A look back at the Tet Offensive

On January 30, 1968, across South Vietnam, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces attacked U.S. forces in cities and bases from the DMZ to Saigon. One of the places hardest hit was the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh near the DMZ.

Section:Gallery

Tue., Jan. 30, 2018

In this Feb. 5, 1968, file photo, a blinded U.S. Marine, left, holds his hand out in front of him as he is led by a wounded comrade from his evacuation helicopter that brought them from Hill 861 to the main Marine base at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. Another wounded leatherneck is helped by a hospital corpsman at right. The Marines were wounded during a 3 1/2-hour assault by North Vietnamese troops. Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1968, as Vietnamese celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Tet as it is known locally, Communist forces launched a wave of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
In this Feb. 21, 1968, file photo, a hospital corpsman holds a plasma bottle in one hand and clasps the hand of the seriously wounded U.S. Marine with the other as the wounded leatherneck is carried by comrades to an evacuation plane at the Marine base at Khe Sanh, central Vietnam. The Marine was wounded in a North Vietnamese artillery attack. Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1968, as Vietnamese celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Tet as it is known locally, Communist forces launched a wave of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam. The campaign, one of the largest of the Vietnam War, led to intense fighting and heavy casualties in cities and towns across the South.

Rick Merron Ap
In this Feb. 23, 1968, file photo, a U.S. Air Force transport plane drops supplies during a low-level pass over the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. In foreground is a sandbagged bunker on the base's perimeter. The planes avoid landing because of frequent Communist shelling. Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1968, as Vietnamese celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Tet as it is known locally, Communist forces launched a wave of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam. The campaign, one of the largest of the Vietnam War, led to intense fighting and heavy casualties in cities and towns across the South.

John Sneider Ap
Khe Sanh hospital bunker.
Curled up in his trench protected with sandbags, a young U.S. Marine tries his best to get some reading done at the Khe Sanh base in South Vietnam. The well-read book is passed from Marine to Marine as they wait for the next artillery barrage from the North Vietnamese troops entrenched in the surrounding hills.
To these US Marines at Khe Sanh, digging is a necessity in case of a ground attack from North Vietnamese troops who surround the Marine base in South Vietnam. The bunkers and trenches the Marines dig will also protect them from Communist artillery and rocket fire.
As it was for American doughboys in France during World War I, so it is with U.S. Marines at the Khe Sanh base in South Vietnam. The Marines have constructed a system of trenches and bunkers, topped with sand bags, shell casings and timber to withstand the daily Communist bombardments.
To the wounded men being evacuated from the battle area of Khe Sanh, Vietnam, the movement from hospital bunker to transport aircraft is one of the most dangerous times. The helicopters, called mortar magnets because of the shellfire they draw, are unmarked by red crosses but, in the words of one Marine, it wouldn't make any difference to the enemy. As a helicopter comes in at Khe Sanh, Vietnam, soldiers hustle a wounded comrade aboard for flight to the rear area and waiting medical treatment.
There is little time for cleanliness or relaxation at Charlie Med, the makeshift hospital of C Company, 3rd Marine Medical Battalion, handling wounded at Khe Sanh, Vietnam. Doctors, working in the cramped area under continuous battle conditions, make daily life and death decisions in determining the order of who receives treatment for wounds. Using instruments and medicines stored in empty howitzer cases, Dr. Joseph W. Wolfe, Rutledge, Tenn., center works on a wounded soldier in the crowded underground hospital bunker at Khe Sanh while Dr. James Finnegan, left, Philadelphia, Pa., and Dr. Edward M. Feldman, Forest Hills, N.Y. back to camera stand by, sit wearing protective flak jackets.
There is no quarter given on either side at the Vietnam outpost of Khe Sanh. The wounded, moved by litter from their defensive positions to the hospital bunker or into evacuating helicopters. are the targets for North Vietnamese gunners, making any open exposure a time of danger. A downed soldier, with shell fragments in his back and legs is carried by his comrades, one wounded about the head, across an open area during a lull in the fighting.
Barbed wire, sandbagged bunkers, and deep trenches at the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, recall to mind the daily life of soldiers fighting in the trenches of "the Great War," World War I. Just as the soldiers of that day suffered daily artillery bombardment, these Marines also receive rocket, mortar, and artillery fire from North Vietnamese guns emplaced in the surrounding hills. Here they pile empty shell casings atop a bunker, already topped by sandbags, for added protection.
Two Leathernecks are surrounded by layer upon layer of sandbags in their position dug into the dirt of the US Marine base at Khe Sanh just below the demilitarized zone. The base is the daily target of racket and artillery fire by North Vietnamese troops who surround it.
Supplies for the US Marines defending the combat base at Khe Sanh float to a drop zone under camouflaged parachutes. Many supplies are now dropped to the troops by parachute as North Vietnamese rocket and mortar shelling makes the runway hazardous for planes.