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Operation CRIMP Begins

January 7, 1966

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1966-01-07_OperationCRIMP
Australian Second Lieutenant John Dwyer stands in front of a Viet Cong bunker during Operation CRIMP, January 1966. Communist troops typically constructed their bunkers from hardened mud. (Australian War Memorial)

From January 7 to 13, U.S. and Australian army forces mount a large search-and-destroy operation known as CRIMP. The operation is directed against a Viet Cong base area north of Saigon, adjacent to the region known as the Iron Triangle. While conducting a sweep there, and after a fierce firefight, the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment identifies a vast complex of tunnels. The complex contains a Viet Cong regional headquarters. The Australians also discover some 7,500 documents and maps, many of which reveal names and locations of Viet Cong agents. The discovery is one of the biggest intelligence coups of the war.1

1John M. Carland, Stemming the Tide, May 1965–October 1966, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2000), 169–173; Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 245–246.