Two months after the November 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam approved what was then the largest searchand-destroy operation of the Vietnam War. Originally named Masher, this operation was redesignated White Wing at the insistence of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who wanted a more benign-sounding title. In the subsequent Sept. 9, 1966, Contemporary Historical Evaluation of Combat Operations (CHECO) report, the authors wrote, “This 1st Air Cavalry operation was actually conducted in four distinct phases, Masher, White Wing, Eagle Claw, and Black Horse.” While these designations were reflected in other reports, the main operation was referred to as “Operation Masher and White Wing.”
It took place in Binh Dinh province from Jan. 24 to March 6, 1966. It included forces from the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and the Republic of Korea (ROK). Enemy troops included two regiments of the 3rd Division of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and one regiment of Viet Cong (VC). They controlled the vast majority of Binh Dinh province. One 1965 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report declared the province to be “just about lost!” To reverse this, the U.S. and its allies undertook Operation Masher/White Wing in Binh Dinh province and mounted the parallel Operation Double Eagle in adjacent Quang Ngai province. Allied leaders would base victory on enemy body count.
The U.S. operational plan called for U.S., ARVN, and South Korean units to sweep north and for U.S. Marines to push south to trap the enemy in between. Their orders were to “locate and destroy VC/NVA units; enhance the security of GVN [Government of Vietnam] installations in Bong Son [the provincial capital], and to lay the groundwork for restoration of GVN control of the population and rich coastal plain area.”
inh Dinh was a
