![]() “We didn't know where the enemy was, in which direction even,” Mike Downs, a Marine captain, told NPR.ĭespite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure to inspire widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for the North Vietnamese.īefore Tet, Westmoreland and other representatives of the Johnson administration had been claiming that the end of the war was in sight now, it was clear that a long struggle still lay ahead, shaking their confidence in their ability to win the Cold War. “What I saw was probably the most intense ground fighting on a sustained basis over several days of any other period during the war,” Howard Prince, a U.S. On the North Vietnamese side, an estimated 5,000 soldiers were killed, most of them hit by American air and artillery strikes. Marines were killed in the Battle of Hue, along with some 400 South Vietnamese troops. In scenes of carnage recorded on film by numerous television crews on the scene, nearly 150 U.S. The toughest fighting in Hue occurred at the ancient citadel, which the North Vietnamese struggled fiercely to hold against superior U.S. In addition to more than 2,800 bodies, another 3,000 residents were missing, and the occupying forces had destroyed many of the city’s grand temples, palaces and other monuments. and ARVN forces discovered evidence of the massacre after they regained control of the city on February 26. ![]() They executed these so-called counter-revolutionaries and buried their bodies in mass graves. ![]() The Battle of Hue would rage for more than three weeks after PAVN and Viet Cong forces burst into the city on January 31, easily overwhelming the government forces there and taking control of the city’s ancient citadel.Įarly in their occupation of Hue, Viet Cong soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting civil servants, religious leaders, teachers and other civilians connected with American forces or with the South Vietnamese regime. Particularly intense fighting took place in the city of Hue, located on the Perfume River some 50 miles south of the border between North and South Vietnam. and ARVN forces managed to successfully counter most of the attacks and inflict heavy Viet Cong losses. ![]() Though Giap had succeeded in achieving surprise, his forces were spread too thin in the ambitious offensive, and U.S. Embassy, and its initial success, stunned American and international observers, who saw images of the carnage broadcast on television as it occurred. Embassy in Saigon, a Viet Cong platoon got inside the complex’s courtyard before U.S. In a particularly bold attack on the U.S. or ARVN military bases throughout South Vietnam, in a total of more than 120 attacks. Twenty-four hours later, PAVN and Viet Cong forces struck a number of other targets throughout South Vietnam, including cities, towns, government buildings and U.S. On the early morning of January 30, 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked 13 cities in central South Vietnam, just as many families began their observances of the lunar new year. Johnson and General William Westmoreland focused their attention on the defense of Khe Sanh, Giap’s 70,000 poised to begin their true objective: the Tet Offensive. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located on the principal road from northern South Vietnam into Laos. On January 21, 1968, PAVN forces began a massive artillery bombardment of the U.S. In preparation for the planned offensive, Giap and his troops in the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a series of attacks in the fall of 1967 on isolated American garrisons in the highlands of central Vietnam and along the Laotian and Cambodian frontiers. Giap, in coordination with North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, believed that the attacks would cause Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces to collapse and foment discontent and rebellion among the South Vietnamese population.įurthermore, Giap believed the alliance between South Vietnam and the United States was unstable-he hoped the offensive would drive the final wedge between them and convince American leaders to give up their defense of South Vietnam.ĭid you know? In February 1968, in the wake of the Tet Offensive, the respected TV journalist Walter Cronkite, who had been a moderate and balanced observer of the war's progress, announced that it seemed “more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” President Johnson reportedly told an aide, “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.” Khe Sanh Attacked In early 1968, however, the North Vietnamese military commander General Vo Nguyen Giap chose January 31 as the occasion for a coordinated offensive of surprise attacks aimed at breaking the stalemate in Vietnam. ![]()
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