KHE SANH BATTLEFIELD
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A small museum has been set up on the site of the battle, which could well have been the American Diên Biên Phu.
Further west, on the RN9, 50 km from Dông Ha, the junction with Route 14 allows access to the Dak Rông bridge, rebuilt in 2001, but which was a strategic node for the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Back on the RN9, still in the direction of Laos, one arrives at the town of Khe San (now called Huong Hoa) near which the Americans had set up a military base, where in January 1968 a fierce battle took place. On January 21, 1968, the base's 6,000 defenders (US Marines and forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam) had to face the assault of three divisions (20,000 men) of the Vietnamese People's Army and sustain a 75-day siege. This battle could well have been the American Diên Biên Phu. In order to avoid this, the American command used the B52s which dropped tons of bombs around the site. The craters still visible are evidence of the violence of the fighting.
In retrospect, the siege of Khe San appeared as a diversion intended to mask Hanoi's preparations for the Tet offensive launched on January 30, 1968, which was intended to provoke an uprising of the South Vietnamese population against the pro-American government of the Republic of Vietnam. The Americans estimate that at Khe San, the Vietnamese People's Army lost 8,000 men (considerably more were wounded) compared to 730 allied lives and 2,642 wounded.
A small museum has been set up on the battle site.
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