Vietnam war, first confrontations

Unlike the French, the Americans saw the usefulness of the helicopter in the war and used it profusely. In the picture, several helicopter accompanies the 170th and 189th shipment of troops waiting in Polei Kleng, South Vietnam in March 1969. (U.S. ArcWeb archive.)

Although at times perhaps too dependent on helicopters, they did prove a formidable weapon, as was well demonstrated in the Ia Drang where these machines made a fundamental mission to transport people to the center of the battle, provisioning and extracting the wounded.

The first test was in Operation Starlight for the Marines. In early 1965 the Americans launched the Starlight and then the Viet Cong in the Noh Nang peninsula. Once there, the guerrillas were able to destroy all the weapons at their disposal: small arms; artillery; aviation and naval guns of the cruisers anchored in the Gulf of Tonkin. The U.S victory was overwhelming.

In the battle of Ia Drang, it was the mission to find the enemy and destroy him. Some 1,500 North Vietnamese soldiers were killed, compared to 234 Americans. Due to the body count, the battle was declared a victory by the U.S military.

In August 1962 the Howse report described as “necessary and desirable the adoption of the concept of air mobility in the Army,” and the unwillingness of the Pentagon might have the variable wing aircraft completely dissolved.

Plans were drafted to form new units that formed the Air Cavalry, carried, supported and supplied by a helicopter. Men of the 2nd Infantry Division were transferred to the new division and in July 1st 1965 the 1st Cavalry Division Area was born. In more or less conventional battles, Vietnamese guerrillas still had cards to play and it showed in the month of June, when they completely disintegrated the 51st battalion ARVN. This was a surprise action, near the Gulf of Tonkin.

The lesson of how terrible the firepower could be and the use of the helicopter was also received in November with the EVN when Americans waited in the Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands. Despite the disparity in the number of contenders, one U.S air cavalry battalion (about 400 men) against nearly 4,000 in the EVN and the Vietcong, saw great firepower by the U.S, so great that the battle was lost with terrible losses.