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Bến Củi is a commune of Dương Minh Châu District, Tây Ninh Province, Vietnam. The area of the commune is 34,26 km², and the population in 1999 was 4,802 people.
Bến Củi was the site of a rubber plantation (Nông trường cao su Bến Củi) that was part of the
Vietnam War
Bến Củi was the site of a rubber plantation (Nông trường cao su Bến Củi) that was part of the Michelin Rubber Plantation Michelin Rubber Plantation was located near Dầu Tiếng District in Bình Dương Province, 72 km northwest of Saigon. The plantation was established by the Michelin company in 1925 and at it was the largest rubber plantation in Vietnam. ...
near Dầu Tiếng
Dầu Tiếng is a Commune-level town (Vietnam), township and capital of Dầu Tiếng District, Bình Dương Province. To find information at reference, go to row 74, then row 720, and it is listed on row 25777.
References
Populated pl ...
, Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of t ...
. During the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, Ben Cui and other sections of the Michelin rubber plantation were the scene of intense fighting between United States forces and the North Vietnamese Army
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN; vi, Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam, QĐNDVN), also recognized as the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) or the Vietnamese Army (), is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed win ...
(NVA) and Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
forces.
Staff Sergeant Marvin "Rex" Young, Company C, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division posthumously received the Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
, in recognition of the repeated efforts he made to save the lives of his comrades near Ben Cui on August 21, 1968. The 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment earned the Presidential Unit Citation for the actions from August 18 to September 20, 1968.
The fighting in the Bến Củi rubber plantation is sometimes referred to as the Third Offensive, in reference to the third wave of massed North Vietnamese troops after the Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the force ...
. The Tet and subsequent offensives marked a major shift from the small hit-and-run sniper and ambush that dominated during the Vietnam War to a more massive display of force and higher numbers of casualties.
Some of the veterans of the combat in the Bến Củi and other segments of the Michelin rubber plantation believe that heavier U.S. casualties were sustained because the U.S. Army had an informal agreement with the French Government to not use artillery or air strikes in the rubber plantations, to avoid costly damage to the rubber trees. However, the Combat After Action Reports from the Bến Củi engagement of 21 August 1968 indicate that both artillery and air support were used.
References