joint operation CEDAR FALLS information
for 1 INF DIV
25 INF DIV
11 ACR
From date 670108 to 670126
1 INF DIV was a US Army unit
25 INF DIV was a US Army unit
11 ACR was a US Army unit
Operation CEDAR FALLS
South Vietnam
Location, Iron Triangle
Description: The first corps-sized American operation of the war as well as the first major combined US-ARVN operation involving formal planning. The Iron Triangle was a 60 square mile area generally bounded by the Saigon and the Song Thi Thinh Rivers, and the Thanh Dien Forest of Binh Duong Province. The plan had the 25th Inf Div and the 196th Inf Bde on the Saigon River to form an anvil. The 1st Inf Div, the 173 ABN Bde, the 11th ACR plus ARVN units the 1st ABN Bde, the 7th and 8th ARVN Regts from the 5th ARVN Inf Div and one ranger battalion would then crash through the area from its eastern side, splitting it in two and hammering the enemy against the anvil. The 9th VC Div and the VC Military Region 4 HQs eluded the sweep which claimed 720 known enemy casualties, 576 VC "ralliers", 3,294 tons of rice, 429 small arms and 18 crew weapons, and ammo and sampans. The area was preped by B-52s for 4 days and air-dropped leaflets advised the civilian population to leave. During this operation the village of Ben Suc was evacuated.
The source for this information was Rand, OOB, Turner 1st Inf P;31, Rise & Fall p:136+
Rise & Fall = The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963 - 1973 by Shelby Stanton.
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023