19651776 Club
VC regulars overrun Đồng Xoài; Westmoreland orders U.S. paratroopers into battle for the first time
The 272nd Regiment creeps to within 100 meters, weapons wrapped in cloth to muffle sound, and by dawn two ARVN battalions are shattered and 416 South Vietnamese are dead.
South Vietnam's government had cycled through a dozen regimes since Diệm's assassination eighteen months earlier, and Hanoi saw the instability as an opening. On the night of June 9, 1965, the Viet Cong 272nd Regiment crept to within 100 meters of the district compound at Đồng Xoài in Phước Long Province, weapons wrapped in fabric to muffle sound, and launched a midnight assault. Over the next four days, the VC shattered two ARVN battalions and inflicted 416 South Vietnamese killed — forcing General Westmoreland to order U.S. Army paratroopers into a major battle for the first time. The VC had already withdrawn by the time the Americans arrived…
