The Iron Triangle was a National Liberation Front (NLF) stronghold 20 miles northwest of Saigon, which had been built by the Vietminh twenty years
before in the war against French colonialism. Serving as a supply depot and staging area with an immense underground complex including command
headquarters, dining halls, hospital rooms, munitions factories, and living quarters, it was never cleared by the French, nor was it successfully neutralized
by the United States or ARVN, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Located between Saigon, Tay Ninh, and Song Be cities, the Triangle comprised
about 125 square miles and included portions of Bien Hoa, Binh Duong, Phuoc Long, Long Khanh, and Hau Nghia provinces. It was by and large
bounded by the Saigon River, the Song (river) Thi Thinh north of Bien Hoa, and the Than Dien Forest in Binh Duong Province. The area was thickly
forested, consisting of jungle and rubber plantations and containing a few small villages and hamlets, the most strategic being Ben Suc, which had been
under NLF control since 1964.
In January 1967, the United States and ARVN mounted the war's first major combined operation and the first U.S. corps-size operation. Operation
Cedar Falls deployed 32,000 troops against the Triangle. Its "search and destroy" objective was to engage and eliminate enemy forces, destroy base
camps and supplies, remove all noncombatants along with possessions and livestock to strategic hamlets, and completely destroy four principal
villages. Vast underground complexes were found, and large quantities of supplies and papers were captured. The complete U.S. arsenal was
employed—intensive bombing, flamethrowers, chemical warfare (defoliants and the first authorized major use of CS, or tear gas), and land-clearing
Rome plows. Units participating in Cedar Falls included the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the 196th and 199th Infantry brigades, elements of the 1st and
25th Infantry divisions, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the ARVN 5th Ranger Group.
There was little fighting as the NLF fled to sanctuaries in Cambodia until the operation was finished. However, the destruction, chronicled in
Jonathan Schell's The Village of Ben Suc, was considerable. About 7,000 refugees were created and the region was made uninhabitable to
anyone other than NLF-NVA forces. The operation's magnitude increased NLF utilization of Cambodian sanctuaries; however, they did return to
rebuild camps which became springboards for the assault on Saigon during the Tet Offensive, 1968. Ensuing operations against the Iron Triangle
included Uniontown, Atlas Wedge, and Toan Thang.
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
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