Ronald Winter

Victory Betrayed Ronald Winter

If Operation Dewey Canyon, fought in the northern I Corps area of South Vietnam and Laos in early 1969, was defined in relation to World War II Marine Corps battles in the Pacific, it would include the isolation of Guadalcanal, the miserable terrain, weather and vegetation of Bougainville, an entrenched enemy similar to Peleliu, and the strategic importance of Iwo Jima.

Most WWII Marine battles were fought by division-sized forces that often outnumbered the enemy. Dewey Canyon was fought by the 9th Marine Regiment, consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions. These battalions were more often than not under-strength and undersupplied. Even when augmented by air power, and the artillery of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines, the Marines who fought in Dewey Canyon numbered only a fraction of the Marine forces that fought enemy units in previous wars.

Yet, they prevailed.