Now retired, he lives in the shadow of Ap Bia, the Vietnamese name for the hill, along the Laotian border in central Vietnam. We felt isolated, we could not retreat or advance. It was a very special, intense battle. At least 633 North Vietnamese, by American accounts, lay strewn across the battlefield. There were bloodier battles in the Vietnam War, but what sparked a furor was the meat-grinder image of soldiers being ordered up a hill again and again under withering fire, and the abandonment of the hilltop to North Vietnamese forces just two weeks later.
American boys are too valuable to be sacrificed to a false sense of military pride.
Many Americans agreed. It took that portion of the silent majority and turned them sour in a very dramatic way against the war. That was the death knell. Most historians agree. Keep the casualties low, let the South Vietnamese do more of the fighting and seek a way out of Vietnam.