Dong Hoi and the value of Long Beach's radar capability

The Battle of Dong Hoi label requires care because Vietnamese and American accounts disagree over whether two or three MiG-17s were involved, whether torpedo boats were sunk, and what damage or casualties resulted. Long Beach's combat-action ribbon for April 26, 1972, a week after the officially dated action, suggests that the operational sequence may have been more complicated than a single neat battle narrative. The possible cruiser targets also differed sharply. Oklahoma City was a converted Cleveland-class ship classed as a Galveston-class guided-missile cruiser, while Long Beach had much greater radar capability and posed a very different air-defense problem.