Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial

On May 10, 1969, US troops began the attack on Hill 937 ("Hamburger Hill") in Vietnam. A short excerpt:

"Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial

BARBARA MARANZANI

After 10 days of bruising battle, U.S. forces took the hill, only to abandon it days later. Sniper fire was so intense, one soldier called it 'a human meat grinder.'
For almost 11 days in May 1969, American troops waged a deadly battle for control of a 3,000-foot-tall hill in a remote valley in South Vietnam. Famously known as “Hamburger Hill,” the battle launched the first phase of Operation Apache Snow, a coordinated attack by the U.S. Army and South Vietnamese forces (known as the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or ARVN) against units of the northern People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The operation’s goal: to eliminate enemy forces in the A Shau Valley, including a regiment commonly referred to as the “Pride of Ho Chi Minh.”

Hamburger Hill marked a turning point in America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. After nearly a dozen deadly assaults, on May 20 the U.S. military finally captured Hill 937, known locally as Dong Ap Bia (“the mountain of the crouching beast”). When they abandoned it just days later, controversy erupted over what many saw as a senseless loss of lives—a debate that has continued in the decades since."