iimean, there was a sense that we gutted it out and broke the back of the north vietnamese. >>>pegasus pushed down route 9 largely unopposed. >> the sky was black with army helicopters. i had never seen so many helicopters in the air at one time in my life. >> the siege was declared officially over and the numbers were staggering. marine and army artillery fired more than 159,000 shells. air force, navy and marine fighter bombers made more than 21,000 attacks and b-52s dropped 150 million bombs. when the pegasus troops arrived, the base gates opened for the first time in 77 days. as he left the base, brrce geiger was surprised to see the landscape around him. >> the area for a solid five miles was pretty much obliterated. there was no jenvegetation. this was heavily vegetated area before khe sahn. >> god created this beautiful spats and man had really screwed >> khe sahn remained shrouded in controversy. officially 297 troops were killed in action. most of them marines but some counts are significantly higher. the official number of nva dead is 1,600. some experts believe it