Siege

Episode Fourteen covers the January-March '68 battle for Khe Sanh during the Tet Offensive. The Viet Minh forces surround the base and establish artillery positions to shell the base and airfield. For every shell the Viet Minh send into the base the Marines send several back. The North equates Khe Sanh with Dien Bien Phu except that the Americans have complete air superiority and four times the artillery than the Viet Minh have. Westmoreland decides that they will hold Khe Sanh. LBJ refuses to open the highway to the base so it can only be supplied by air. The Marines are under direct orders from LBJ to dig in and hold. At the height of the battle Tactical air strikes number 400 per day. Operation Niagara delivers 18 tons of bombs from B-52's per day on the north Vietnamese positions. After 77 days, the Vietminh give up the siege. American public opinion starts turning against the war. In the end, the Americans abandon the base as too costly to maintain.