A-S Talu valley

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The A-Sầu-Tal (mostly written A-Shau-Tal , Vietnamese Thung lũng A Sầu ) is a valley in the Trường-Sơn Mountains in the far west of the Thừa Thiên-Huế province in central Vietnam , right on the border with Laos . It runs in a northwest-southeast direction, is about 40 km long and only a few kilometers wide; on both sides there are densely forested mountains from about a thousand to two thousand meters high. The A-Sầu region roughly corresponds to the A Lưới district , whose capital of the same name is located in the valley, which is why it is also referred to as the A-Lưới valley .

The river Rào Lao ( A Sáp ) runs through the bottom of the valley and flows in a large loop into Laotian territory, where it becomes the main source of the Sekong . A hydropower plant has been under construction since 2007 . The A-Sầu valley is connected to the north by the Đakrông river valley , which, in contrast to the Rào Lao, flows to the east.

National Road 14 , which forms a section of the Hồ-Chí-Minh expressway , runs in the valley today .

Vietnam War

American Huey helicopter in the A-Su valley

The A-S Talu valley was of great importance during the Vietnam War : A main branch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail , which runs through eastern Laos, reached South Vietnamese territory at this point . The valley thus became an important part of the North Vietnamese attack and supply route towards Huế and Đà Nẵng . At that time there was only a barely passable mud track ( Route 548 ) running through the valley and parallel to the river , which was connected to Huế via the equally unpaved Route 547 . At the north and south end of the valley, two roads branched off to Laos ( Route 922 and 923 ). At the northern end of the valley, at the transition to the Đakrông valley, there was a large assembly point of the North Vietnamese army, referred to by the Americans as Base Area 611 . Attempts by the South Vietnamese and Americans to break this link and drive the North Vietnamese out of the region made the remote A-Shau Valley one of the most competitive arenas of the war. Since the valley was almost impossible to reach for American ground units, " air cavalry " (the 1st Cavalry Division and the 101st Airborne Division ) and the unpaved old French runway in A Lưới played a decisive role.

From 1963, US Special Forces , supported by local CIDG units, set up bases in the valley. In early March 1966, the special forces base at the southern end of the valley was overrun by North Vietnamese troops, bringing the entire region under the control of North Vietnam. The Americans and South Vietnamese did not realize the importance of the region until two years later, during the Tet offensive, Huế was attacked unexpectedly . After retaking the city, the US troops launched a massive counter-offensive against the North Vietnamese units in the A-Sầu Valley, called Operation Delaware , which lasted from April to May 1968. The North Vietnamese could be expelled to Laos with high losses on both sides, but the difficult supply situation and ongoing fire from hidden flak positions and artillery stationed on Laotian soil prevented a permanent US base in the region. The valley was consequently cleared again after the end of the operation; shortly afterwards the North Vietnamese returned.

The Ripcord Fire Support Base in the A-Su Valley during Operation Texas Star , mid-1970

The Americans therefore carried out repeated operations against the valley in the coming years, but did not keep it occupied. From January to March 1969 was Operation Dewey Canyon of the Marines held from May to June of the same year, the Operation Apache Snow that the Battle of Mount Dong Ap Bia ( Hamburger Hill ) led. Operation Texas Star followed from April to September 1970 , in which the North Vietnamese even managed to capture the Fire Support Base Ripcord . Due to the high losses and minor successes - it was not possible to interrupt the North Vietnamese supply lines for a long time - as well as as a result of the " Vietnamization ", through which the US soldiers were gradually withdrawn, later no more major operations took place in the valley instead of. North Vietnam meanwhile expanded the Ho Chi Minh Path to the paved road and used the A-Sầu valley as a rallying point for the 1972 Easter offensive .

During the war, Agent Orange was used on a large scale in the valley region ; between 1965 and 1970, 224 missions took place here, during which the defoliant was sprayed. Some places were sprayed repeatedly up to eleven times. The region is therefore still very heavily polluted today.

Web links

Commons : A-Sầu-Tal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the length of the valley:
    Robert C. Ankony: Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri , University Press of America, 2008, p. 60 ( twenty-five miles ).
    Andrew Anthony Bufalo: Hard Corps - Legends of the Corps , S & b Publishing, 2004, p. 224 ( Twenty-two miles long ).
    Lawrence C. Vetter, Jr .: Never Without Heroes: Marine Third Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam, 1965-1970 , Random House, 2011, p. 276 ( the twenty-eight-mile-long A Shau Valley ).
    Arnold Schecter: Dioxins and Health Including Other Persistent Organic Pollutants and Endocrine Disruptors , Wiley, 2012, p. 482 ( 40 km long ).
  2. ↑ Đại biểu nhân dân: Thủy điện A Lưới - Cú hích cho vùng đất khó , July 6, 2007
  3. ^ Robert D. Sander: Invasion of Laos, 1971: Lam Son 719 , University of Oklahoma Press, 2014, Chapter 3
  4. ↑ Adrian G. Traas: Engineers at War , Center of Military History (US Army), 2010, p 365ff
  5. ↑ Arnold Schecter: Dioxins and Health Including Other Persistent Organic Pollutants and Endocrine Disruptors , Wiley, 2012, p 482ff
  6. ^ Agent Orange Record: Impact on Vietnam

Coordinates: 16 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  N , 107 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  E