The Village of Ben Suc - Operation Cedar Falls

"According to the Cedar Falls plan, the Triangle [triangular region near Saigon] was to be bombed and shelled heavily for several days both by B-52s and by fighter-bombers, and then blocked off around its entire thirty-two-mile perimeter. … Together, these troops would man a hundred and sixty pieces of artillery. After the jungle had been heavily shelled and bombed, the 1st Division troops were to flatten the jungle in fifty-yard swaths on both sides of the road, using sixty bulldozers airlifted in by huge, two-rotor Chinook helicopters. Then they were simultaneously to destroy the villages of Rach Bap, Bung Cong, and Rach Kien, evacuate the villagers, and start cutting broad avenues in the jungle with special sixty-ton bulldozers nicknamed hogjaws. These drives would be supported by air strikes and artillery barrages against the jungle. American troops would enter the Triangle behind the bulldozers, in an attempt to engage the enemy division that was rumored to be there and destroy the enemy headquarters." (p 20)

Ben Suc, the largest village in the area, was to be evacuated and leveled. According to Major Allen C. Dixon "Now, we realize that you can't go in and then just abandon the people to the V.C. This time we're going to do a thorough job of it: we're going to clean out the place completely. The people are all going to be resettled in a temporary camp… then we're going to move everything out--livestock, furniture, and all their possessions." (p21)

The plan was to fly sixty helicopters into the village to ferry in US troops while other helicopters broadcast messages telling the villagers to assemble in the city center or be considered V.C. Within a few minutes, the woods around the village would be hit with artillery and air strikes while helicopter gunships patrolled the area "help keep people inside there from getting out." (p22-23). Afterwards, ARVN troops would be lifted into the village to work with the assembled villagers.

[The attack unfolded largely as planned. The villagers had to leave most of their possessions and livestock. The men were taken off for questioning and many families were separated. Some livestock was moved out, but their houses with their possessions were destroyed by bulldozer and bombing. Some villagers were shot by nervous soldiers; others were gunned down by helicopter. All were claimed to be "VC" based on their hiding, running, or being in a field or at the river.]

[The US soldiers spoke almost no Vietnamese. Communication was almost impossible. There were no 'cowboys' looking for people to kill, mostly anxious and uncertain young men.]