On this day in History, in 1967 Operation Junction City was launched in Vietnam

Operation Junction City was the largest American offensive in the Vietnam War. On February 22, 1967 thousands of American forces and their South Vietnamese allies attempted to encircle and trap the bulk of North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces operating in a large sector of what was then South Vietnam.

U.S. General William Westmoreland was the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam at the time. His adversary was North Vietnamese Senior General Nguyen Chi Thanh. Thanh favored large unit engagements with the Americans while his chief rival in the NVA, General Vo Nguyen Giap, advocated for using guerilla tactics.

Westmoreland's goal in Operation Junction City was to engage Thanh's large units and destroy them as a strategy to force an end to the war. Both Westmoreland and Thanh believed in attrition. Thanh had lost an estimated 60,000 North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong troops in 1966 alone, so Westmoreland believed that by attacking Thanh's depleted forces he could deliver a knock-out blow.

The problem with this strategy was the limited intelligence. Westmoreland did not know exactly where the NVA regiments were or where Thanh's headquarters was. He attacked anyway.

Westmoreland attacked with 22 brigades of airborne, helicopter mounted, ground, and even an armed cavalry regiment attempting to destroy Thanh and his elusive command. The mission was named Operation Junction City in honor of a town just outside the 1st Infantry home base at Fort Riley, Kansas.

The 1st Infantry Division was in charge of the northern and northeastern portion of the operation. The Air Force flew 4,000 air sorties in support of the battle while 17 field artillery battalions provided fire support. B-52 bombers struck suspected Communist positions in the area at Dawn on Feb 22. Troops from the 1st Inf Division on 70 helicopters attacked near Katum in the initial assault. After dropping off those troops, they went back and returned with reinforcements. The 196th Light Infantry Brigade with their own helicopters landed near the intersection of Routes 22 and 246. Ground forces in trucks and armored personnel carriers proceeded up Route 22 to link up with their comrades where were airlifted into the combat zone.

To their north the 845 troops of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade made their drop. They were lightly fired upon in the air by NVA forces, but helicopter gunships opened up on the enemy quickly dispersing the opposition. This was the largest combat parachute drop by U.S. forces since World War II.

These forces were joined in a horseshoe arrangement by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, a brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, and a two-battalion South Vietnamese Marine task force.

Westmoreland had hoped to catch Thanh and his army by surprise and quickly destroy them. In that regard Operation Junction City was a complete failure. In the first five days of fighting, they managed to kill only 54 NVA and Vietcong troops – at a cost of 28 U.S. soldiers. The early part of the mission had uncovered important intelligence about South Vietnamese who were working with the Communists; but Thanh, his HQ, and the bulk of his forces the Americans still did not know where they were.

There is historical evidence to believe that the NVA intelligence network had alerted Thanh to the American plans, thus he deftly moved his units away from the positions where the initial assault occurred.

On February 28, elements of the NVA 101st regiment attacked a company of the U.S. 1st Division infantry. The Americans won that engagement at a cost of 25 lives. On March 3, a company of paratroopers engaged elements of the NVA's 70th Guard Regiment. 20 more U.S. troops were killed. On March 10, U.S. forces near Prek Klok were attacked with mortars and 120mm rockets ahead of an assault by elements of the Vietcong's 272nd Regiment. Over 200 VC were killed at a cost of 3 Americans. On March 11 the 173rd Airborne was attacked near Prek Klok by elements of the NVA's 101st.

On March 21, 450 troops of the 25th Infantry Division at a firebase near Suoi Tred were attacked by two battalions of the Vietcong 272nd Regiment. The fighting was intense. F-5 fighters provided initial air support, but the forward air controller's aircraft was shot down allowing the VC to breach the perimeter at Firebase Gold. The 25th Division artillerymen switched to firing beehive rounds, each round contains thousands of nail-like projectiles, into waves of VC at near point blank distances. U.S. defenders fell back. USAF F-100s were redirected to support the beleaguered defenders at Gold. Hundreds of VC were incinerated by the napalm attacks. The VC lunched a third assault. After hours of fighting, a battalion of the U.S. 12th Infantry reached Gold and fought their way into the beleaguered base while under heavy fire. Finally a column of the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Mechanized Infantry with tanks arrived and drove off the remaining VC forces. 547 VC were killed at a cost of 31 U.S. soldiers killed and 109 wounded.

On March 20 the Vietcong 273rd Regiment attacked a U.S. 9th Infantry Division firebase at Bau Bang. Two battalions of Vietcong were pushed back under heavy fire from the guns and tanks of the 9th Infantry as wells as by air support from F-100s and F-4s. 227 VC were killed at as cost of 3 Americans killed and 63 wounded.

On April 1 the Vietcong's 271st Regiment and elements of the 70th Guard Regiment attacked two 1st Infantry Division battalions about 12 miles southeast of Katum. The Americans were forced to give up ground despite heavy artillery support. Again the Air Force arrived to give close-air support. 600 VC were killed at a cost of 17 Americans killed and 102 wounded.

The Americans were winning the engagements; but Westmoreland had planned to be the attacker. Instead, Thanh had deftly avoided any efforts by the U.S. to engage the bulk of his units. His pinpoint if suicidal attacks on the American firebases however had resulted in the Americans digging in to defensive positions, which allowed Thanh, his headquarters, and some of his depleted units to fall back into the jungles of theoretically neutral Cambodia to resupply and regroup.

On April 15, Operation Junction City ended as there were simply no company sized or bigger communist units left within the combat zone. Westmoreland pulled out most of his forces from War Zone C leaving just five Special Forces bases to monitor the area.

Thanh lost over 2,800 dead. Westmoreland lost 282. Thanh was so depleted that he ordered no regiment-sized attacks for the next six months as a result of his losses. Communist forces were losing 15,000 troops (dead, wounded, and desertions) a month in the first six months of 1967 in the whole of South Vietnam.

Westmoreland was even more disappointed. The complete failure of Junction City to encircle and destroy Thanh's army deeply impacted Westmoreland. He later reported to President Lydon B Johnson (D) that he did not believe the VC organization could be completely destroyed, and that if the allies were unable to halt North Vietnamese infiltration of manpower and supplies the war could go on indefinitely

General Thanh died on July 6, 1967.

Following the Tet Offensive in June 1968 Westmoreland was replaced as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.

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