The Battle of Hamburger Hill was a battle of the Vietnam War that was fought by the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnamese forces from May 10–20, 1969. Although the heavily fortified Hill 937 was of little strategic value, U.S. command ordered its capture by a frontal assault, only to abandon it soon thereafter. The action caused an outrage both in the American military and public.
The battle was primarily an infantry engagement, with the U.S. Airborne troops moving up the highly sloped hill against well entrenched troops. Attacks were repeatedly repelled by North Vietnamese Army (NVA) defenses, weather, friendly fire, and accidents. Nevertheless the Airborne troops took the hill through direct assault, causing extensive casualties to the NVA forces.
Read more about Battle Of Hamburger Hill: Casualties, Aftermath, In Popular Culture
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“Athelstan King,
Lord among Earls,
Bracelet-bestower and
Baron of Barons,”
—Unknown. Battle of Brunanburh (l. 1–4)
“I remember the scenes of battle in which we stood together. I remember especially that broad and deep grave at the foot of the Resaca hill where we left those gallant comrades who fell in that desperate charge. I remember, through it all, the gallantry, devotion and steadfastness, the high-set patriotism you always exhibited.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“To think that between a Hamburger and a Humburger, she would—invariably, with icy precision—plump for the former.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world’s affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. “I don’t go to question the good Lord in his wisdom,” runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, “but I jest cain’t see why He put valleys in between the hills.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)