Home»History and Legacy»Timeline»1969-1971: Vietnamization»Last Major Confrontation between U.S. and North Vietnamese Ground Forces at FSB Ripcord

Last Major Confrontation between U.S. and North Vietnamese Ground Forces at FSB Ripcord

July 1, 1970

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1970-07-01_FSB-Ripcord_511845120_9sat5-XL
Artillerymen posted around 155-millimeter artillery pieces at Fire Support Base Ripcord, July 1970. (National Archives)

Elements of the 101st Airborne Division occupy Fire Support Base (FSB) Ripcord, which is emplaced on a hill west of Hue, near the A Shau Valley. Multiple North Vietnamese army regiments attack the base on July 1. Surrounded and outnumbered, the men of the 101st hold out until they are given the order to evacuate the base on July 23. The battle for FSB Ripcord is the last major confrontation between North Vietnamese and U.S. ground forces during the war.1

Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Withdrawal, 1968–1973, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 257; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 976–77; Ronald B. Frankum, Jr., Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2011), 393; Keith W. Nolan, Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970 (New York: Random House, 2000), 1–3, 13–16. Heather Clark, “Vietnam 40 Years Later: 101st Airborne Division Veteran Recalls Ripcord Battle,” May 17, 2012, http://www.army.mil/article/80071/ (link is external) (accessed 10/22/14).http://www.army.mil/article/80071/ (link is external) (accessed 10/22/14).