On March 7, 1971, more than a thousand US planes engaged in bombing missions, along with combat missions involving hundreds of helicopters, in a war that was supposed to be nearly over, in a battle intended to prove that the US was no longer needed. Operation Lam Son 719 is both little remembered and little understood, but might well have represented a final turning point in the American war in Vietnam.
By September of 1944, the Western Allies had broken out of the Normandy beachehead, and suddenly and quickly moved across northern France . By September 7th, the 90th division was stretched across the northern sector on Patton’s Third Army’s left, advancing slowly northeast. As they did so the German defenders made a risky attack in an effort to spoil the allied advance, cutting through Allied lines in a surprise action at the small town of Mairy-Mannville.