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It was the B52 bombers that destroyed General Giap's forces, and it was the B52s that saved the US Marines based there. The vast majority of those bombs were probably 750 pound general purpose high explosive types. 108 of them per bomber; 324 bombs per every three plane cell (flights of 3 aircraft were called "cells"). Those bombs leave a crater large enough for a full sized pick up truck to disappear into; they were used as Swimming Pools by GIs when on missions...those craters are everywhere...everywhere...there are (or were, many might have been filled in by now) so many bomb craters, that the old ones had plants, trees, and grass growing in them, so that a tank couldn't see them and the tank or ACAV would call into the bomb craters, and could not be seen...except for the radio antenna which was the length of a fishing pole. The only way a GI could find the missing tank or ACAV was by looking for that "fishing pole" sticking out of the ground. So, how many NVA died at Khe Sanh? Unless the NVA wants to release those figures we'll never know...because those blasts that made those bomb craters completely destroyed any AK-47, Machinegun, Truck, or NVA soldier that it hit.
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Who won the battle of siege at khe sahn?
The US Marines at Khe Sanh won because Khe Sanh did not fall to the NVA. At Khe Sanh, General Giap intended to repeat his success against the French Army at Dien Bien Phu fourteen years earlier, but the siege failed because the US managed to supply Khe Sanh by air and provide tactical air support for the defenders, whereas the French air link to Dien Bien Phu was tenuous at best after that siege began.
What was Khe Sanh?
Of the four Military Regions (MR) in South Vietnam, MR1, better known as I Corps (I Corps, II Corps, III Corps, and IV Corps are also known as MR1, MR2, etc.) was the hottest. It contained regiments of NVA. III Corps and IV Corps were primarily VC territory. Obviously fighting the NVA was tougher and far more dangerous. Khe Sahn was in I Corps. Khe Sanh also happened to be in a dangerous portion of I Corps; close to the Laos border (where NVA could stage attacks and withdraw back into...plus they had tons of equipment available to them there). In these AOs (Areas of Operations) the NVA seemingly conducted "search and destroy" missions...hunting for GIs. In the slang of the times, "here, the NVA hunted for you!" This set the stage for the siege. Next NVA General Giap wanted to make an example out of the Marine base at Khe Sanh. He was the right man for the job, for it was he that did in the French at Dien Bien Phu 14 years earlier. Giap was going to repeat the process against the Americans. But then President Johnson (LBJ) found out about Giap and his plans and launched an all out campaign to prevent Giap from repeating his past victory against the French. As LBJ stated, "I'll not have no da-- Den Ben Foos!" LBJ sent US Army reinforcements, but more importantly he ordered B52s to saturate the surrounding zones around Khe Sanh. No matter what you read, no matter what you hear, it was the B52s that saved Khe Sanh. Giap defeated the French, but he couldn't defeat the B52s.
Who was the leader of the Viet Minh movement?
The most common field leader, known to most people during the war, was General Giap, who had defeated the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, and then laid seige to the US Marine Base at Khe Sanh in 1968. GEN Giap was not a "guerilla leader", but a high ranking general in the North Vietnamese Army.
How many nva were killed in Vietnam War?
Discounting AAA gun crews, SAM site crews, transportation personnel, engineers, and just counting the NVA infantrymen & tank crewmen, possibly 500,000 men thru out the war. A vast amount of NVA casualties were attributed to the B52 Stratofortress...this weapon destroyed more men than any other weapon during the war...it was also the most feared weapon by the communists (both NVA & VC). Hanoi has hinted that approximately 2 million communists (total) died in the war.
Highest north Vietnam army officer killed by enemy fire in Vietnam war?
Although not generally reported to the men in the field by name, high ranking US officers believed that some NVA generals may have been killed during B-52 strikes. General Giap, one of the few NVA generals fairly common to most US servicemen, due to his reputation during the French War, as well as the siege at the Marine Corps base at Khe Sanh; definitely survived the war & definitely would have been reported as killed...if he had been.
