 Three months ago, the 1st Air Cavalry Division shipped out from Charleston, South Carolina. Young men trained in a new concept of war. Proud, sure of themselves, but still to be tested in battle. They were destined for the high country of central Vietnam. Last week, some of them came home. Their lives were the price of victory in the battle of Yadrang Valley. CBS News correspondent Morley Safer was there. This is where it all began, the Special Forces Camp at Play May. On the night of October 19th at 11 p.m., the first mortar rounds fell. At the beginning, it was simply another guerrilla attack and a brave stand by a few Americans and 350 mountain yard strikers. But then command decisions were made, almost by accident, that turned the battle for Play May into the campaign for not only the Highlands, but perhaps all of Vietnam. The Battle of Yadrang Valley. A CBS News special report by Morley Safer and the CBS News team in Vietnam with a special introduction by Walter Cronkite. Good evening. Just six days ago, the people of America were jilted by an announcement. Our casualties in Vietnam in a single week had exceeded the average weekly rate of dead and wounded in the Korean War. 240 Americans killed, 470 wounded. If the American public had not known until then, they know now. The United States is indeed at war. A full-dress war against a formidable enemy. Most of these casualties were suffered in the Battle of Yadrang Valley. The biggest, the costliest, the most significant, yet fought by American troops in Vietnam. To report on this story, CBS News has brought home its Vietnam correspondent, Morley Safer. His coverage of the battle is only the latest in a distinguished series of war reports he's sent to us during the past year. Reports that have set a new standard for war reporting in the age of television. Morley? Thank you, Walter. Play May and the weeks that followed have emphasized one single point about our commitment in Vietnam that will be re-emphasized in weeks, months, and perhaps years to come. That we are at war not only with the Viet Cong of South Vietnam, but with North Vietnam and its strong and dedicated army. It's in the nature of the conflict that formal declarations are not necessary. The head lie even higher casualties, a point that every GI and every general in Vietnam is acutely aware of. A point that many feel has not been fully grasped at home. In this broadcast, we will not try to give the order of battle, there was none. What we will try to do is give the mood and feel of those five weeks. It all started at Play May. It was almost by accident. It looked at first like a routine Viet Cong attack on this routine special forces camp. A triangular shaped outpost in the central Highlands, held by a handful of American advisors and 350 mountain tribesmen. As it turned out, this was a new kind of attack by a new kind of army. This was a full-scale sustained assault by two heavily armed regiments of North Vietnamese regulars, aimed at wiping Play May off the map and sucking government and American troops into an ambush. This is what stopped them from doing it, American air power. As the North Vietnamese attacked, our fighter bombers roared in with rockets, fire bombs and guns blazing, stealing off the besieged camp with a ring of deadly fire. It was the heaviest concentration of tactical air power ever unleashed in the Vietnam War, nearly 10 bombing missions an hour around the clock. And still they came. The communists determined that Play May must fall. The United States determined it would not. Despite mounting losses, the North Vietnamese troops continued to storm the camp perimeter. We were shooting them right off the wire, said one pilot. They were everywhere, like ants. For the camp defenders, there was no lead up. Day and night for seven days, they were pounded by heavy mortar fire and raked by machine guns. Some were wounded by shrapnel from our own bombs exploding just yards away. There was no sleep, no rest, no water. Helicopters were hit as they tried to land with supplies and get the wounded out. Two helicopters and four other planes were down by heavy anti-aircraft fire. But help was on its way. After three days, a unit of South Vietnamese airborne troops was airlifted in. And from Play Khu, 25 miles away, a South Vietnamese relief column set out by road. And along that road, the Viet Cong were waiting. Just five miles from Play May, the relief column was ambushed. The South Vietnamese, with the American advisors, fought back. And with close air support, inflicted heavy casualties. But the North Vietnamese achieved one objective. They held up the relief force for more than 24 hours. Finally, after seven days, the relief force got through. The siege of Play May was broken. For the enemy, it had been a costly lesson. At least 500 of their crack infantrymen killed. Hundreds of others put out of action. Allied casualties were light. But Play May had its lessons for us too. One of the American advisors at the camp was Major Charles Beckwith of Atlanta, Georgia. What kind of fighters are the Viet Cong that you met here? I would give anything to have 200 of them under my command. They're the finest soldiers I've ever seen. The Viet Cong? That's right. They are dedicated and they're good soldiers. They're the best I've ever seen. What about the resistance your own men put up, the Americans here and your troops? The U.S. is here, as far as I'm concerned, did an outstanding job. Of course, in my opinion, they're held up better than the V.C. And that's the only reason we survived. I do not want to make any comment regarding the Vietnamese that were here in the camp. For the defenders of Play May, the battle was over. But for the men of the U.S. First Air Cavalry Division, it was just beginning. Play May was the jumping off point for a new kind of operation against a new kind of enemy. The original mission of the cavalry was to secure the immediate area around Play May. In the first few days of search and destroy operations, they met only light resistance. Sniper fire. They moved further west toward the Cambodian border, looking for the enemy and his main supply depot. And they found it here in the Chu Pong Hills. By November 1st, the new war had begun. The war between the United States Regular Army and Pabong, the People's Army of North Vietnam. It was also a new style of war. I talked to General Richard Knowles of the First Cavalry. I think the thing that is new is that this Pogo-type concept, where we leap into an area, start a fight, finish it up to the best of our ability, and then jump over and latch on to another chunk of the enemy and chew him up, you couldn't get into this area on the ground. You just couldn't make it, you couldn't resupply. You had to have helicopters to support what we've been doing. I'm thinking of the intent of the mission. Everything we've fought in the past has been to gain ground. Yes, but you know the basic mission of any military force is to destroy the enemy or his will to fight. And it's been our tradition since we were tied to the ground to translate that into terms of ground objectives. But that was never the real purpose. That just helped you achieve the end. Here we can free ourselves of those ground considerations and we go more directly for the enemy, wherever he may be. The first brigade moved out. The whole principle of air cavalry is mobility. When you run out of targets, you change command posts, hit the enemy from front and back. On November 1st, the Hueys, the armed helicopters, caught the enemy out in the open. The gunships swooped down and the airborne riflemen moved out. The tactic is simple. Find them, fix them, and kill them. The first battle, 50 North Vietnamese dead, 21 prisoners, friendly casualties knell. In air assault, the LZ is the thing. A landing zone. Up in the highlands, a landing zone is any patch of ground big enough to land a helicopter. And if there isn't a handy one, then you make one. Enemy casualties mounted. 300 dead, 115 prisoners. Friendly casualties described as light. Our weapon was mobility. Mobile command posts. Start to have a 1-6, left-hatch, 6-5 over. Mobile artillery. The cavalry was chasing. Then just inside the Cambodian border, the communist troops turned at the Chupang Hill mass. This is 3-3. I can see you and you have to get up and walk a long way. That could get a lot of people killed. With their backs to their main supply depot, three regiments of Pavan, North Vietnamese regulars, were waiting behind fortified bunkers. For four hours, the enemy poured mortar rounds into the landing zones. But the cavalry stood its ground. For the first time in the Vietnam War, American unit casualties were described as moderate. Most of the casualties were taken at night. The Medevac helicopters came in in blackness under fire. Captain Guy Kimsey was one of the pilots. We did have some moon. And without anything to go by, we almost landed on a couple of casualties. They were fairly close. They managed to get them aboard. We were receiving a lot of automatic weapons fire. And two people I carried in there to help evacuated the aircraft right away and started returning to fire. And there was a lot of fire around there. That's all I know. I was scared. And so was the rest of my crew. By dawn of the 15th, it was clear that the enemy had been hurt badly. But we had paid dearly. It was almost like looking at old newsreels of Korea and the Pacific War. The same young old faces, the same shattered landscape, the same agony. It was pretty bad. We kind of walked right into a ambush. And we hit the ground, tried to look around for trees. There was elephant grass out there about three foot high. And to look over that, the snappers could pick you up real easily and let you have it. Does it frighten you now to think about it? Yes, it does. Yeah, it was pretty bad to listen to your friends crying out for help, not being able to do a thing. We just couldn't do anything. We all pinned down. Are you writing home about it just now? Yes, I'm writing my father right now. What are you saying? Well, I'm just trying to give in the facts of what happened. Not much else can do. It's over with. Guess you've got to forget it now. Do you think you'll ever be able to forget it? No, I won't. The worst was still to come. At the base of the hills, a cavalry shifted in probe, calling on its 400 helicopters to keep the enemy off balance. And all the time, a steady pounding by piston sky raiders and jet bombers. But at darkness, the communist regulars struck. It was decided to pull back, not to retreat, but to make room for planes of the strategic air command. The first time the giant eight-engine bombers have been used in practical support of ground troops. They came in and plastered the Chupong Hills with thousands of bombs. The deadliest war machine in the world was cranking itself up against the toughest guerrilla army ever put in the field. As the bombers came in, the skytroopers were selecting new landing zones in the rear, looking for open spaces in the vast carpet of woodland that covers the hills and valleys of central Vietnam. And they found them, surrounded by thick elephant grass that can wear a man out in 500 yards of walking. Visibility extends the length of your rifle. It is country designed for ambush, guerrilla country. It's where the communist army of Ho Chi Minh won its spurs in the war against the French. In that war, the bit men waited in these thickets for the French convoys. Two weeks ago tonight, they waited around landing zones X-ray, Columbus and Albany, the scenes of our heaviest casualties thus far. A lot of 20-year-old became veterans that afternoon. Adam Rayfield talked to the wounded. Took two kids, they were still bringing them in. They were just all over the trees. They let part of our battalion get through and then just we were bringing up the rear and really let us have it. We was on our route down to NLZ and they surprised us. They must have had some air fools on the trees or something because we couldn't see them. There were a lot of snipers in the area too. They just kept dropping us one right after another. The remnants of Alpha Company's 1st Battalion's 7th Cavalry. The bullets were coming from everywhere, they said. They were right on top of us. Our buddies were dying everywhere. One machine gunner told me how he fought back. When they came at us at four o'clock in the morning, we were ready for them. In one machine gun hole, we had three lolls, 3,000 rounds of ammo and three M16 guns and one machine gun and about 30 hand grenades. What'd you do with this thing here? We brought natural bone smoke. We burned up about three barrels in this machine gun and knocked out about three machine guns, three machine guns or crews of VCs. How many do you think you killed yourself? Well, I'm really afraid to say, I'd say around four to fifty, maybe even more. At first light, the full shock came. Americans and North Vietnamese lay side by side in the grass, all the postures of death in battle. It was a rare kind of combat, the enemies facing each other at times only a few feet apart. By their own admission, these men fought not to defend a perimeter or to take a position. Each one fought for his own life. In the end, victory was ours. A lot of Americans died in these woodlands, but overall a very important point was made. That the U.S. infantrymen using established technique, impromptu ingenuity and plenty of support in the air can seek out and destroy the best guerrilla army in the world. The Commander-in-Chief, General William C. Westmoreland. I want to congratulate you on your distinguished victory. You were fighting regular North Vietnamese troops. You men of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Calvary, have distinguished yourselves. You fought bravely. You fought with skill. It's a funny thing, but some of these men I've known for a long time and some of them I didn't know too well. But that's the one thing about battle that I find strange. The death part seems to be unrealistic. I don't know, I mean, you know it's true, but you just don't really bring yourself to believe it. This is just the way it is. Do you believe it now? I believe it, but I still think there's something in my mind that tells me it wasn't real, so I don't believe I felt the shock of it yet. The hardest part is trying to figure out the deaths of your buddies. Our company lost our own mind between 28 men. One was from Mosswing, Illinois. He knew some friends of mine that went to the same university that went to. Is it hard for you now to believe that they're dead so quickly? Well, when you look at them, it doesn't even resemble a human body, it just looks just like a mannequin. You look at them and you say, that couldn't happen to me. It is hard to realize it, but then you walk back to their area, back at base camp. They're just not there. Well, I tell you, it's about as close to putting it in word as it would like hell. If it's about as close to being the hell as you can get, it's going to come out alive. This is about as far as I'm aware of it. What would you say is the most hellish part of it? Actually getting shot at and seeing the bullet hit and missing. And seeing your buddy get it. And when you see somebody out there and you can't get to them and you just know what they're going through and you can't do a thing to help them. This is the enemy. In the past few weeks, I spoke to dozens of them through interpreters. They all said they'd been mobilized, drafting. They are tiny men, boys, some half-starved, some had spent months walking down to bases in the south, carrying weapons bigger than themselves. In battle, they showed almost maniacal courage or motivation or something. By week's end, the campaign had ended. The third brigade was committed, but found little but thin air. And according to its commander, Colonel William Lynch... Well, it appears that the little bastards have had enough and bugged out. The last 24 hours, they haven't fired a shot. The casualties in the Vietnam War had been heavy. In the past four years, the South Vietnamese have lost almost 27,000 men in battle. Last weekend alone, almost 1,000. American casualties up to now have been relatively light. But on Thanksgiving morning, Americans picked up their newspapers to find beside the usual Thanksgiving picture, headlines announcing that our casualties in Vietnam were the highest ever. The stark figures, 240 dead, 470 wounded, brought the severity of the yard-dragged battle into every home. The toll was three times higher than any previous week of the war. But during that grim week, the enemy's losses, too, were higher than ever. More than 2,000 killed. We've made our estimates and we felt that in this type of country, in real tough hand-to-hand fighting, you'd probably have a ratio of losses to your kill. And I think we've done better than that, actually. Of course, I don't like to even trade one American or one Arvin trooper on our side for 50 of the haven, but we've got to be very realistic. When you're getting this type of fighting, if you get anywhere near 7 to 10 to 1, that's a damn good exchange. I do not know of any situation that concerns the President more or causes him deeper personal anguish than the loss of American lives in Vietnam. Those who know him well know with what a heavy heart each decision is made to send Americans into combat. That grief is not a feeling that can be turned on or off. It is there whether the casualty list is 2 or 200. I've seen the President, particularly in these last few weeks, grievously but privately concerned. For every body, there is a next of kin. And for every next of kin, a telegram. From the adjutant general to Mrs. Rebecca E. Gell, the Secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regret that your husband, Jack E. Gell, died in Vietnam on 14 November 1965. He told me, he said, honey, we've already heard them say that they will bury us, and if they take over one little country at a time before you know it, all the little countries will be taken over. And eventually we would be left alone and we couldn't take them. And he said, I'd rather go now than have to wait until 20 years and have my son go because it might be too late in 20 years. And he told me before he left, he told me to sit down. And he starts talking serious and I started to cry and he said, don't cry because you've got to know this. He said, it's better if you know than you won't have a total decision to make and be at a loss. I want you to know that we've spent most of our marriage in Columbus and two of our three children have been born here. I would like to be buried here in case anything happens and I just want to be wherever you would live as places we've been to. That's all I can really say is that I am staying here because that's what he expressed to me and I want to be where he is. If that's what I can have, I'm just glad he chose me for Mrs. Gale. The funeral of Sergeant Jack Gale. A lot of men died at Yardrang but strategically it was a victory. I characterize this entire campaign as being the most successful of this conflict thus far. I feel its success is really unprecedented. Can we expect to see American units coming to grips with large-scale North Vietnamese units? Is this going to be the pattern of the war from the O'Oleens? It seems evident that the leadership in Hanoi has decided to send down two South Vietnam regular forces. How many more regular forces they will send down we do not know. Yardrang was a bitter and a valuable experience. It taught us the value of mobility in fighting a guerrilla war. Indeed Defense Secretary McNamara has already said a new air cavalry division would be formed. It has also pointed up the brutal fact that Hanoi clearly intends to commit a field army to Vietnam. The communists are massing in South Vietnam and so are we. They feel we are divided. They are impressed by our student demonstrations. In Hanoi a student is a rare and honored member of society. The enemy knows he cannot in the end defeat us in the field. But by killing Americans he hopes to demoralize us at home. That is what happened to France in 1954. Our armed forces are prepared to take the necessary casualties in order to seek out and destroy the enemy. The question remains are the American people prepared to lose more and more young men in Vietnam. This has been the CBS News special report the Battle of Yardrang Valley. This pre-recorded broadcast was produced under the supervision and control of CBS News.