United States Marine Corps

H

Vietnam War

The U.S. Marines’ most important conflict of the Cold War began in 1962 when Marine aviators began flying support missions for the South Vietnamese military. These missions brought the Marines into the Vietnam War (1959-1975), a conflict in which the United States ultimately failed to meet its objective of preserving the government of South Vietnam. In March 1965 troops from the 3rd Marine Division were the first ground combat units to deploy to Vietnam, landing to defend the port and logistics complex of Da Nang. The 1st Marine Division soon followed, initiating a program of patrols, ambushes, and battles against the guerrilla fighters of the North Vietnamese-controlled National Liberation Front.

The Marine strategy was to control two strategic areas centered on Da Nang and the adjacent port city of Chulai. The Marines sought to dominate these areas and then gradually expand them. By the end of 1966, more than 60,000 marines had deployed to Vietnam. As the Marines, U.S. Army units, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) began to have some successes against the guerrilla insurgents, conventional North Vietnamese units reinforced the guerrillas. The Marines fought several wars simultaneously—seizing and securing small areas, conducting extensive patrols to locate guerrillas, fighting the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units in conventional combat, training the ARVN and the Vietnamese Marine Corps, and providing medical care and other services to Vietnamese civilians. The Marines’ superior firepower and technology could not overcome the persistent hit-and-run tactics of the guerrillas, who also enjoyed the strong support of many of the Vietnamese people.

In only a few cases did U.S. forces confront the North Vietnamese in large fixed battles. One of the Vietnam War’s most notable fixed battles was the late 1967 and early 1968 siege of the Marine stronghold at Khe Sanh, in the northeastern part of South Vietnam. American attention was focused on Khe Sanh when the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive throughout South Vietnam early in 1968. Although American and South Vietnamese forces turned back the offensive, it helped convince many Americans at home that victory would not come immediately, if ever. Marine and U.S. Army units began to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese in 1969. Nearly all U.S. forces left Vietnam in 1973, leaving a small Marine security contingent at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City). These marines helped evacuate the embassy in 1975 when North Vietnamese Army units finally succeeded in their attempts to take South Vietnam. By the end of the war, about 794,000 people had served in the Marines, and about 13,000 died in battle.

VI

Beirut, Grenada, and the Persian Gulf War

The U.S. Marines’ next major deployment came in 1983 when its troops served in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. In October 1983 a suicide bomber crashed his explosives-filled truck into Marine headquarters in Beirut, killing 220 marines, 18 Navy personnel, and 3 Army troops.

---

---

The Marines participated in the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. United States forces intervened after Grenada’s president was killed in a coup and then withdrew after a quick victory.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade immediately deployed to Saudi Arabia and retrieved equipment from a Maritime Prepositioning Ship (MPS). By early 1991, six months after the Iraqi invasion, the American-led forces included two Marine divisions and more than 450 Marine aircraft, a total of about 70,000 marines. When the ground fighting of the Persian Gulf War began in February 1991, the 1st and 2nd Marine divisions attacked the Iraqi forces in Kuwait and drove them out of the small oil-rich country.

In addition, two Marine Expeditionary Brigades off the coast of Kuwait threatened an amphibious attack that took up much of the attention of Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait, freezing seven Iraqi divisions in place and enabling the American forces to maneuver around strong Iraqi defenses. When the war ended in February 1991, 24 U.S. marines had died in combat. Marine aircraft participated in the enforcement of the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq following the end of the Persian Gulf War.

VII

Humanitarian and Peacekeeping Operations

During the early 1990s the Marine Corps conducted a number of significant deployments, including evacuation operations in Liberia and humanitarian lifesaving operations in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and northern Iraq. In December 1992 marines landed in Somalia as part of a famine relief operation there. In 1994 marines evacuated U.S. citizens from Rwanda and deployed to Haiti in September of that year as part of the U.S. operation to restore the elected government in that country.

In the late 1990s Marine units were sent to several African nations, including the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Eritrea to provide security and assist in the evacuation of American citizens during periods of political instability in those nations. In 1998 the Marines conducted humanitarian and disaster relief operations in Kenya and in the Central American countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. During the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) campaign against Serbia in 1999, Marine Corps aircraft operating from a base in Hungary participated in air strikes intended to end the Serbian repression of Albanian Kosovars. Marine ground units entered Kosovo as part of the peacekeeping force after the conflict ended.

VIII

Global War on Terrorism

Soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Marine units deployed to the Arabian Sea near Afghanistan where the Taliban government provided refuge to the al-Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the attacks. In November 2001 the Marines set up a base in Kandahār in southern Afghanistan. The base was used as a staging area for troops engaged in combat operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces throughout Afghanistan. To assist in the search for terrorists in Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan, the United States created a special military command in the small African nation of Djibouti. Part of the 2nd Marine Brigade’s headquarters took responsibility for command and control of the Army Special Forces, Marines, and allied forces to conduct counterterrorism operations and training in the region. The Marine Corps also formed a new brigade—known as the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism)—to counter domestic terrorism. This crisis-reaction force is capable of deploying two platoons (about 75 marines) anywhere in the United States in six hours, followed by another 1,000 marines within three days.

IX

Invasion of Iraq

The Marine Corps played a key role during the 2003 invasion of Iraq to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was suspected of hiding weapons of mass destruction. Members of the Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were in the forefront of an invasion force that drove from the neighboring country of Kuwait to the Iraqi capital of Baghdād, defeating Iraqi forces along a route that extended about 600 km (370 mi) in only 18 days. About 50 marines were killed between late March and mid-April when U.S. and British forces controlled all the major cities and oil fields of Iraq. An Iraqi insurgency that developed after the end of major combat operations on May 1, 2003, led to more Marine deaths than occurred during the initial invasion period.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain