Leatherneck Square was an area just south of the Vietnamese DMZ.
The corners of the square were Con Thien and Firebase Gio Linh in the north, Đông Hà Combat Base and Cam Lộ, in the south, making it about 6 miles (9.7km) wide (east to west) and about 9 miles deep north to south).
Con Thien was a United States Marine Corps combat base located near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) about 3 km from North Vietnam in Gio Linh District, Quảng Trị Province. It was the site of fierce fighting from February 1967 through February 1968.
Firebase Gio Linh is a former U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) firebase north of Đông Hà in central Vietnam.
Đông Hà Combat Base is a former U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army base northwest of Quảng Trị in central Vietnam. The base was first used by the 4th Marines in late April 1966. In mid-July Đông Hà was used by the Marines as a helicopter base and logistics area. Numerous US marine and army units rotated through the base, and several artillery units were based there.
Some of the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War was fought in this 54+ square mile area. The official figures on losses in all operations in this area from Operation Prairie III/IV, through Hickory, Cimarron, Buffalo, Kingfisher and Kentucky--i.e., from March 1967 to February, 1969--are 1,419 Marines and Navy Corpsmen killed in action and 9,265 Marines and Corpsmen wounded in action.
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was an undeclared war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war from some US perspectives. It lasted some 19 years with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973 following the Paris Peace Accords, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, resulting in all three countries becoming communist states in 1975.
North Vietnamese Army losses were put at 7,563 killed, wounded unknown.
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