page_title: 1968 in the Vietnam War
section_title: January
hierarchical_section_title: 1968 in the Vietnam War / January
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules taking off from Khe Sanh, in 1968.
context_page_description: The year 1968 saw major developments in the Vietnam War. The military operations started with an attack on a US base by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong on January 1, ending a truce declared by the Pope and agreed upon by all sides. At the end of January, the PAVN and VC launched the Tet Offensive.
  Hanoi erred monumentally in its certainty that the offensive would trigger a supportive uprising of the population. PAVN/VC troops throughout the South, from Hue to the Mekong Delta, attacked in force for the first time in the war, but to devastating cost as the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and American troops killed close to 37,000 of the ill-supported enemy in less than a month for losses of 3,700 and 7,600 respectively. These reversals on the battlefield failed to register on the American home front, however and fueled what would ultimately prove to be a propaganda victory for Hanoi.
  U.S. troop numbers peaked in 1968 with President Johnson approving an increased maximum number of U.S. troops in Vietnam at 549,500. The year was the most expensive in the Vietnam War with the American spending US$77.4 billion on the war.
context_section_description: 1 January
  The PAVN violated a New Year's truce. In the New Year's Day Battle of 1968 among the Americans were future writer Larry Heinemann and future film director Oliver Stone.
  In Newsweek magazine Robert Komer touted the early success of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) pacification program he led. He said that "only one South Vietnamese in six now lives under VC [Viet Cong] control."
  2 January
  Elements of the 12th Cavalry Regiment engaged a unit from the PAVN 2nd Division in a four-hour-long battle 5 km south of Firebase Ross resulting in 3 U.S. and 39 PAVN killed.
  3 January
  The VC launched more than 50 122mm rockets at Da Nang Air Base destroying a United States Marine Corps (USMC) F-4B and two United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft and damaging 17 others.
  The PAVN 3rd Regiment, 2nd Division attacked four U.S. firebases in the Quế Sơn Valley southwest of Hội An, launching ground attacks against Landing Zone Leslie and Firebase Ross. Leslie was occupied by D Company and a platoon from A Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry. The PAVN penetrated the base, attacking bunkers with flamethrowers and satchel charges before being pushed out in the afternoon. Losses were 15 U.S and 63 PAVN. The PAVN emplaced heavy machine guns around Leslie and over a nine-day period shot down seven 1st Cavalry Division helicopters and damaged a further 26. At Ross the attack was repulsed with losses of 18 U.S. and 331 PAVN killed.
  4 January
  A unit of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division operating in Đắk Tô District captured a classified five-page North Vietnamese document, titled "Urgent Combat Order No. 1", that described the strategy for a series of attacks to take place in Pleiku in conjunction with the upcoming Tết holiday.
  A PAVN rocket and mortar attack on Ban Me Thuot East Airfield destroyed two UH-1s and severely damaged three others.
  8 January
  A CH-53A of HMH-463 crashed in the Hải Lăng Forest south of Đông Hà Combat Base, killing all 46 personnel on board
  10 January
  VC sappers penetrate the perimeter of Kontum Airfield and destroyed several helicopters with Satchel charges, killing 7 Americans and wounding 25. An estimated 16 VC were killed in the attack.
  12 January
  The Kampuchean Revolutionary Army was established by the orders of Pol Pot, the leader of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).
  18 January
  President Lyndon Johnson nominates Clark Clifford to succeed Robert McNamara as United States Secretary of Defense.
  At a White House luncheon with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in a discussion about juvenile delinquency, singer Eartha Kitt said "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They will take pot ... and they will get high. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam." Her remarks caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to Kitt being blacklisted and investigated by the CIA, effectively ending her career.
  19 January
  In the first two weeks of 1968, PAVN/VC forces shelled 49 district and provincial capitals in South Vietnam and temporarily occupied two of them. The Commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) General William Westmoreland described the fighting to Time magazine "as the most intense of the entire war."  MACV claimed that 5,000 PAVN/VC had been killed.
  20 January
  Ron Kovic serving with the 1st Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 3rd Marine Division was shot and paralysed during a battle with the PAVN in the vicinity of the village of My Loc, in the DMZ.
  20 January - 31 January 1969
  Operation McLain a security operation conducted by the U.S. 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 44th Regiment, 23rd Division in Bình Thuận Province commences. The operation results in 1,042 VC and 69 U.S. killed.
  21 January - 9 July
  The long and bloody Battle of Khe Sanh began with an assault by the PAVN on Khe Sanh Combat Base in northwestern Quảng Trị Province, near the Demilitarized Zone. The combatants were elements of the U.S. III Marin
caption: A C-130 takes off from Khe Sanh
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