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 lat er. It took that portion of the silent majority and turned them sour in a very dramatic way against the war.
Most historians agree.
It was just one more hill. The valley served as an important terminus of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the vital North Vietnamese supply line. And it was an ideal staging ground for attacks against Hue and other coastal cities. The North Vietnamese, who launched a strike against Hue, the former imperial capital, during the Tet Offensive a year earlier, were massing again. They had to be rooted out, and the 187th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division was ordered to do it.