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Operation Ivory Coast, November 21, 1970: The Raid on Son Tay Prison

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By November of 1970, there were 450 known American POWs in Vietnam and more than double that amount who were missing. Reports were surfacing of brutal conditions, torture and starvation of American POWs.

Operation Ivory Coast was the mission by U.S. Army Green Berets flown in by Air Force Commandos to rescue the POWs at a small prisoner of war camp at Son Tay, 23 miles west of Hanoi. The raid was conducted by Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons and 56 specially selected Green Berets who trained for the mission. The mission failed despite it being a tactical success. Unknown to the raiders, rains had flooded the prison just prior to the raid, forcing the Vietnamese guards to move them to another location. The prisoners who were moved just a few miles down the road, watched the raid unfold.

However, the raid was viewed as a success and they killed over 50 guards and took the compound while suffering two very minor casualties. The Air Force was able to fly them in and out of one of the most heavily guarded air spaces on earth at that time.

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  • NY Don

    Great article.
    CSM Galen Kittleson was also on the Cabanatuan raid with the Alamo Scouts. Charles Sasser wrote a great book about him called Raider.

  • NY Don

    The Raid is a fantastic book

  • shooten

    Amazing.

  • Leo W.

    It’s too bad the POW weren’t rescued, being moved last minute. Intel is, after all, only as good as the information presented.
    “This raid was severely criticized in the media and by opponents of the Nixon Administration and to the Vietnam War. The major charge made was the poor quality of intelligence upon which the operation was mounted. One of the greatest fears was that as a result of this abortive raid, the prisoners in other camps would be treated worse.”
    But it’s nice to see the POWs were treated better after the raid.
    At least the Green Berets killed a bunch of ChiComs advisors, as a nice consolation prize.

  • Western Veteran

    Would’ve bee nice to have a note about those “55 POWs” initially sighted, if they all returned, etc..