Battle for Hue City, Vietnam, 1968.

Two United States Marines returning fire during the battle for Hue City, Vietnam, early 1968

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Hue was marked as one of the longest, and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam war, due to the intense urban combat that was uncommon to most confrontations of the Vietnam War. It had been almost 3 years since American soldiers had first landed in Vietnam, when the NVA launched their infamous "TET Offensive." Of the many targets, Hue was a major one, as it was an important allied supply line running from Da Nang to the DMZ (Vietnamese Demilitarization Zone.) The NVA would attack the city in the early morning hours of January 31st, 1968.
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In the city, U.S. Marines came under a large hail of rocket and mortar fire, but were able to counterattack communist-held positions in the suburbs, fighting house-to-house to eliminate pockets of NVA resistance. Fighting would continue in the urban installments for weeks, turning the city into rubble. Though fighting in other parts of South Vietnam was confined to about a week or two during Tet, Hue city would continue on until March 2nd, 1968.
U.S. casualties totaled about 1,800 compared to about 2,600 NVA. It is also estimated that some 4,850 civilians were captured and executed by the NVA and affiliated groups. In addition, 80 percent of the city was destroyed, and of the 140,000 pre-war population, 116,000 were made homeless. Though the NVA did manage to capture Hue, the rest of the Tet Offensive was branded a dismal failure. Despite this, it gave little hope to the Americans, who soon came to realize that the war was far from over.