnam, suggested that III MAF reinforce Khe Sanh with a Marine battalion. The Marine command resisted Westmoreland's suggestion. More than one Marine general expressed the belief that Khe Sanh had no basic military value. General
Lowell E. English, the 3rd Marine Division ADC, declared "When you're at Khe Sanh, you're not really anywhere. It's far away from everything. You could lose it and you really haven't lost a damn thing." Despite Marine protests, it was soon obvious that III MAF would have to move into the area. The catalyst was a 26 September intelligence report that pinpointed a PAVN troop concentration and base camp only 14km northeast of Khe Sanh. III MAF bowed to the inevitable and ordered Lieutenant colonel Peter A. Wickwire's
1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, already on the alert to move to Dong Ha from Da Nang, to move to Khe Sanh instead. On 29 September, Marine KC-130 transports ferried the 1/3 Marines, reinforced with an artillery battery, to Khe Sanh. Its new mission was to determine the extent of the PAVN buildup in the area. Wickwire established liaison with the U.S. Army Special Forces advisor at Khe Sanh who believed that the area was in imminent danger of being overrun. The Marines established their area of operations, coordinated their activities with the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces in the area, and manned defensive positions around the Khe Sanh airstrip. The 1st Battalion conducted extensive patrolling out to maximum artillery range, but made little contact with any PAVN troops. The original 30-day stay was extended into 1967. During this period, the Marines killed 15 PAVN troops, but North Vietnamese intentions remained obscure. The defense of Khe Sanh commanded international attention and was considered the climactic phase of the
Tet Offensive. On July 5, 1968, the combat base was abandoned, the U.S. Army citing the vulnerability of the base to dug-in enemy artillery positions in neutral Laos and the arrival of significant airmobile forces in I Corps (1st Cavalry and
101st Airborne divisions). However, the closure permitted the 3rd Marine Division to conduct mobile operations along the DMZ. On 30 January 1971, Khe Sanh was reactivated by the U.S. Army (Operation Dewey Canyon II) to support
Operation Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos. On the night of 23 March a PAVN sapper attack on Khe Sanh resulted in 3 Americans killed and several aircraft and 2 ammunition dumps destroyed, PAVN losses were 14 killed and 1 captured. The base was abandoned again on 6 April 1971. On 27 January 1972 a U.S. Air Force
Lockheed AC-130 gunship was shot down by a PAVN
SA-2 missile over the base. In March 1973, American intelligence reported that the PAVN had rebuilt the airstrip at Khe Sanh and were using it for courier flights into the South. ==Tourism==