Who was fighting
By 1967 several hundred thousand American servicemen were in South Vietnam, together with troops from South Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines. Most Americans were not in the infantry. A large share served in support roles such as supply, maintenance, engineering, medical care, administration and air operations, and these men were often at the large bases. Those in the rifle companies, who had the most dangerous jobs, were a minority, though they accounted for a heavy proportion of the casualties.
Many of those soldiers were young, and a substantial number were draftees. Others were volunteers, some of whom enlisted to choose their branch or specialty rather than wait for the Selective Service draft. A rule of thumb that has often been repeated is that the war was fought by working-class and rural young men more than the sons of the wealthy, because college deferments protected students. That generalisation has been debated by researchers, and the actual picture was more mixed, but the perception of unequal burdens was widespread then and influenced attitudes at home.
Soldiers served a fixed tour of duty, typically twelve months for army personnel and thirteen for marines. The individual rotation system gave every man a date to count down toward. It also meant that units were constantly losing experienced soldiers and gaining new ones, and critics argued that this hurt cohesion and skill. Many soldiers kept calendars and talked about being “short”, meaning near the end of the tour.
Daily life in the field
Conditions varied between regions. In the central highlands and along the northern border there were steep, forested hills; in the south the Mekong Delta was wet paddy land and canals; the monsoon brought heavy rain for months. Soldiers on patrol carried heavy loads of weapons, ammunition, water and rations, and contended with heat, humidity, insects, leeches and foot ailments. Meals in the field were often canned rations, and base camps offered hot food, showers and sometimes a cinema or a small beer ration.
Much of the danger came from an enemy that was often unseen. Mines and booby traps caused a large share of injuries, and ambushes could develop in seconds. The enemy could break contact and disappear into villages, jungle or tunnels, which made it hard to judge success. The helicopter was a defining feature of the American approach: it carried troops into landing zones, evacuated the wounded quickly, and delivered supplies. Medical evacuation was fast by the standards of earlier wars and saved many lives, though the wounded still included many with permanent injuries.
Soldiers could take a short rest and recuperation leave during the tour, in places such as Hawaii, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sydney or Tokyo. Letters, tape recordings and music from home were important, and radio programming for troops gave a link to American culture, with rock music and soul music popular in many units. The extent to which soldiers shared the views of protesters at home is difficult to state; surveys and memoirs show a range from patriotism and loyalty to cynicism, resentment and despair.
Cedar Falls
Early in 1967 the large operations that shaped the first part of the year opened. Operation Cedar Falls, in January, targeted the Iron Triangle, a stretch of territory north-west of Saigon long regarded as a communist stronghold. Roughly 30,000 American and South Vietnamese troops took part, according to commonly cited figures. The village of Ben Suc was emptied of its inhabitants, who were moved to a refugee camp elsewhere, and the buildings were destroyed. Bulldozers were used to clear vegetation, and troops found and destroyed a network of tunnels and stores of rice and documents. The operation was presented as a success, but the enemy forces largely avoided battle and many returned afterwards. The treatment of the villagers drew criticism from journalists and from some soldiers.
Junction City
Between February and May the Junction City operation, near the Cambodian border in Tay Ninh province, was the largest American operation of the war to that point. Its goal was to find and destroy the headquarters of the communist command in the South and to damage the units in a base area known as War Zone C. It included the only major American combat parachute drop of the war, by a battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Several sharp battles occurred, including attacks on American positions, and American forces reported a high number of enemy killed. The headquarters, however, was not found, and the enemy moved across the border. Like Cedar Falls, it illustrated both the capacity of American firepower and the difficulty of turning it into lasting control.
Later in the year
Fighting was heavy along the northern frontier near the demilitarised zone. Marines were involved in hill fights near Khe Sanh in April and May and endured heavy shelling at Con Thien in September. In the central highlands, the Battle of Dak To in November involved intense combat for hills such as Hill 875. Meanwhile, units of the 9th Infantry Division began operating with naval forces in the Mekong Delta.
What the soldiers thought
Returning soldiers and journalists wrote about frustration over the lack of fixed front lines, uncertainty about who was a civilian, and a sense that territory taken was often given up. Officers, meanwhile, emphasised the rising number of enemy losses and rising pacification efforts. The gap between these perspectives was part of the credibility problem that opened in 1967. Most accounts of the war emphasise that individual experiences were very different depending on place, unit, and luck, and no single description captures all of it.