2020 $2 Vietnam War -"Battle of Khe Sahn, Mint Sheet, Marshall Island

This sheet was issued by the Marshall Islands to commemorate the Battle of Khe Sanh, one of the longest and most closely watched engagements of the Vietnam War. The siege began on January 21, 1968, when North Vietnamese forces launched a massive artillery bombardment against the U.S. Marine combat base at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos and North Vietnam. Roughly 6,000 Marines and allied South Vietnamese troops found themselves surrounded by an estimated 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, and the ensuing standoff captivated the American public for months, drawing frequent comparisons to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu fourteen years earlier.

For the next several months, Marines endured relentless shelling and ground assaults, sustained largely through American air power under Operation Niagara, which delivered nearly 100,000 tons of bombs and munitions around the base, including strikes from Air Force B-52 bombers. Resupply and reinforcement efforts, including Operation Pegasus in early April 1968, eventually helped relieve pressure on the besieged garrison. By the time the fighting wound down, North Vietnamese losses were estimated at around 10,000 troops, compared to fewer than 500 Marines killed in action.

This four stamp sheet depicts scenes from the battle, including a machine gun crew, a Skyhawk aircraft providing close air support, Marines during an extraction operation, and troops manning artillery for direct fire support, all dated to the early months of the siege in 1968. American forces ultimately abandoned the Khe Sanh base that summer, having judged the position no longer strategically necessary, bringing to a close one of the most intensely fought and heavily publicized battles of the entire Vietnam War.