The shelling was an attack on a Cai Lậy District government-controlled schoolyard in Cai Lậy town, Định Tường province, South Vietnam on 30 August 1973,^[1] by Viet Cong forces. The shelling was centered on the districts of Cái Bè and Cai Lậy, areas of traditional VC control in Định Tường Province in the northern delta.

The US Government called the bombardment part of "the terrorist campaign of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam." According to the U.S., 32 students were killed and 55 others injured.^[2] The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam and South Vietnam each blamed the other for the attack.^[3]