The Battle of Đồng Xoài () was a major battle fought during the Vietnam War as part of the Viet Cong (VC) Summer Offensive of 1965. It took place in Phước Long Province, South Vietnam, between 9 and 13 June 1965.
Political instability in Saigon gave North Vietnamese leaders an opportunity to step up their military campaign in the south. They believed that the South Vietnamese government's power relied on the country's strong military, so the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and VC launched the Summer Offensive of 1965 to inflict significant losses on South Vietnamese forces. In Phước Long Province, the PAVN/VC summer offensive culminated in the Đồng Xoài campaign.
The fight for Đồng Xoài began on the evening of 9 June 1965, when the VC 272nd Regiment attacked and captured the Civilian Irregular Defense Group and US Special Forces camp there. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Joint General Staff responded to the sudden assault by ordering the ARVN 1st Battalion of the 7/5 Infantry to retake the district of Đồng Xoài. The ARVN forces arrived on the battlefield on 10 June but in the vicinity of Thuận Lợi, the VC 271st Regiment overwhelmed the South Vietnamese battalion. Later that day, the ARVN 52nd Ranger Battalion, which had survived an ambush while marching towards Đồng Xoài, recaptured the district. On 11 June the ARVN 7th Airborne Battalion arrived to reinforce the South Vietnamese position; as the Airborne were searching the Thuận Lợi rubber plantation for survivors from the 1st Battalion, the VC caught them in a deadly ambush.
On 13 June COMUSMACV General William Westmoreland, fearing that the VC might secure enough area to establish a large base in Phước Long Province, decided to insert elements of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade into a major battle for the first time. By then, however, the VC had already withdrawn from the battlefield, and the US paratroopers were ordered to return to base without having engaged with the VC.
Background
Since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963, political turmoil in South Vietnam severely undermined the fight against the VC insurgency. From the Communist perspective, even though South Vietnam was plagued by political instability, it still had a strong army to resist the VC. So shortly after the Binh Gia campaign, North Vietnamese leaders reached a resolution to launch a summer offensive, to destroy the regular units of the South Vietnamese military. During the early stages of the Communist summer campaign, VC forces in Quảng Ngãi Province successfully destroyed a South Vietnamese task force, led by the ARVN 51st Infantry Regiment, in the village of Ba Gia. Following their victory at Ba Gia, the VC turned its attention to the Mekong Delta region. To prepare for their next offensive, Major general Lê Trọng Tấn was given the task of directing VC military operations in the province of Phước Long. For the first time, the newly created VC 273rd and 274th Regiments was ordered to join the 271st and 272nd Regiments on the battlefield; their objective was to destroy the regular units of the South Vietnamese military and eliminate the strategic hamlets to enlarge what North Vietnam viewed as liberated zones and that, in view of the forced relocation, the compulsory labor, the fund diversion by corrupt officers and the burning of old villages implied, were labelled by Noam Chomsky "virtual concentration camps".
Prelude
Since May 1965, the VC offensive in Phước Long Province had been in full-swing. Beginning on 10 May the VC 271st Regiment, supported by the 840th Battalion and local sapper units, attacked the district town of Phước Long, capital of the province. Simultaneously, the VC 272nd Regiment overran South Vietnamese government positions in the sub-sector of Phước Bình. In the subsequent Battle of Sông Bé, South Vietnamese losses were 58 dead, 96 wounded, and 83 missing. Five Americans died in the fighting, and 13 were wounded. The allies variously reported civilian casualties as between 12 and 80 people. US advisers on the scene reported that 297 VC had been killed. MACV speculated that VC casualties could have been as high as 1,000 killed or injured. Đồng Xoài was a district seat in southern Phước Long Province, nestled in sparsely populated country dominated by forests and rubber plantations. Outside the range of most friendly artillery, the town sat astride a strategic road junction which connected Inter-Provisional Road 13, National Highway 1 and Highway 14. 11 United States Army Special Forces personnel and nine men of Seabee Team 1104. Prior to the battle, the US Special Forces had assumed control of Đồng Xoài's defences; they stepped up guard and patrol activities, and ordered the construction of new defensive fortifications around the district headquarters, the Special Forces Camp and the armored and artillery positions on the eastern side of the district.
Aftermath
In this battle both sides of the conflict had paid a heavy price to achieve their objectives. After the battle, search parties found more than 300 VC bodies and 104 weapons. The allies estimated that they had killed a further 625 VC. The South Vietnamese lost 416 killed, 174 wounded and 233 missing. They claimed that their losses were 134 killed and 290 wounded.