Pleiku

Pleiku is a town of Gia Lam Province in Vietnam's central highlands. During the Vietnam War, it was an important base area for U.S. forces. One of the first Viet Cong attacks that drew a retaliatory air response on North Vietnam (i.e., Operation FLAMING DART within the larger Operation ROLLING THUNDER) was on February 6, 1965, before there was a full deployment of U.S. troops for base security.

The province shares borders with Cambodia, and with the Vietnamese provinces of Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen It is 116 mi/186km from Quy Nhon, 104 mi/197km from Ban Me Thuot, and 344 mi/550km from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

One of its main towns is An Khe, where the 173rd Airborne Brigade was based from 1968 until it left Vietnam.