History Channel Documentaries

Unsung Heroes: The Battle of Khe Sanh (2002x26)

Air date: Jan 31, 2002

No battle in the 10 years of the Vietnam War received more agonized attention from home-front America and its leaders than did the siege of Khe Sanh. The 77-day siege was a political chess game, with the lives of unsung heroes as pawns who paid the price every day. The battle was so fierce that skeletons of the enemy dead hung in the triple lines of barbed wire. During the siege the U.S. Air Force launched a massive aerial bombardment called "Operation Niagara" to support the Marine base. President Johnson was adamant Khe Sanh would not become another Dien Bien Phu. Subsequently, the combined aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines dropped over 100,000 tons of bombs (equivalent to the destructive force of five Hiroshima-size atomic bombs) onto the surrounding areas of Khe Sanh in an attempt to prevent its overthrow. This was roughly 1,300 tons of bombs dropped daily, or five tons of bombs for every one of the estimated 20,000 NVA soldiers killed. Watch the personal, up-close i