The South Vietnamese Army and three understrength U.S. Marine battalions, consisting of fewer than 2,500 men, attacked and defeated more than 10,000 entrenched North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers, taking the city of Huế (pop. 140,000) for South Vietnam.
The communist forces paid heavily in this battle. The South Vietnamese claimed to have killed nearly 3,000 in the battle for Hue (probably overstimate), while the Americans said they have killed 1,500. About 3,000 more were estimated to be killed outside of the city.
There were also civilian casualties due to large massacres by North Vietnamese forces of the civilian population of the city during their one month control of the city. In the battle's aftermath, South Vietnamese and American soldiers unearthed numerous shallow mass graves inside the city and on its outskirts containing the bodies of approximately 2,800 people killed by the NVA and VC and their systematic way of eliminating those who were considered as a threat to Communist victory, although it has been stated that a South Vietnamese intelligence unit may have killed some of these victims who were said to have aided the enemy. But, perhaps Hue’s aftermath can best be described by a Marine Captain Myron Harrington who commanded a one-hundred-man company during the battle: "Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it"?
Militarily, Hue was considered an Allied victory, because the NVA and VC forces (ultimately numbering over 10,000, more than a full division) were driven from the city, but from the opinion of the American public, Hue was the beginning of the end. From this time forward the American people became disgusted with sending their teenage boys and men off to die in Vietnam, and during the next five years American involvement slowly but steadily decreased until 1973 when the last American troops left Vietnam only to see their sacrifices end in utter disaster two years later.
US Marines evacuating wounded buddy during the Battle of Hue, February 1968
All of the above two photos are from the Battle of Hue. "The Battle for Hue [was fought] for 26 days as US and South Vietnamese forces tr[ied] to recapture the site seized by the Communists during the Tet Offensive. Previously, a religious retreat in the middle of a war zone, Hue was nearly leveled in a battle that left nearly all of its population homeless. Following the US and ARVN victory, mass graves containing the bodies of thousands of people who had been executed during the Communist occupation [were] discovered" (PBS, The American Experience). Photos courtesy of (http://www.mindspan.com/vets/photos.html).
