Deadliest Battles of the Vietnam War

20 Deadliest U.S. Battles of the Vietnam War, 1965 – 1973

Battle	Deaths	Dates
Ia Drang Valley*	300	Oct 23 – Nov 26, ‘65
Khe Sanh	205	Jan 20 – Apr 14, ‘68
Dak To**	192	Nov 1 – Dec 1, ‘67
Cu Nghi	121	Jan 28 – 31, ‘66
Hue	119	Feb 2 – Mar 2, ‘68
Kim Son Valley	107	Feb 16 – 28, ‘66
Con Thien (ambush near)	84	Jul 2, ‘67
“Nine Days in May”	79	May 18- 28, ‘67
Dak To	76	Jun 22, ‘67
Firebase Ripcord***	75	Jul 1 – 23, ‘70
Vin Huy	73	May 30 – Jun 2, ‘67
Ong Thang	70+	Oct 17, ‘67
Hamburger Hill (Ap Bia)	70	May 10 – 20, ‘69
Dong Ha	68	Apr 29 – May 4, ‘68
Tam Quan	58	Dec 6 – 20, ‘67
LZ Bird	58	Dec 27, 66
Dong Son	54	Sep 4, ‘67
Con Thien	51	Jul 2-3 ‘67
Thom Tham Khe	48	Dec 27 – 28, ‘67
Tan Son Nhut Air base (near)	48	Mar 2, ‘68

* LZ Albany alone claimed 155 KIA on Nov 17, making it the single deadliest U.S. action of the war. LZ X-Ray resulted in another 79 KIA over two days, Nov 14 – 16.

** 158 of the KIA were sustained at Dak To over six days, Nov 17 – 23.

Note: Lengthy operations are excluded. Only actions that could be categorized as single or directly related engagements are tabulated.

Source: From VFW magazine, November 2001; reprinted from Sigler, david B. Vietnam Battle Chronology; U.S. Army and marine Corps Combat Operations, 1965 – 1973.

Editor’s Note: Battle deaths in Sigler’s book for FSB Ripcord are listed as 61. Based on keith Nolan’s research a better figure is 75 KIA, including one ARVN interpreter attached to A Co., 2/506th Infantry. This makes the battle of Fire Base Ripcord the 10th deadliest battle of the Vietnam War. – Chuck Hawkins, editor

Special thanks go to Rick Blythe (HHC, 2/506) for supplying this information to Ripcord report.