Khe Sanh

Khe Sanh is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District in Vietnam.

Khe Sanh Combat Base was a U.S. Marine outpost in South Vietnam used during the Vietnam War. The airstrip was built in September 1962. Fighting began there in late April of 1967 known as the "Hill Fights", which later expanded into the 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh. U.S. commanders provoked the battle, hoping that the North Vietnamese Army would attempt to repeat their famous victory at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. On July 5, 1968, Khe Sanh was abandoned, the U.S. Army citing the vulnerability of the base to enemy artillery. However, the closure permitted the 3d Marine Division to construct mobile firebase operations along the northern border area.In 1971 Khe Sanh was reactivated to support Operation Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese incursion into Laos. It was abandoned again sometime in 1972. In March 1973, American officials in Saigon reported that North Vietnamese troops had rebuilt the old airstrip at Khe Sanh and were using it for courier flights into the south. Today Khe Sanh Combat Base is musuem where relicts of the war are exhibited. Much of the actual airstrip is now overgrown by wilderness oder coffee and banana plants.

Khe Sanh is also a song by the Australian rock group Cold Chisel. It is about Australia's participation on the anti-communist side in the Vietnam War. The song, written from the perspective of a veteran, describes the bitterness felt by many disillusioned Australian conscripts following the war. I first heard this song in the eighties while studying down under. Now it has become Australia's unofficial second anthem. Khe Sanh was initially banned from airplay for its lewd lyrics, but it is currently the most overplayed classic song on Australian airwaves. You are not an Australian unless you know the lyrics to this song.

Here's the lyrics:

I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh
And my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the
black market man
I've had the Vietnam cold turkey
From the ocean to the Silver City
And its only other vets could understand
About the long forgotten dockside guarantees
How there were no V-day heroes in 1973

How we sailed into Sydney harbour
Saw an old friend but I couldn't kiss her
She was lined and I was home to the lucky land
And she was like so many more from that time on
Their lives were all so empty, till they found their
chosen one

And their legs were often open
But their minds were always closed
And their hearts were held in fast suburban chains
And the legal pads were yellow, hours long, paypackets lean
And the telex writers clattered where the gunships once had been

But the carparks made me jumpy
And I never stopped the dreams
Or the growing need for speed and novocaine
So I worked across the country from end to end
Tried to find a place to settle down, where my mixed up life could mend

Held a job on an oil-rig
Flying choppers when I could
But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend
And I've travelled round the world from year to year
And each one found me aimless, one more year the more for wear

And I've been back to South East Asia
And the answer sure aint there
But I'm drifting north, to check things out again
You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
Only seven flying hours, and I'll be landing in Hong Kong

There aint nothing like the kisses
From a jaded Chinese princess
I'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long
Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone
Yeah the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone

And it's really got me worried
I'm goin' nowhere and I'm in a hurry
And the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone

Coincidentally, today is Veteran's Day.