We Were Soldiers

If you tell a lie often enough... That some would claim an American victory, as depicted in the movie We Were Soldiers, out of a defeat is a metaphor to the entire Vietnam War. The Ia Drang Valley lies near the Cambodian border, dominated by the giant Chu Pong massive, southeast of Plieku, in the central Highlands. The combination of jungle and mountains was ideal for the PAVN, and they had built a big complex in the area without the ARVN challenging them or the Americans knowing about it. A peculiarity of the terrain was that even the so-called "clear" terrain consisted of grasses and shrubs six feet in height. In the forest, trees were 100-feet high.

The Americans land a company into LZ Xray and are immediately attacked in a hasty ambush. These troops are pinned down and never leave the landing zone while frantically attempting to receive reinforcements. Military Intelligence had sent them to look for some VC and had landed them in a refit area for three regiments, 320th, 33rd, and the 66th. They had, in fact, blundered into an ambush. It took four days to begin the retreat to LZ Columbus and LZ Albany. During that time they sustained casualties which approached thirty percent. For those that follow these sorts of numbers...you cease being an offensive force at 20 per cent.

However bad the ambush at LZ Xray was, the 'road' to LZ Albany was worse. The 2/7 is moving in column when it is attacked again and chopped to pieces, unit commanders are killed and the remainder fights their way to LZ Albany in the hope of helicopter extraction. The battle rages for another day, casualties run into the hundreds, platoons are overrun and only after North Vietnamese battlefield commander, then-Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huu An breaks off contact do the survivors escape. This is not the scenario of a victory.

The PAVN ordinarily chose the moment of disengagement after exhausting any strategic importance the site may have held. And, more often than not, the battlefield was abandoned by the Americans within hours of the enemy's withdrawal. The enemy almost always surrendered territory as soon as it had exploited its full potential for punishing, embarrassing and frustrating U.S. troops. In Vietnam, victory might best be measured by whether a force achieved its objectives in any given operation. By that measure, being routed out of not one, but two landing zones, in a single battle can only be called a victory in Hollywood. Of 400 men in the 2/7 at LZ Albany, some 155 were killed and 121 wounded in just a few short hours of combat. Victory was certainly not on the lips of any American lucky enough to survive that conflagration. The PAVN battlefield commanders defeated two different American battalions. They saw it as the same battle and they saw it as the most important battle of the campaign. Senior Lieutenant Colonel An said, "I gave the order to my battalions: When you meet the Americans divide yourself into many groups and attack the column from all directions and divide the column into many pieces. Move inside the column, grab them by the belt, and thus avoid casualties from the artillery and air. We had some advantages: We attacked your column from the sides and, at the moment of the attack, we were waiting for you."