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This thesis seeks to identify , describe , and analyze the tactics used by the 101st
Airborne Division in the pacification of the Republic of Vietnam's Thua Thien province
from 1968 to 1972 . Despite the larger calamity of the Vietnam War , the 101st developed
an effective set of measures against the Vietnamese communist insurgency . These
measures depended largely on the ability of the division's lower -level units to attack the
Viet Cong political infrastructure , provide security for Thua Thien's population , and
build effective South Vietnamese territorial forces in their areas of operation following
the communist 1968 Tet offensive .
These findings are based on the official reports , orders , and records generated by
the division during its service in Vietnam and currently stored in the National Archives
in College Park , Maryland and U .S . Army's Military History Institute in Carlisle
Barracks , Pennsylvania . Additionally , the Military History Institute's "Company Command in Vietnam" series of interviews conducted from 1982 to 1984 with officers
who served in Vietnam provided valuable insight . This thesis looks at
counterinsurgency practices at the lowest levels where theory and policy are translated
into action . Operations Narrative : 3 September 1970 . "At 0525 hours D Company , 3d
Platoon had two frag grenades tossed into its night defensive position . A member of the
platoon threw one of the grenades out of the position before it exploded . He jumped on
the other grenade and covered it with his body . The grenade did not explode due to the
fact that the safety had not been removed ."1
I was inspired to undertake and complete this study by the courageous and
fortunate soldier in 3rd Platoon , D Company , 3 -187th Infantry and the thousands of others
like him whose exploits I found in the footnotes of the Vietnam War . Their stories were
resting uneasily as antiseptic fragments in a hundred reports , giving single -sentence
snapshots of their part in a war many more clever people declared lost just as they began
their fight in 1968 . Their names are forgotten to time and their efforts largely relegated
to obscurity by others who occupied a larger , grenade -free stage at much less personal
risk . Still , they are the men we all want alongside us in our night defensive position .
Their deeds are much easier to comment on than they were to perform .
1 . Hq . , 3 -187 Infantry , "Combat After Action Report : Operation Texas Star , dated 20 September 1970 ," p . 5 , Box 19 , Command Reports , Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence /Operations (S -2 /3 ) , 3d Battalion , 187th Infantry , Infantry Units , Record Group 472 , National Archives and Records Administration II , College Park , MD . |
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