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Operation GIANT SLINGSHOT Begins

December 6, 1968

1968-12-06_OperationGiantSlingshot
1968-12-06_OperationGiantSlingshot
The crew of a U.S. Navy river patrol boat searches a sampan during Operation GIANT SLINGSHOT, February 1969. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Operation GIANT SLINGSHOT begins. It is an extension of SEALORDS barrier patrols that work to eliminate enemy riverine infiltration from Cambodia. GIANT SLINGSHOT personnel focus efforts specifically along the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers, in the “Parrot’s Beak” area of the South Vietnam-Cambodia border. The operation lasts until May 1970, when it is transferred to the South Vietnamese navy.1

1Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1994), 269–74; Ronald B. Frankum, Jr., Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011), 180; Jack Sweetman, American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775–Present (3rd edition; Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002), 232; Thomas Cutler, Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1988), 305–6.