On 22 February 1967 American forces launched Operation Junction City in War Zone C, in Tay Ninh province along the Cambodian border, to destroy the communist headquarters for South Vietnam and its bases. That morning paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade jumped from C-130 transports in the first American combat parachute assault of the Vietnam War.
Hunting for COSVN
War Zone C, in northern Tay Ninh province between Saigon and the Cambodian border, had been a communist base area for years. The main target of Junction City was the Central Office for South Vietnam, known as COSVN, the headquarters that directed the communist war in the south, together with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese bases and installations in the area.1
The jump
On the morning of 22 February paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade jumped from U.S. Air Force C-130 transports, the first American combat parachute assault of the Vietnam War, and heavy drops of equipment and supplies followed. The sources count the men and aircraft differently: the Army's monograph has 845 paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, and an attached artillery battery jumping from sixteen C-130s at 9 a.m., while the Air Force Historical Foundation counts 23 C-130s carrying 700 troops.2
At the same time helicopter-borne battalions landed around the northern part of War Zone C, and ground columns pushed in from the south and east to close the ring.3
A tactical win without a decision
Junction City went on into the spring, and the Americans captured large quantities of supplies, equipment and weapons. Its results are judged differently: the Army's official study by Bernard Rogers presents Cedar Falls and Junction City as a turning point in the war, while the PBS timeline notes that the operation produced no major decisive battle. For other battles of the war, see the Battle of Ia Drang, the Tet Offensive and the siege of Khe Sanh.4
