Combat· Vietnam War
Quang Tri Falls
The fall of Quang Tri was the most serious reverse of the Easter Offensive's opening, when the North Vietnamese drive across the Demilitarized Zone overwhelmed the northern defenses and captured the provincial capital, the first such city lost to the invasion.
South Vietnamese forces, struck by massed armor and artillery and shaken by the scale of the assault, were forced back from their forward positions and ultimately gave up the city in a costly withdrawal. The loss sent a shock through the South and its American backers, and recapturing Quang Tri became the focus of a hard-fought counteroffensive in the following months, spearheaded by South Vietnamese marines and airborne troops under a renewed weight of American air and naval support. Marines served in their advisory capacity and through supporting arms in the campaign. The fall and eventual retaking of Quang Tri framed the northern front of the Easter Offensive, a near-disaster ultimately reversed at great cost.
Record no. 712