The war at ground level
Histories of 1967 usually describe the Vietnam War through decisions made in Washington and Saigon. For the people sent to fight it, the year looked quite different. This article sets strategy aside and looks at the soldier’s daily experience: how men arrived, how long they stayed, what the work was like and what happened when they went home.
By the end of 1967 there were close to half a million American service members in South Vietnam. Most were in support roles, from supply to engineering to administration. A smaller share, often estimated at under a third, served in combat units, but they carried most of the risk.
Getting there: the draft and the year-long tour
Many of the soldiers in 1967 were draftees, though a large share of the force, especially in the Marines, Navy and Air Force, had volunteered. Some enlisted because they expected to be drafted anyway and wanted a say in their assignment. The workings of the Selective Service draft and its deferments shaped who ended up in uniform, with college students and those in certain occupations more likely to avoid service than working-class young men. That unevenness was a source of resentment in the ranks and at home.
The tour of duty was fixed rather than open-ended. Army personnel were generally sent for twelve months, and Marines for thirteen. Soldiers arrived and left as individuals rather than with their units, which differed from earlier wars. The system gave each man a clear date to count down to, and many kept informal calendars. It also meant that experienced people were constantly leaving and newcomers arriving, so units could be short of knowledge at the very moment they needed it. Veterans of the period often described how the “new guy” was the one most at risk in his first weeks.
What the work was like
The war in the countryside was typically not a series of set-piece battles. It was patrolling through paddies, jungle and villages, often in heat and rain, looking for an enemy who usually chose when to fight. Soldiers carried heavy loads, and long periods of hard and tedious work were interrupted by sudden contact: a mine, an ambush, a sniper. The helicopter changed the rhythm of the war, letting units be lifted into and out of the field quickly, and many soldiers’ memories include flights into landing zones.
Units were also regularly in base camps and fire support bases, where the routine was different: guard duty, repairs, mail, letters and rest. Behind them was a large network of base facilities. A soldier in the rear often lived much more safely than one in the field, which became another source of friction.
Hill fights near Khe Sanh
Some of the hardest fighting of the spring took place in the hills in the north-west of South Vietnam. In late April and early May 1967, Marines fought North Vietnamese troops for several hills near the combat base at Khe Sanh, among them Hills 861, 881 South and 881 North. The numbers refer to the height of the hills in metres.
The fighting was close-range and costly. North Vietnamese units were dug in on steep, brush-covered slopes, and the Marines advanced uphill under mortar and machine-gun fire, supported by artillery and air strikes. Casualties on both sides were significant, though the figures vary by source, so exact totals are best left to specialist histories. The clashes are often seen as an early sign that North Vietnam was interested in the area, and they are an important part of the background to the 1968 siege of Khe Sanh. Later in the year, soldiers of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade met similar fighting in the Central Highlands at Dak To.
Morale in 1967
Morale in 1967 is hard to summarise, because it varied by unit, leadership, location and the time of the tour. Most accounts agree that it was generally better in 1967 than it later became. The build-up was still recent, many units were well supplied and the draft was not yet seen as hopeless. Soldiers often described loyalty to the small group around them as the central fact of the war, more than support for any large idea.
Even so, strains were visible. Many soldiers doubted that the reported progress, such as the optimistic statements made by General Westmoreland, matched what they saw in the field. Body counts, used as a measure of success, were a particular source of unease. Drug use, racial tension and open disobedience are more usually associated with the later years of the war, though signs of some of these problems appeared earlier. Military doctors and chaplains also reported on combat stress, which soldiers sometimes called by different names than later medicine used.
Coming home
Most soldiers left Vietnam alone, on a commercial or military flight, and arrived home within a day or two. There was no unit homecoming. For many, this swift change from the war zone to a civilian street was disorienting, and they went back to families and jobs with little time to adjust.
Reactions at home varied widely. Many veterans received a warm welcome, and many others came back to a country that was divided and sometimes indifferent or hostile. Memories of such treatment are strong, but historians caution that individual experiences differed and that the stereotype is not the whole story. In April 1967 a small group of veterans formed the group later known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a sign that former soldiers were beginning to speak out. Their numbers and influence grew mainly after 1967, and they became a significant voice in the national argument over the Vietnam home front.
For the soldier in 1967, the year was a countdown, a set of small groups and a landscape of heat and fear. The strategic debates mattered, but they reached the men in the field mostly as orders, rumours and, eventually, as the shock of the Tet Offensive early in 1968.