Expendable Warriors

Col. Bruce B. G. Clarke, USA (Ret.), a graduate of West Point and UCLA, was director of national security studies at the U.S. Army War College in the early 1990s. He is also the author of Conflict Termination. He lives in Fullerton, California.

Foreword by John W. Vessey
ix
Preface
xi
Acknowledgments
xv
Abbreviations
xvii
Chapter 1
1
Chapter 2
6
Vietnam
6
Khe Sanh before the Battle
8
Chapter 3
15
District Headquarters
15
The Village Participants
20
Chapter 4
29
Day-to-Day Operations of the Advisory Team
29
Chapter 5
39
Giap's Strategy
39
The NVA Tactical Plan
43
The American Plan
43
Chapter 6
47
The Situation Changes-The Prelude to the Battle in Khe Sanh
47
Chapter 7
52
The Battle Is Joined
52
The Western Approach to the Village-CAC-OSCAR 2's Fight
58
Air Strikes Take Their Toll
60
Chapter 8
65
Black Cats to the Rescue
65
The Black Cats
66
The Combat Assault
68
The NVA Await
73
Enroute to Khe Sanh
73
Arriving at the Landing Zone at the Old French Fort
74
Chapter 9
83
The Battle Continues
83
What Could Have Been Done Differently
89
The Evacuation of the District Headquarters
93
Chapter 10
95
The Advisory Team on the Move
95
Lang Vei Falls
97
Life at FOB-3
99
A Corpsman's Perspective
100
The Northern Half of FOB-3
101
The Bru
104
The Extended Siege
105
The End of the Siege
106
Chapter 11
109
Observations on a Lost War
109
The Need for Unity of Command
109
The Tension Between Secrecy and Operational Requirements
111
The Relationship of Battlefield Events and Political Decisions
112
The Roots of Historical Revisionism/Why History Is Difficult to Chronicle Accurately
114
Conclusion
115
Epilogue
116
The Participants Today
116
MIA-Still Missing, But Not Forgotten
118
The Bru Leave Khe Sanh
121
Appendices
131
Appendix 1: JCS After-Action Report
132
Appendix 2: Wichita Eagle, April 4, 1968, Article
137
Appendix 3: The Participants
140
Appendix 4: NVA Plan
146
Appendix 5: Recently Unclassified Intelligence
151
Appendix 6: Invasion of Laos
153
Appendix 7: Wichita Eagle Article-After-Action Report
155
Appendix 8: Award Citations
157
Appendix 9: Terrain Map of Area Around Khe Sanh Village
160
Index
163

Clarke's purpose is to set the record straight--clarifying reports and stories that have failed to accurately depict what happened.
Clarke describes the experiences of himself and his colleagues in the battles around the Khe Sanh Combat base in 1968, during the Vietnam War. He looks at the decision-making at multiple levels surrounding the battle, which he judges to have been a bloody tactical victory and a strategic defeat for the United States.