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Operation PERSHING was officially terminated on 21 January 1968, after almost a full year of fighting in, over and around Binh Dinh Province. To most of us PERSHING had come to mean an area of operation rather than a single campaign. During this time the 1st Cavalry Division had been continually fighting at least two different battles, often more.

The primary battle was the tedious task of routing out the Viet Cong infrastructure—that very real shadow government that had been strong in this area even during the French occupation. Working with the National Police Field Force, the 1st Cavalry participated in over 970 combined operation which had resulted in the identification and removal of over 1,600 members of the Viet Cong political and administrative structure. About 200 Viet Cong were identified as key leaders. Under the Cavalry umbrella, the National Police Field Force searched more than 340,000 individuals and 4,300 dwellings. At the close of PERSHING we felt that 50 percent of the Viet Cong cadre had been rendered ineffective. The pessimist would have to conclude that this left half of the infrastructure intact, but the fact remained that the Government of Vietnam had held an election in this troubled province, wherein 96.9 percent of the people eligible to vote, voted. This compared with a nation-wide average of 80.9 percent.

The second continuous battle in Binh Dinh was the regular North Vietnamese Army 3d Division units. The enemy lost 5,715 soldiers killed in action and 2,323 enemy were captured. Somehow this latter figured seemed to get lost in the statistics, but I always thought it was very important and was a key indicator of the type of operations being fought in this area.

I was often asked if I thought the 1st Cavalry was "wasted or stagnating" in Binh Dinh. In answer, I'd merely show the questioning visitor a map depicting the air assaults of the last month and it immediately became evident that only an airmobile unit could