The VC made the mistake of attacking Chau Phu, a provincial capital on the Cambodian border.
Opposing them were some of the roughest fighters in all South Vietnam, They included small but deadly teams of the Special Forces Detachment B-42, a Project PHOENIX recon unit, and Navy SEALs shown here. These elite men recaptured Chau Phu in a bitter 36-hour combat that caused many civilian losses and destroyed a quarter of the city.