The Battle of Ia Drang Valley was the first major battle between regular U.S. and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) troops. The two-part battle occurred at landing zones X-Ray and Albany in Ia Drang Valley, Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Despite heavy casualties on both sides, both claimed the battle was a victory. The battle was considered essential as it set the blueprint for tactics for both sides. American troops continued to reply on air mobility and artillery fire, while the Viet Cong learned that by quickly engaging their combat forces close to the enemy, they could neutralize American advantages.
-- Summary from thevietnamwar.info
-- Photo by Peter Arnett for The Associated Press. Caption: U.S. cavalrymen carry a fellow soldier to an evacuation zone after he was seriously wounded in a North Vietnamese ambush in South Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley, mid-November 1965. A battalion of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division was ambushed while marching from the jungle clearing where the Ia Drang Valley fighting started Nov. 14, 1965.
Postscript: November 30
* Memorandum from Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Johnson: @
Resources
* "Heavy Fighting Near Cambodia" (Peter Arnett, AP, November 15, 1965): @
* Summary from "Atlas of American Military History" (2003): @
* Summary from "The Vietnam War" (Andrew Weist, 2009): @
* Summary from "Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War" (2011): @
* Summary from www.history.com: @
* "After Action Report, Ia Drang Valley Operation, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 14-16 November 1965" (Donovan Research Library, Fort Benning, Georgia): @
* "The Battle at LZ Albany" (Infantry Online, U.S. Army): @
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