[music] [music] [music] In 1967, the Vietnam war entered its most tense and brutal phase. The United States had deployed more than half a million troops to South Vietnam, believing that superior firepower and mobility would force the enemy to collapse. [music] On the other side, however, the People’s Army of Vietnam chose to take the initiative, [music] launching a series of large-scale operations in rugged mountainous jungle regions, especially the [music] central highlands where terrain, climate, and clandestine logistics networks allowed

them to draw American forces [music] out of secure areas and compel them to fight under the most unfavorable conditions. Within this [music] broader picture, DTO emerged as a strategic focal point. Located near the Laos Cambodia [music] border, the area guarded vital transport routes of the Ho Chi Min Trail and [music] was covered by dense forests, steep hills, and harsh weather.

 For the PAVN, it was [music] familiar ground, ideal for concealing troops, maneuvering covertly, and building layered defensive positions. For American soldiers, [music] by contrast, Docto was a deadly maze, limited visibility, difficult [music] resupply, and the constant threat of ambush. By late 1967, US intelligence [music] detected signs that a large Vietnamese main force was concentrating in the area.

 Washington feared [music] that without a preemptive strike, the central highlands could become a springboard for even larger offensives [music] in the future. In November 1967, the Battle [music] of Docto erupted, opening one of the bloodiest series of engagements of the year. An [music] episode many historians later viewed as a forewarning of the seismic shock to come. The Tet offensive of 1,968.

[music] On the American side, the main forces [music] were the fourth infantry division under Major General William R. peers operating alongside the 173rd Airborne Brigade commanded by Brigadier General Leo H. Schwiter. These units were deployed to Konoumb with a search and destroy mission aimed at the enemy’s main forces.

 Opposing them, the People’s Army of Vietnam had prepared meticulously for the confrontation. The B3 front of the central highlands commanded by Major General Huang Minthao secretly moved the first division along with the 66th, 174th, and [music] 320th regiments. The independent 24th regiment and the 40th artillery regiment into the Docto area.

[music] For months, these units dug tunnels, built fortifications, and established multi-layered defensive positions ready to meet American advances. For them, this was part of a broader strategy to wear down enemy forces [music] and undermine Washington’s confidence in victory. Both sides understood that a [music] major clash was approaching, one in which every hill and every stream could change hands at the cost of blood.

 Even the [music] Americans sensed the danger of this battlefield. General William West Morland, [music] then commander of US forces in Vietnam, acknowledged that Docto could become the starting point of a major defeat for the enemy. From the very first days, the situation on the battlefield was [music] altered by an unexpected development.

 On November 3, a sergeant from the Pavan’s [music] sixth regiment defected and provided US forces with detailed information about troop assembly areas, force strength, and operational intentions around [music] Docto. According to his testimony, roughly 6,000 troops from the first [music] division supported by full infantry regiments and artillery units were poised to enter a major confrontation.

 [music] At first, this intelligence made American officers cautious as they could not rule out the possibility of a deception. However, given the risk that the enemy had already prepared a large-scale posture in the central highlands, US [music] commanders chose not to gamble. Reinforcements were rushed in. Successive groups [music] of paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade were [music] flown by C30 aircraft into the makeshift airirstrip [music] at Docto, linking up with the fourth infantry division to form a combined USVN force [music] capable of

pushing deep into the mountains and jungles. In the opening days, fierce clashes [music] erupted almost immediately. On November 3, a reconnaissance company from the US Third Battalion, 12th Infantry, advanced [music] to seize a hill, only to run headlong into a well-prepared Vietnamese defensive system.

 American artillery and [music] air support were quickly called in to blanket the area with fire, after which infantry units moved forward to assault the position. The Vietnamese forces fought [music] tenaciously, inflicted casualties on the Americans, and then withdrew safely. The first week of the campaign saw a series of brutal engagements.

 On November 6th, Hill 823 became a flash point when Company B, fourth battalion, 503rd Airborne, was inserted by helicopter onto the summit to establish a fire support base. [music] Despite prior air strikes, the dense jungle severely limited visibility and control [music] of the terrain. About 15 minutes after landing, the company was ambushed at close range by Pavn forces.

 A chaotic closearters battle raged throughout the night on the hilltop amid confusion and disrupted communications. By the following morning, the Pavan unit from the 66th regiment withdrew, leaving behind numerous bodies around fortifications torn apart by bombs and artillery. The Americans held the high ground, but at the cost of nine killed and 28 wounded.

Exhausted by the fighting, the fourth battalion, 503rd Airborne, was ordered [music] back to Ben Hett to recover. Immediately afterward, the first battalion, 53rd Airborne, under Lieutenant Colonel David Schumacher was committed to replace it, continuing the mission of tracking down and closing in on PAVN units deep in the jungle.

 On November 11, [music] however, while on the move, the battalion fell into a large ambush orchestrated by two battalions of [music] the 66th Regiment. Interlocking machine gun fire and B40 rockets ra the formation, shattering the American columns. Companies were forced [music] to pull into tight defensive perimeters, while relief forces were themselves heavily engaged on route.

 The firefight lasted from morning into the afternoon, exacting [music] a severe toll on an elite airborne unit. When the ambush finally ended, the first battalion, 53rd airborne, had suffered [music] heavy losses, 20 killed, 154 [music] wounded and two missing. Captain Thomas Mlwane, commander of Company C, estimated that the enemy had taken [music] heavy casualties, but subsequent Vietnamese reports indicated far lower losses.

 Regardless of differing [music] figures, one reality was undeniable. Within just a few days, [music] a highly trained American battalion had been badly mauled in the jungles of the central highlands. Alongside [music] the fierce fighting involving the 173rd Airborne Brigade, other units of the US 4th Infantry Division and the ARVN were also drawn deep into the vortex of violence around Docto.

 On November 112 [music] at Hill 724 to the west of the area, the US Third Battalion, 8th Infantry, was suddenly struck by a major Pavan attack around midday after [music] an intense preparatory barrage of mortars. Hundreds of Vietnamese troops launched a coordinated assault, overrunning forward defenses and driving straight into American positions.

 Fighting did not subside until the evening of November 12th, leaving 18 US soldiers dead and 118 wounded. Although American forces claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, the reality was that the third battalion, Eighth Infantry, was itself nearly exhausted. At times, companies were reduced to only a few dozen riflemen, with some units dropping below 50 [music] effectives after the battle.

 The blackened wreckage of burned helicopters lay at the landing zone, while wounded soldiers waited hours for evacuation amid jungle rain and incoming fire. Even as the fighting on the hilltops had yet to subside, Vietnamese [music] forces opened another bold axis of attack, striking directly at the enemy’s [music] rear areas.

 On the night of November 12, dozens of 122mm [music] rockets suddenly rained down on the docto base, particularly targeting the airirstrip and supply depot’s clear evidence that enemy longrange artillery [music] had moved into firing range. On the morning of November 15, while several [music] C30 transport aircraft were parked unloading supplies, a sudden mortar barrage slammed [music] into the airfield.

 Within minutes, two cone 132s were hit and burst into flames. [music] A third exploded violently. The main ammunition [music] depot at Docto detonated in a massive blast. Napal C4 and munitions [music] shot skyward in a mushroom-shaped column of fire that shook the entire region. The shock wave was so powerful that soldiers more than a mile away were knocked to the ground.

[music] Nearly 1,100 tons of ammunition and tens [music] of thousands of gallons of fuel went up in flames, virtually leveling the entire storage [music] complex and nearby engineer barracks. Fortunately for US forces, the catastrophic depot explosion caused relatively few [music] casualties, but the logistical consequences were severe.

 Docto airfield was temporarily rendered completely inoperable. [music] Resupply had to be rerouted through Kontom and then transported overland to the battlefield. American commanders were [music] forced to scrape together ammunition from multiple sources, even requesting emergency resupply from Saigon and Cameron.

 This firepower [music] strike not only destroyed stockpiles, but also dealt a heavy psychological blow to US troops, [music] demonstrating that even rear areas were no longer safe. On another front, ARVN units were also directly engaged and suffered heavy [music] losses. On November 18, the third battalion 42nd regiment encountered enemy [music] forces at Hill 1,416 to the northeast of Docto.

 To reinforce the fight, two ARVN airborne battalions were committed. The battle for this high ground was no less brutal than elsewhere. US and ARVN artillery pounded the slopes in preparation before paratroopers assaulted uphill, clearing trenches and bunkers one by one under steep [music] terrain and intense fire. After hours of combat, ARVN forces secured the summit, but at a tremendous cost.

 66 soldiers killed and 290 wounded. On the battlefield, they recovered [music] hundreds of enemy bodies. The climax and most tragic chapter of the Docto campaign unfolded at Hill 875, an otherwise anonymous jungle covered height located about 20 km southwest of the town of Docto. For American soldiers who fought there, [music] it later ceased to be just a contour on a map.

 It became known simply as the hill of death, a place where the [music] limits of human endurance were pushed to their absolute extreme. On the 19th of November 1967, after [music] reconnaissance detected signs that a main force regiment of the liberation forces was consolidating [music] its defenses on Hill 875, Brigadier General Leo H.

 Schwider ordered [music] the second battalion, 53rd Airborne, about 330 men to launch an assault to seize the high ground. That morning, three companies moved out from the [music] base of the hill, advancing in a V-shaped formation and climbing step by step up jungle covered slopes. US artillery and air strikes [music] had been used to clear the way, but the dense canopy and broken terrain meant that many enemy bunkers and trenches remained largely intact.

[music] When the American formation was still about 300 m from the summit, the battlefield [music] suddenly erupted. Heavy machine guns from carefully camouflaged positions opened [music] fire simultaneously, followed by a storm of B40 rockets and recoilless rifle rounds from multiple directions. [music] The advance was halted at once.

 Soldiers were forced to press flat against the ground in search of cover. They had walked straight into a meticulously prepared ambush [music] by the second battalion, 174th regiment of the PAVN, an [music] experienced unit thoroughly familiar with the terrain, which had built a multi-layered defensive system from the foot of the hill [music] to its crest.

Exploiting their prepared positions, Pavan [music] forces quickly launched flanking attacks. One assault element surged up from the lower slopes, slicing through the formation of the [music] US company A. Facing the threat of encirclement and destruction, Company A was [music] forced to fight its way back down the hillside, leaving behind scattered casualties amid the jungle.

 By the afternoon of November 19, the remaining three companies of the second battalion, 503rd airborne, were compressed into a tight defensive perimeter on a narrow rise halfway up the hill. Dense jungle controlled by the enemy surrounded them on all sides. Air and artillery support became increasingly ineffective as enemy bunkers and fighting positions laid deep beneath the forest canopy.

 [music] Resupply turned into a matter of survival. Helicopters could not get through the heavy anti-aircraft fire. Six UH1 Hueies [music] were shot down or badly damaged while attempting to drop supplies. The paratroopers ran short of ammunition and water, sharing magazines, [music] even stripping rounds from the weapons of wounded and fallen comrades to keep fighting.

 Disaster struck at 6:58 p.m. On November 19, an A4 Skyhawk of the US Marine Corps due to a coordinate error or technical [music] malfunction mistakenly dropped its bombs directly onto American positions. One bomb exploded in the center of Company D’s [music] defensive perimeter where the command post, medics, and wounded [music] were concentrated.

In an instant, the area was obliterated. 42 US soldiers were killed [music] outright and 45 more were wounded by friendly fire. Nearly the entire forward command [music] group was wiped out. Among the dead was Chaplain Charles J. Waters, who had spent the day crawling under fire to aid the wounded. [music] His death dealt an exceptionally heavy psychological blow, deeply [music] etched into the memory of the battle.

 On the morning of November 20, after a night of horror, just over 100 soldiers [music] of the second battalion, 503rd airborne, who were still able to fight continued [music] to hold out under encirclement, enduring sniper fire and harassing mortar attacks. It [music] was not until late afternoon that elements of the fourth battalion, 53rd airborne, managed to break through [music] and relieve them.

 On November 21, the two airborne battalions [music] joined forces to push toward the summit, fighting bitterly for every trench and bunker. US command simultaneously [music] committed the first battalion, 12th Infantry, as reinforcements. By November 223, with overwhelming force [music] and maximum firepower, the Americans chose to end the battle with a storm of fire.

 B 52 carpet [music] bombing followed by intense barges from 105 mm and 155 mm artillery that pulverized the entire [music] hillside. On the morning of November 23, US units [music] launched a final assault. This time the summit offered almost no resistance. Vietnamese forces [music] had withdrawn during the night, leaving behind a bare, scorched, and silent Hill.

 From a purely military standpoint, Hill 875 ultimately fell into American hands. But it was a victory soaked in blood. In this single battle alone, the 173rd Airborne Brigade suffered roughly 115 soldiers killed [music] and nearly 300 wounded, about 20% of the brigade’s total strength. Of the approximately 570 paratroopers who fought directly [music] on the hill, more than half became casualties.

The second [music] battalion, 503rd airborne, was virtually rendered combat ineffective. [music] For many American soldiers who survived, Hill 875 held no strategic value commensurate with the price paid. [music] It became a symbol of the brutal futility of attritional warfare. Mines, Punji stakes, [music] and improvised traps scattered along jungle trails meant that every step forward was taken under extreme tension.

 Even after enduring B-52 carpet bombing and heavy artillery fire, many enemy units did not collapse. [music] Instead, they waited for the right moment to counterattack or withdraw safely. [music] For many US officers, DTO was the place where they were forced to acknowledge that they were facing an opponent with extraordinary [music] willpower and endurance.

 That harsh reality was compounded by severe logistical challenges and living conditions. Fighting deep in the jungle meant that a soldier’s [music] survival depended almost entirely on air resupply. Scorching [music] humid days drain strength. Cold nights, malaria, leeches, [music] skin infections, and chronic sleep deprivation steadily eroded both body and mind.

 At times, [music] the bodies of fallen comrades and enemy soldiers lay close to defensive positions yet could not [music] be evacuated for burial, creating an intense psychological burden that defied description. In those moments, many realized that death did not come only from enemy [music] fire. It could also arrive from their own side.

 Numerous survivors later described Duckto as the [music] worst nightmare of our lives as soldiers, a place where friends died for barren hills that were seized and then abandoned, leaving behind no sense of a victory [music] that felt meaningful. Even so, the Duck Toto campaign also brought into sharp relief individuals on [music] both sides who left a lasting mark on the battle’s history.

 On the American side, Private First [music] Class Carlos Lazada, just 22 years old, became a symbol of [music] sacrifice on Hill 875. When Company A was flanked and faced annihilation, Lozada volunteered to stay behind [music] with his M60 machine gun, laying down fierce covering fire to allow his comrades to withdraw.

 He fought until he was killed, trading his life for the survival of many others. For this action, he was postumously awarded the Medal of Honor. On the opposing side, Colonel Dom VanGui, regimental commander of the PAVN’s 174th Regiment, was the driving force behind the defensive battle on Hill 875. [music] With experience and firm leadership, he organized a resilient system of fortifications [music] and directed precise counterattacks that inflicted the heaviest losses suffered [music] by the US second battalion 503rd

airborne during the entire campaign. Under his [music] command, the 174th regiment not only held its positions for many days, but also demonstrated the ability to conduct effective attritional fighting and then withdraw in good order hallmarks of PAVN operational thinking at the time. [music] The Dtoon Kan campaign came to a close in late November 1967 with a conclusion that [music] on the surface the United States could label a tactical victory.

 The Docto base complex was secured and the main PAVN regiments were forced to pull out of the area after weeks of intense fighting. [music] On the 22nd of November 1967, General William West Morland, commander of US forces in Vietnam, reported [music] to the Pentagon that Duckto marked the beginning of a major defeat for the communists.

In [music] his assessment, three enemy regiments had been heavily damaged, had failed to achieve [music] their initial objective of destroying a US brigade-sized unit, and were compelled [music] to withdraw toward the Laos Cambodia border to reorganize. >> [music] >> viewed purely on an operational map. That assessment was not without basis.

US and ARVN [music] forces retained control of the central highlands blocked a major enemy offensive and successfully defended the [music] Docto Tan defensive line. Yet the price of that victory was exceptionally high. In [music] less than 3 weeks of fighting, US forces suffered 361 soldiers killed, 15 missing, and 1,41 [music] wounded.

 The 173rd Airborne Brigade alone, [music] bearing the brunt of the fighting on Hill 875, took losses [music] so severe that it had to be withdrawn from the battlefield for months to recover. Conversely, Vietnam did not [music] achieve its objective of completely destroying a large US unit, but it did not [music] regard Docto as a failure either.

 The most important strategic goal had been accomplished, drawing a large concentration [music] of US forces into the remote jungles and mountains of the central highlands, far from key cities and vital [music] land areas. In the process, they inflicted heavy casualties, eroded the morale of some of the most elite American units, and then withdrew deliberately to preserve their strength.

 Casualty figures released after the campaign differed sharply, underscoring the propaganda war that ran parallel to the fighting itself. US estimates put PAVVN losses at roughly 1, 1,64 killed, while Vietnamese reports cited about 450 [music] killed and 1,089 wounded. For the US military, the campaign met its immediate objectives, [music] but it also exposed the limits of the search and destroy strategy.

Optimistic reports about a light at the end of the tunnel began to ring hollow when set against images of hundreds of paratroopers killed for Nameless Hills. From that perspective, Docto [music] contributed to undermining American public confidence and accelerated the realization that the United States was becoming mired in a war that [music] consumed lives and resources with no clear end in sight.

 More than half a century later, Dakto still echoes in the memories of survivors on both sides. [music] The names of fallen American soldiers are carved into the Blackstone wall in Washington. The achievements and sacrifices of Vietnamese soldiers are recorded in the history of their [music] war of resistance.

 Yet beyond all honors and commemorations, Docto [music] reminds us of an unchanging truth. Behind the arrows on maps and the triumphant [music] reports lie human lives. Men who endured hunger and thirst, fear and exhaustion, who fought and fell [music] in the deep jungles of the central highlands in 1967. That is what makes Docto not merely a battle, but a tragic [music] epic, reflecting with stark clarity the brutal cost of war.