CHAPTER 12

Last Operations of III MAP, January-March 1971

Plans for the Army Takeover of Quang 'Nam-Operations in Quang Nam, January-February 1971 Keystone Robin Charlie Begins-The Pacification Effort Diminishes-The Enemy Grows Bolder

Plans for the Army Takeover of Quang Nam

As 1971 began, planning for the removal of most of the remaining Marines from Vietnam was far ad­vanced. The sixth and last segment of the 150, 000-man redeployment ordered by President Nixon on 2 April 1970, codenamed Keystone Robin Charlie, was to be­gin early in February. This withdrawal would take out 12, 400 Marines, including the 5th Marines, III MAF, 1st Marine Division, and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing Headquarters. The Marines left in Quang Nam then were to constitute the 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade, the organization and composition of which had been exhaustively debated and refined during the past year. Marines expected the life of the MAB to be short and that the brigade would probably redeploy during late April, May, and June.

MAF, division, and wing staffs now concentrated on two interlocked and important questions: how to extract the redeploying Marines from combat without abruptly reducing pressure on the enemy, and what allied force would replace III MAF in Quang Nam. XXIV Corps plans for Quang Nam had changed repeatedly during the fall of 1970, as MACV debated whether to include either or both the 101st Airborne Division and the Americal Division in the early 1971 redeployments. By mid-October, tentative Army plans called for both divisions to remain until well after the last Marines had withdrawn and for the Americal Di­vision at some point to move one of its brigades into the Da Nang area while the other two continued oper­ations in Quang Tin and Quang Ngai Provinces. As 1970 ended, the identity of the brigade which was to relieve the Marines and the exact timing of its deploy­ment to Quang Nam still had not been settled.1

Generals McCutcheon and Robertson continually pressed XXIV Corps for decisions on these latter points to guide III map's withdrawal planning. Robertson recalled:

... I'd go to XXIV Corps and say to my good friend. [Lieu­tenant General] Sutherland, 'What are your plans? Who are you going to put up there? Even if they are not firm. give me an idea. We've got to start talking with your people . . . .' Until you get the two commanders involved, eyeball to eyeball, and unless their staffs start working, . . . you don't really solve these, . . things.... The lead time [in redeploy­ment planning] was tremendous and we kept pushing for it ... 2

Most of the answers the Marines needed came on 26 January at a conference of staff officers of III MAF, XXIV Corps, the 23d (America!) Division, and the 196th Light Infantry Brigade.3 At this conference, the Army representatives confirmed that the 23d Division would extend its TAOI to cover Quang Nam as the Marines left, and that one of the division's three brigades, the 196th, would take over defense of the province. Elements of this brigade, which was operat­ing in Quang Tin, had entered Quang Nam late in 1970 for Operations Tulare Falls I and II. Until late January 1971, an infantry battalion from the brigade with supporting artillery had maneuvered in Anten­na Valley west of the 5th Marines' Imperial Lake area.4

Under the XXIV Corps/23d Division plan, the 3d MAB would not have to try to protect all of Quang Nam. Instead, the 196th Brigade was to occupy the province in three stages, and the Marines' TAOI would contract as their strength declined. The takeover was scheduled to begin on 13 April, as the Marines com­pleted their Keystone Robin Charlie redeployments and activated the 3d MAB. On that date, the 196th Brigade was to assume responsibility for all of Quang Nam south of the Vu Gia/Song Thu Bon line. Two weeks later, on 1 May, most of the ground combat units of the 3d MAB would stand down, and the 196th Brigade would begin occupying the area west and north of Da Nang. The Marines at the same time would withdraw to a still more restricted TAOI encom­passing only Hoa Vang District, which immediately surrounded the city of Da Nang and the airfield. On 7 May, in the third and final phase of the transfer of responsibility, the Army brigade was to take over Hoa Vang and the Da Nang Vital Area. The 3d MAB, all elements of which would have ceased combat opera­tions, then was to complete redeployment preparations protected by the 196th Brigade.

The Army representatives at the conference said that they expected to begin moving headquarters and sup­port elements of the 196th Brigade into cantonments in the Da Nang area, which by about 23 April would