Vietnam was the longest war in Marine Corps history and one of its costliest.
The Marines' involvement began quietly, with advisors and a helicopter unit supporting South Vietnam, then turned to open combat when the first American ground troops landed at Da Nang to guard the airfield. From that limited mission the Corps was drawn into a sprawling war across the northern provinces, fighting main-force battles against North Vietnamese regulars along the Demilitarized Zone and at Khe Sanh, clearing Viet Cong from the coastal lowlands, retaking Hue in brutal urban combat during the Tet Offensive, and pioneering the village-level pacification of the Combined Action Program. As Vietnamization shifted the burden to South Vietnamese forces, the Marines withdrew, returning only to support the defense against the 1972 invasion and to cover the final evacuations of Phnom Penh and Saigon. The war tested and scarred the Corps profoundly.
Engagements in this conflict (59)
Record no. 880