The Battle of Hamburger Hill

Ap Bia Mountain was the host to one of the most famous battles that occurred during the Vietnam Conflict, the battle of Hamburger Hill. The mountain presented very formidable terrain of jungle, bamboo, and elephant grass referred to by the locals as, “the mountain of the crouching beast." Many parts of this mountain were so dense with jungle and overgrowth that there were not many ways to get across it.

The battle on hill 937, took place in 1969 in an operation dubbed “Operation Apache Snow” by the U.S. Military. It was a well planned effort to overwhelm and eliminate the PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam) after several previous assaults to clear the area had not been as successful.

Three PAVN regiments met with two large U.S. divisions and fought a bloody hillside battle. Narrow pathways, dense jungle, and lack of intelligence made commanding and units and the implementation of tactics very difficult for the U.S. military.

The battle seemed endless, starting on May 1^st, 1969, and was officially concluded on May 11^th of 1969. During the battle and ensuing long after was much political debate as to the justification of taking the hill. A reporter working for the AP (Associated Press) was credited with naming the battle “Hamburger Hill” when he brought attention the American public that we were unnecessarily putting our troops into harms way.

The media frenzy that ensued brought the attention of hill 937 all the way to Congress, where there was much scrutiny over the issue. The U.S. lost 70 soldiers and had more than 300 wounded during the battle, effectively wresting control of the hill from the VC and inflicted massive casualties upon them. However, not even a month later, on June 6^th, General John W. Wright left the hill, as President Johnson began withdrawing our troops from the bloodied jungles of Vietnam.

The Fall of Saigon

When the Paris Peace Treaty was signed in 1973 leading the way to the United States’ removal of its military forces from South Vietnam it was only a matter of time until North Vietnam would make a move against the not overly competent army of the South.

During the 2 years between the Peace Treaty and January, 1975 the North had quietly been building up its numbers of fighters in the South as well as bringing in incredible amounts of guns, ammunition, explosives, and food for its combat troops. Emboldened by the resignation in August of 1974 of American President Richard Nixon and feeling strongly that neither the U.S. public nor their politicians would have the resolve to intervene in Vietnam again especially with the States in such a state of social turmoil, the North began a major offensive in January 1975.

Moving village to village and city to city, the massed forces of the North marched slowly south, securing territory along the way and forcing the South Viet Namese Army into a steady retreat toward the capital city of Saigon. By the beginning of April, 1975 most of the major cities around Saigon had been overtaken by the North and they began placing a stranglehold on the capital from all directions until by the morning of the 29th it was obvious to all that Saigon, and along with it the government of South Vietnam, would fall to the North.

Many Americans remember seeing video of the last hours of our involvement in Southeast Asia: the terrified civilian, government, and military occupants of Saigon scrambling desperately for the few seats available on evacuation aircraft and the helicopters being pushed into the sea from the decks of United States Naval ships to make room for the evacuation flights.

Some feel that we betrayed South Vietnam by refusing to aid them in resisting the North’s invasion, however after so many previous years of never-ending body bags coming home, the morass the political system was in after Nixon’s resignation, and the painful social divisions of American society that these events had created it was probably best that we withdraw and allow our own wounded society to heal.