At the beginning of 1967 the United States was engaged in a steadily expanding air and ground war in Southeast Asia. Since its inception in February 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam, had escalated in the number and significance of its targets, inflicting major damage on transportation networks industry, and petroleum refining and storage facilities. Yet the campaign showed no signs of achieving either of its stated objectives. The air attacks had not broken the Hanoi government's will to continue the war, and they had not halted or appreciably hindered the flow of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) troops and supplies into South Vietnam. North Vietnam had been able to repair damage and develop substitutes for destroyed facilities rapidly enough to counter the incremental escalation of the U.S. air campaign. With Soviet and Chinese assistance, the North Vietnamese had built a large and sophisticated air defense system. Its guns and missiles extracted a toll in pilots and aircraft for every American raid. On the ground in South Vietnam, the U.S. force buildup, begun in late 1965, was approaching completion. More than 380,000 American troops were in the country, alongside over 730,000 Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) soldiers and some 52,000 soldiers from other allied nations. After a year of base building and intensifying combat, the U.S. commander, General William Westmoreland, believed that his forces were ready for major offensives that would seize the battlefield initiative from the PAVN and Viet Cong (VC). The PAVN/VC, however, had been conducting their own buildup, including the infiltration into South Vietnam of regular PAVN divisions. These units, along with VC guerrillas and light infantry formations, were countering the American challenge. Within South Vietnam, the PAVN/VC sought opportunities to inflict American casualties in large and small engagements. They also concentrated troops at various points on South Vietnam's borders to create a strategic threat to the allies and compel the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, (MACV) to disperse its reserves.
January
2 January
Operation Bolo was a successful combat ruse by the United States Air Force (USAF) that resulted in the USAF shooting down seven Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) MiG-21 interceptors.
North Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Van Dong signaled in an interview with The New York Times correspondent Harrison Salisbury that his nation would begin direct peace talks with the United States if the U.S. maintained an unconditional halt to American bombing, a statement confirmed by President Ho Chi Minh two weeks later.
5-31 January
Operation Maeng Ho VIII was a search and clear operation conducted by the Republic of Korea Army (ROK) Capital Division along Highway 1 in Phú Yên Province. The operation resulted in 150 PAVN/VC killed and 400 captured.
6 January
In the Third Battle of Nakhang Royal Lao Army (RLA) forces with U.S. air support repulsed a PAVN attack on Lima Site 36 at Na Khang. The PAVN lost an estimated 250 killed and the RLA lost nine killed.
6–15 January
Operation Deckhouse Five was conducted by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and South Vietnamese Marine Corps forces along the Mekong River Delta. The operation was notable in that it was a sizable, combined USMC and Vietnamese Marine amphibious operation and it was the last Special Landing Force (SLF) amphibious landing to take place beyond the boundaries of I Corps. The operation resulted in 21 VC, seven Marines and one ARVN killed.
6 January - 31 May
Operation Palm Beach was conducted by the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, 3rd Battalion 39th Infantry and 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 60th Infantry as a search and destroy operation and for the establishment of Đồng Tâm Base Camp. It resulted in 570 VC and 149 U.S. killed.
8–28 January
Operation Cedar Falls was a military operation conducted primarily by U.S. forces. The aim of this massive search and destroy operation was to eradicate the so-called "Iron Triangle", an area located in close proximity to Saigon, which had become a major VC stronghold. The operation resulted in 720 PAVN/VC killed and 218 captured, U.S. losses were 72 killed and ARVN losses were 11 killed.
9 January
In the Raid on Ban Naden a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-led team raided a Pathet Lao prisoner of war camp in Ban Naden in northern Laos. The operation successfully freed 82 prisoners.
The VC sank the dredgeship Jamaica Bay which was dredging for the construction of Đồng Tâm Base Camp, three crewmembers were killed.