1st Cavalry Division Is Informed Of Intelligence On Whereabouts Of North Vietnamese Regular Troops In The Central Highlands

American commanders inform senior officers of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) that intelligence suggests significant numbers of North Vietnamese Army troops are crossing the Cambodian border into South Vietnam’s rugged and remote Central Highlands. U.S. troops have thus far been unable to locate and engage large bodies of North Vietnamese soldiers, and senior officers hope to use this new information to finally do so. Intelligence also indicates that the North Vietnamese have a hidden base of operations that is west of Plei Me, near the Ia Drang River Valley. In the following days, elements of the 1st Cavalry receive orders to conduct air assaults into the area to destroy any North Vietnamese forces they can find.¹