 Plei Me camp was established in October 1963 by the United States Army Special Forces south of Pleiku city and less than from the Cambodian border in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam.Plei Me was one of many Special Forces camps scattered around the Central Highlands and charged with gaining and maintaining the support of the Montagnards for the South Vietnamese war effort and gathering intelligence about the infiltration into South Vietnam of North Vietnamese soldiers along the Ho Chi Minh trail.In 1965 the camp was manned by more than 400 Civilian Irregular Defense Group program (CIDG) soldiers — local Montagnard irregulars, mostly members of the Jarai ethnic group, many of which had families living just outside the camp.