Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam

Prologue: Kontum: Now and Then

Prologue Kontum: Now and Then Isn’t it strange that a country can be so pastoral, yet so deadly? —Dickey Chappell, war correspondent killed in 1965 If you were to visit Kontum today, you would probably find a peaceful , bustling Central Highlands city of around 35,000. Most of the inhabitants would belong to the various ethnic minorities, the people the French called “Montagnards.” The main agricultural products would be coffee, tea, cassava, rubber, and lumber. This pleasant city has a gentle climate. It would be difficult to find any evidence of—or even to imagine—the major battle that took place here long ago. During the last two weeks of May in 1972, Kontum was the scene of a violent struggle between the equivalent of three divisions of Communist North Vietnamese soldiers, who were attacking to seize the city, and the one South Vietnamese division defending it. At least 30,000 refugees were packed into Kontum. Communist artillery, rockets, and mortars were pounding the city, and many buildings were burning. The enemy held almost half of the town, and their troops and tanks were assaulting day and night to take the remainder of it. It was close, brutal, often toe-totoe combat. Helicopter and fixed-wing gunships and aerial bombing both inside and outside Kontum aided the South Vietnamese troops. During just 25 days, B-52 bombers alone dropped about 60 million pounds of bombs around Kontum.1 Tactical air fighterbombers dropped additional millions of pounds of bombs both inside and outside the city. Day after day during the battle, aircraft were being shot down in flames; soldiers on both sides were being 2 • PROLOGUE killed and wounded; and the air was filled with the smell of cordite, smoke, and rotting bodies. In the spring of 1972, 12 Communist North Vietnamese divisions plus many independent units—about 200,000 men in all— supported by an estimated 1,000 tanks and the latest Soviet and Chinese artillery and anti-aircraft guns, invaded South Vietnam in what the Americans called the Easter Offensive. It was the biggest across-the-border invasion and the largest military offensive anywhere in the world since the Communist Chinese attacked across the Yalu River into Korea 22 years earlier in October 1950.2 Although virtually no US Army ground combat units took part in the Easter Offensive—they were in the process of withdrawing from Vietnam—there were American advisers with the South Vietnamese army, marine, and air force units. Also, US Army aviation units, the US Air Force (USAF), the US Navy, and navy and marine aircraft crews were involved. Many Americans were wounded or killed during this campaign. No US Army or US Marine ground units returned to Vietnam to respond to the invasion, but the USAF response was swift and massive. From bases in the United States, Korea, and the Philippines , waves of fighters, bombers, tankers, and cargo aircraft flowed to Southeast Asia. Some of those aircraft crews were flying combat missions three days after they received orders to deploy. The US Navy responded by tripling the number of aircraft carriers off the Vietnamese coast from two to six, with almost 500 aircraft, plus 20 cruisers and destroyers. It was the largest collection of naval power assembled since World War II. The Easter Offensive was not like the attack on cities by the indigenous VC guerillas during Tet in 1968. In 1972, we were fighting the NV A, and for the first time in the Central Highlands the enemy had tanks. The Communists were not just testing; they were trying to conquer South Vietnam that spring. They made repeated, all-out attempts to seize the outposts, fire-support bases (FSBs), and cities they wanted. Their goal was to defeat South Vietnam or at least to seize and hold enough key cities to relegate the United States to a weak bargaining position in the Paris peace talks.3 This offensive was a massive three-pronged invasion. In the North, the enemy attacked into the I Corps area with six divisions of about 8,700 men each. Three Communist divisions attacked II Corps in KONTUM: NOW AND THEN • 3 the Central Highlands, and another three attacked into III Corps north of Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital.4 A famous Vietnam War correspondent told me, “The main show was up north, Kontum was just a sideshow.” The invasion did start in the North...