Khe Sanh sits about 60 kilometres west of Dong Ha, in the hills near the Lao border. The combat base became famous in early 1968 when 6,000 US Marines were besieged here by an estimated 20,000 North Vietnamese troops in one of the longest and most heavily reported battles of the war. The siege was eventually broken, but the base was abandoned by the Americans within months, undermining the narrative that the fight had been worth holding.
Today the site is a memorial with a small museum, displays of captured equipment, and the shell of a Chinook helicopter parked on the old apron. The setting is striking — green hills rolling away to the Lao border — and the contrast with what happened here is part of why people come. Allow half a day with the drive from Dong Ha.