 The most severe of what came to be known as " the Border Battles " erupted during October and November around Dak To , another border outpost in Kon Tum Province . The clashes there between the four regiments of the 1st North Vietnamese Division , the U.S. 4th Infantry Division , the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade , and ARVN infantry and Airborne elements , lasted for 22 days . By the time the fighting was over , between 1 @,@ 200 and 1 @,@ 600 North Vietnamese and 262 U.S. troops had lost their lives . MACV intelligence was confused by the possible motives of the North Vietnamese in prompting such large @-@ scale actions in remote regions where U.S. artillery and aerial firepower could be applied indiscriminately , which meant that tactically and strategically , these operations made no sense . What the North Vietnamese had done was carry out the first stage of their plan : to fix the attention of the U.S. Command on the borders and draw the bulk of U.S. forces away from the heavily populated coastal lowlands and cities . 
