Operation Checkers

As 1968 began, elements of the 1st Marine Division were shifting northward as part of Operation Checkers. The purpose of this operation was to relieve the 3d Marine Division of the responsibility of guarding the western approaches to Hue. To that end, the 1st and 5th Marines moved into Thua Thien Province from their TAORs around Da Nang. Operational control for this movement rested with Brig. Gen. Foster C. LaHue, the 1st Marine Division's assistant commander, with headquarters at Phu Bai.

As part of the shifting of U.S. Army units into I Corps in mid-December, the 11th Infantry Brigade moved into Duc Pho, at the southern tip of Quang Ngai Province. This allowed the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines to move to Phu Loc, north of the Hai Van Pass above Da Nang. In early January, MACV moved the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the 2d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) into Quang Tri and Thua Thien Provinces. When these changes were finished, General Cushman would have three U.S. Army and two U.S. Marine Corps divisions, plus assorted ARVN and allied units, operating under his III MAF.

On 13 January, the 1st Marine Division opened TF X-ray at Phu Bai. Essentially a division forward headquarters, TF X-ray had tactical responsibility for the AO from the Hai Van Pass to just north of Hue. Its specific mission was to protect the combat base at Phu Bai, screen the western approaches to Hue, and keep open the portion of Highway 1 that ran through its AO. Two days later, 2/5, under Lt. Col. Ernest C. Cheatham, Jr., arrived and took over tactical responsibility for the Phu Bai TAOR. Over the next few days the headquarters elements of both the 1st Marines (Col. Stanley R. Hughes) and the 5th Marines (Col. Robert D. Bohn) set up residence at Phu Bai. Despite its multiple missions, TF X-Ray controlled only three under strength infantry battalions: 1/1, 1/5, and 2/5. Although a variety of other units passed in and out of TF X-Ray's control as they moved north and south on Route 1 as part of Operation Checkers, none were around long enough to perform any tactical missions.

The other units of the 1st Marine Division remained deployed around the vital Da Nang area. Division commander Maj. Gen. Donn F. Robertson's headquarters was on Hill 327, three kilometers west of the city and just behind Red Beach, where the Marines had first come ashore nearly three years earlier. The three battalions of the 7th Marines guarded the western and southwestern approaches to Da Nang. Two battalions operating under control of the 5th Marines, 3/5 and 2/3, worked the area south of Marble Mountain between Route 1 and the sea.

Though III MAF had no way of knowing it, its shuffling of units played right into Giap's hand.

Giap's master plan for expelling allied forces from South Vietnam and reuniting the two countries was called the 'General Offensive General Uprising'. The first phase of the plan was to pull allied forces away from the populated coastal region. This process began in the summer of 1967 with the intense pressure placed on Con Thien. It continued in the fall with tough fights around Dak To in the Central Highlands, at Loc Ninh north of Saigon, and, in late January 1968, at Khe Sanh. General Westmoreland responded to the enemy's initiatives by shifting his forces to the hot spots. With the stronger American forces removed to South Vietnam's interior, North Vietnam began the second phase of its master plan by infiltrating its forces past the weaker ARVN units guarding the country's cities. There they awaited the signal to commence the General Uprising. North Vietnam's leaders sincerely believed that the citizens of the south would join in an uprising once they realized that the NVA and VC were capable of destroying the allies and ejecting the Saigon government.

The General Uprising was scheduled to begin on the most revered of all Vietnamese holidays—Tet. The centuries-old, week-long, lunar new year celebration was not only a cherished Buddhist holiday but also a national patriotic festival. So important was Tet to the Vietnamese people that for years all sides of the conflict had observed a cease-fire during this period. A three-day cease-fire from 30 January to 1 February had been agreed upon for the 1968 Tet celebration.