Bến Súc
Bến Súc was a village in Dầu Tiếng District that was evacuated then systematically destroyed in January 1967, Operation Cedar Falls, during the Vietnam War. Today, the modern village of Thanh Tuyền, Dầu Tiếng is located on the site of Bến Súc.[1]
Vietnam War history
Ben Suc was the main pillar of the Vietcong's dominance over the Iron Triangle. This fortified village functioned as a major supply and political center with its population organized as rear service companies.
Following the village's screening, 106 villagers were detained; the remaining inhabitants of Ben Suc and of surrounding villages, some 6,000 individuals, two-thirds of them children,[2] were deported, along with their belongings and livestock, in trucks, river boats and helicopters to relocation camps.[3] After the deportation of the village's population, Ben Suc was systematically erased by American engineers who first burned the village's buildings to the ground and then leveled their remnants as well as the surrounding vegetation using bulldozers.[4]
References
- Lịch sử Đảng bộ tỉnh Bình Dương, 1930-1975 2003 Page 458 "Xã nào trên địa bàn huyện Bến Cát, Dầu Tiếng cũng có quân Mỹ, quân ngụy rải ra đóng chốt với đủ các đơn vị Sừng Sỏ nhất. ... Bến Súc là nơi địch cho là “có công Sự phòng thủ kiên cố của Việt Cộng” được chọn là mục tiêu trọng điểm của cuộc hành quân. ... Ngày 6-1-1967, lính bộ binh và xe tăng Mỹ càn vào xã An Điễn, An Tây, Phú An. Huyện Bến Cát Sủ dụng Đại đội 61, tiếu đội công binh, trinh Sát ..."
- John F. Votaw, “CEDAR FALLS, Operation”, in Spencer C. Tucker, ed., Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. A Political, Social, and Military History (Santa Barbara et al.: ABC-Clio, 1998), p. 108.
- Rogers, Cedar Falls-Junction City, pp. 39-40.
- Schell, The Real War, pp. 187-188.