page_title: 1968 in the Vietnam War
section_title: September
hierarchical_section_title: 1968 in the Vietnam War / September
caption_attribution_description: English: Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger uses the telephone in Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft's office to get the latest information on the situation in South Vietnam
context_page_description: The year 1968 saw major developments in the Vietnam War. The military operations started with an attack on a US base by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong on January 1, ending a truce declared by the Pope and agreed upon by all sides. At the end of January, the PAVN and VC launched the Tet Offensive.
  Hanoi erred monumentally in its certainty that the offensive would trigger a supportive uprising of the population. PAVN/VC troops throughout the South, from Hue to the Mekong Delta, attacked in force for the first time in the war, but to devastating cost as the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and American troops killed close to 37,000 of the ill-supported enemy in less than a month for losses of 3,700 and 7,600 respectively. These reversals on the battlefield failed to register on the American home front, however and fueled what would ultimately prove to be a propaganda victory for Hanoi.
  U.S. troop numbers peaked in 1968 with President Johnson approving an increased maximum number of U.S. troops in Vietnam at 549,500. The year was the most expensive in the Vietnam War with the American spending US$77.4 billion on the war.
context_section_description: 4-24 September
  Operation Champaign Grove was a security operation conducted by elements of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Quảng Ngãi Province. The operation resulted in 378 PAVN/VC and 41 U.S. killed.
  8 September
  U.S. negotiator W. Averell Harriman had his first private meeting with Le Duc Tho in the Paris suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine.
  10 September
  Harvard University professor Henry Kissinger began a relationship with Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon with a telephone call to the Nixon campaign's foreign policy adviser, Richard V. Allen, offering his services that would lead to Kissinger's appointment as Nixon's National Security Adviser and, later, as the U.S. Secretary of State. Allen recounted later that Kissinger said that he had many friends who were involved in the Paris Peace Talks on behalf of President Johnson, and began providing the Nixon campaign with classified information from the talks. In 2016, notes from another Nixon adviser, H. R. Haldeman, would confirm suspicion that Nixon had used Kissinger's information to sabotage the peace talks in the days before the election.
  10-29 September
  Operation Vinh Loc was a security operation conducted by the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 54th Regiment on Vinh Loc Island, Phú Vang District. The operation resulted in 154 VC killed, 370 captured and 56 Chieu Hoi. U.S. losses were two killed.
  11 September
  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Earle Wheeler advised President Johnson not to halt bombing of North Vietnam.
  13 September
  1st Infantry Division commander Major General Keith L. Ware and seven others are killed when their helicopter is shot down near Lộc Ninh.
  25 September
  The VC attacked Katum Camp but the attack was repulsed at a cost of 14 CIDG killed and 61 VC killed and 10 captured.
  28-30 September
  In the Battle of Thượng Đức the PAVN 2nd Division attempted to overrun Thường Ðức Camp. The attack was repulsed and 70+ PAVN killed.
  30 September
  Trailing Richard Nixon in presidential preference polls, Democratic Party candidate and U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey made the decision to come out against U.S. President Johnson's policy on the war, delivering a speech pledging that if elected, he would halt U.S. bombing of North Vietnam unconditionally. He further stated that he would support the resumption of bombing if the North Vietnamese "were to show bad faith".
  30 September - 1 April 1969
  The battleship USS New Jersey joined the gunline off the coast of South Vietnam initially providing naval gunfire support against PAVN targets in and near the DMZ.
caption: Henry Kissinger
exif: {}