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. 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.