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AMERICAN FORCES VIETNAM NETWORK TRANSMISSION |
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AERIAL VIEW OF QUANG TRI COMBAT BASE |
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Quang Tri Base COMBAT BASE |
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PHOTO ARCHIVES |
| Quang Trí,
city in central Vietnam, the major city of Quang Trí Province. Quang Trí
lies near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), an area that separated North and
South Vietnam after Vietnam was partitioned at the end of the First
Indochina War in 1954. The DMZ was intended to be an area free of arms.
However, during the ensuing Vietnam War (1959-1975), the area around the
DMZ was so thoroughly devastated by fighting that the city still bears the
effects. The people of Quang Trí are poor, in large part because many
farmers cannot use their land for fear of uncleared land mines. The
farming that does exist is almost wholly for subsistence. Much of the
surrounding land was deforested during the war by carpet bombing and
chemical agents; these chemicals have caused a sharp decline in soil
fertility. In addition, many people suffer from war-related injuries and
postwar injuries caused by exploding mines. De-mining and reforestation
programs, undertaken by local and overseas volunteers, are underway. The
city is located on one of Vietnam's main north-south highways and is
served by buses. Few historical sites remain in Quang Trí, but a moat,
rampart, and gates from The Citadel that once dominated the city still
exist. During the Vietnam War Quang Tri was the site of several fierce
battles, in particular the Easter Offensive of 1972. After North
Vietnamese troops took the area, the Province was bombed daily by as many
as 40 US bombers, each carrying several tons of bombs. South
Vietnamese forces eventually regained the city but lost at least 5000
troops in the process.
Quang Tri Province was the scene of some of the fiercest ground fighting of the American war, especially from 1966 to the end of the war in 1975, and it was subjected to the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of the world, more than the amount of ordnance used in Europe during World War II. At the war’s end in 1975, the entire province was devastated, and most of the population had evacuated. Quang Tri Town, at that time the Province capital and Dong Ha Town were both destroyed. Not a single building remained standing or useable. Of 3,500 villages scattered throughout the province, only 11 remained at the end of the war. The intense bombing, combined with U.S. use of the Agent Orange defoliant, turned the land into a virtual moonscape with only a fraction of the original triple canopy jungle forest remaining after the war. American and South Vietnamese military units established bases and outposts all over the Province and along the DMZ. Some of the famous battle sites stretching from the seacoast to the mountains bordering Laos included Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Dong Ha Mt., FSB Fuller, LZ Russell, FSB Neville, Hill 126, LZ Vandegrift "Stud", Cam Lo Bridge, Cam Lo Village, Gio Linh, Camp Carroll, the Rockpile, the Razor Back, Mutter Ridge, Helicopter Valley, Da Krong Bridge, Khe Sanh, Hill 881N and 881S, Lang Vei, Con Thien , the DMZ and the Ben Hai River. The perimeters of many of the military bases were heavily mined. Bombing and shelling from ships at sea, which went on sometimes for 24 hours a day, resulted in tons of explosive ordnance being rained down on the Province. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that about 10 percent of ordnance does not detonate as designed, meaning that much of the dangerous and unstable munitions still lie just under the surface or buried deep in the earth throughout Quang Tri Province to this present day. |
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BATTLE MAPS |
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PHOTO ARCHIVES |
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QUANG TRI WEB SITES |
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| QUANG TRI FALLS |