Game:

Battlefield Vietnam (2004)

Duration: 11:22

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A month-long action fought in the Vietnam War in 1965, the Battle of the Ia Drang was a campaign, composed of multiple battles against the a division-sized force from the People's Army of Viet Nam (PAVN). Most western histories focus on the second battle.[1] It is an especially informative topic, since, in addition to the U.S. reports that long have been available, some of the key commanders on both the North Vietnamese and U.S. sides have met as friends, and discussed the different perspectives.[2] South Vietnamese reporting is also available.[1]

The engagement took place in the South Vietnamese II Corps tactical zone area, headed by BG Vinh Loc.

On the North Vietnamese side, the senior commander for the region was the late Chu Huy Man, then a brigadier general and subsequently one of the few men ever to hold the rank of Senior General.[2] He faced II Vietnamese Corps under BG Vinh Loc,[3] supported by US I Field Force under MG Stanley Larsen. Under I Field Force was the first operational U.S. airmobile unit, the 1st Cavalry Division, commanded by MG Harry Kinnard. [4].

The first and better-known battle in the West, in the Plei Me area, was the first combat action involving a United States Army an airmobile unit of divisional strength. This took place on November 14 to November 24, 1965, with the main action by the 2nd Brigade on the 14th-. It was made well known by the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, subsequently a movie, written by LTG (ret.) Hal Moore, a battalion commander in the U.S. action and Joe Galloway, a reporter who was at Moore's side during the LZ X-Ray engagement[5] where Moore's unit, the 1/7 Cavalry fought the 7/66 PAVN battalion under Nguyen Huu An. They said that this had been called the "Pleiku Campaign" within the Army,[6] but this terminology was not widely used. Subsequently, Moore and Galloway returned to Vietnam in the 1990s, Galloway more recently in 2005, and reviewed the battle with their one-time enemies.

The second battle was fought by troops from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Airborne Brigade, under BG Du Quoc Dong, with LTC Ngo Quang Truong, chief of staff under Dong, in tactical command. Another U.S. officer, who would rise to the highest ranks, was an adviser to the Airborne at the battle: then-major H Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.. Schwarzkopf held Truong in the highest respect. [7]

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