Michael Do

“Raise the Flag on the ThPong Vietnam Village before the Sunrise! An Audacious Determination on Battlefield in Cambodia.”

That was the big headline run on the front page of all Saigon newspapers on the first days of Tân Hợi lunar new year to celebrate the victory of the 4/8th Battalion at Snuol, Cambodia.

Truth is the battle began at sunrise and quickly ended in the afternoon. Although it was in a short time, the battle marked the first brilliant victory of the ARVN on the battlefield outside the frontier.

The big operation Total Victory 71-NB was orchestrated by the ARVN to hunt the elements of the Center Office of South Vietnam and the units of the National Liberation Army in hiding in the Cambodian provinces that bordered the 3^rd and 4^th Military Regions of Vietnam. The participants were the field groups formed by units of the 3^rd and 4^th Army Corps, the Marines, the Rangers, and the Armored Cavalry.