Qualla: Battle of Ong Thanh https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:36 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Ong Thanh https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh Battle of Ong Thanh: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. They found the bunkers on October 16, 1967, just south of the Ong Thanh Stream in Binh Duong Province. A short firefight, then silence. The commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment pulled his men back, preferring to prepare a deliberate assault for the following morning rather than stumble into a prolonged engagement in fading light. It was a reasonable decision. What he could not know was that the Viet Cong 271st Regiment had also spent the night preparing, positioning hundreds of fighters along the route they knew the Americans would take at dawn.

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Image: George MacGarrigle | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Ong Thanh: A Strategy Born of Desperation https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. By mid-1967, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam were bleeding. American operations like Cedar Falls, Junction City, and Manhattan had hammered their infrastructure and depleted their ranks throughout the first half of the year. General Tran Van Tra propose...

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Image: George MacGarrigle | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-a-strategy-born-of-desperation.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Ong Thanh: Seventeen Minutes of Morning https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. On the morning of October 17, two rifle companies of the 2nd Battalion marched back toward the bunker complex they had found the previous day. The jungle along the Ong Thanh Stream was dense, visibility measured in meters rather than miles. The 271st Regiment had anticipated the ...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-seventeen-minutes-of-morning.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Ong Thanh: The Battle That Was Not a Victory https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. In the aftermath, General Hay's official report presented Ong Thanh as an American victory. The cited figure was 101 enemy dead. American veterans who survived the stream crossing found this characterization difficult to reconcile with what they had experienced. They were adamant...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-the-battle-that-was-not-a-victory.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Ong Thanh: Prelude to a Larger Storm https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. Ong Thanh did not exist in isolation. While the 271st Regiment was bloodying the 2nd Battalion along the stream, the rest of the VC 9th Division was massing for a far more ambitious objective. The 272nd and 273rd Regiments, reinforced by elements of the 165th Regiment and the PAV...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-prelude-to-a-larger-storm.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Ong Thanh: A Stream That Remembers https://qualla.com/battle-of-ong-thanh/ Photo credit George MacGarrigle, Public domain. Today, the Ong Thanh Stream flows through what is now Binh Phuoc Province, the administrative boundaries having shifted since 1967. The jungle has reclaimed much of the terrain where the ambush unfolded. There are no grand monuments along the stream, no visitor centers explaining...

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Image: George MacGarrigle | Public domain

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/5/b/battle-of-ong-thanh-wp/w65b-battle-of-ong-thanh-a-stream-that-remembers.mp3 0:06 6 full