The year 2008 will mark the 40th year since the most important occasion for our Nation in the Vietnam War. It was in late January and on through the Spring and Early Summer of 1968 that we and our allies met and defeated the enemy’s so-called Tet Offensive.
With so many veterans of that war now entering into senior years, early 2008 was a proper time to remember this important battle, to honor those who fought -- and won -- the Vietnam War’s fiercest and most difficult engagement, and to challenge the misperceptions and lies about it that have been allowed to exist and persist for the past 40 years.
The struggle to defeat the Communist enemy’s Tet Offensive is not very well understood. It was one battle and yet it was also a series of engagements. The common thread was poor reporting with a lot of resulting confusion, of which opponents of the struggle, propagandists, the poorly informed and unnecessary apologists all made the most.
Those of us who were actually there had the experience seared into our minds and engraved in our souls. We knew the people killed and wounded. We saw the struggle at its grassroots, and we know with absolutely certainty how wrong are the perceptions today about that place and time so long ago and so far away.
It is far past time for the substantial wrongful thinking about Tet to be corrected.
Many veterans came home from the service, got on with life, and became hometown leaders -- trusted and well thought of people of strength and accomplishment. The war, never forgotten, went deep into our memories and most of us seldom talked about it. On those rare occasions when we did, our discussion was usually only with those who had been there themselves.
That was for good reason. We were not well greeted when we came home, so we left alone the emotional lies, rather than engage in rational public debate to correct them.
Time is moving on, and so many of our countrymen have come to almost permanently think of Tet as a defeat rather than of the victory that it was, because of the myths and untruths told for so long in so many classrooms, and other places.
Right now, what the history books say to our grandchildren about Tet is as twisted as was the reporting of the event all those years ago. It is far past time for those of us who were there to leave our place of shelter and re-engage, to work hard to set the record straight.
Thank you.
The key battle of the Vietnam War was the struggle made to repulse the enemy’s Tet Offensive, a fight which primarily took place during the first six months of 1968.
Enemy forces under North Vietnam’s control throughout the operating theater sustained combat losses of approximately 100,000 (the equivalent number needed to form 10 entire divisions). During the same period of time, the allied force’s military losses were fewer than 20,000.
The enemy attack was planned many months in advance and, in fact, many of the enemy attacks made in 1967 were designed to draw US, allied and ARVN forces away from the coastal plain and away from the large cities, out to border positions where they could then be easily bypassed or contained when the main offensive being planned could be launched against the Republic of Vietnam’s largest population centers.
This primary assault was made by the communists during the closing days of January and the month of February 1968.
Another follow-on series of attacks was made in early May, but, like the first attack, the attempt was poorly coordinated and resulted in a dismal failure for the enemy. Many surrenders of communist troops were recorded, especially in the summer of 1968.
The enemy planned a renewal of fighting in August but this planned strike never got off the ground. Another attempt was made in isolated locations -- for instance, Tay Ninh Province -- late in the year but was easily defeated, with light losses on the allied side, and heavy losses -- especially around border installations -- on the enemy side.
The 1968 campaign which History will record as the Tet Offensive ground to an end as an unmitigated military disaster for political leader Ho Chi Minh, military leader Nguyen Giap, and the communists.
From a military point of view there was no doubt about which side achieved victory; yet, politically, there were mixed results. The battle called the Tet Offensive was the most disastrous defeat of arms North Vietnam suffered in the long war but, paradoxically, it was also the most important political victory in the portion of the war waged by the north against the Americans.
Beginning on 31 January 1968, the large battles were mostly over by the end of February. Of the 85,000 troops who had been committed to the fight, it is estimated that more than half were dead at the end of 30 days. Many thousands were injured, other thousands were captured, or became missing, and the hoped for general uprising by the people of the south against the government in Saigon did not occur.
A positive result for the enemy was the American decision to curtail the bombing of the north. The political scene in the US had been thoroughly jumbled. The pacification program in the Republic of Vietnam had reduced emphasis, and negotiations to end the war were being planned. There were many thousands of refugees created, and the economic situation of the Republic of Vietnam was critically impacted. Physical damage within metropolitan areas and down through the hamlet level was unusually severe.
On the debit side for the enemy, the offensive had united South Vietnam in solid opposition to the north, and had galvanized and drawn commitment from the urban residents, in particular, against the insurgents. The people blamed the communists for the widespread killing. General mobilization became possible for the Republic of Vietnam after Tet.
The military forces of the Republic of Vietnam gained a well deserved sense of respect and confidence and pride in the way they had reacted to the attacks and in the counter attacks they had made.
Many mass murders carried out by the enemy did much to destroy communist claims to be of and for the people. Never again would the Viet Cong be able to recruit in the south, without force.
Tet was a benchmark for both sides. For the communists it was a series of severe military defeats on the battlegrounds themselves. But it was also a psychological victory for them, particularly in the United States, but also in Europe. Yet, even as many Americans wrongly were becoming convinced by academic elitists and by members of the mass media that a major military defeat had taken place, the people of the Republic of Vietnam saw what had happened in quite a different light.
Indeed, much more was lost for Hanoi than was gained, politically, within the Republic of Vietnam, as a result of the offensive.
The reason for the crushing military defeat of the enemy involves the principle of mass. Strategically, by attacking everywhere, the communists had superior strength nowhere -- and that is why they lost.
Please consider these comparisons of Tet to other important American Battles:
The Civil War, Gettysburg, 1-3 July 1863
This crucial battle of the American Civil War involved a Confederate invasion of the north. Casualties were approximately 23,000 Federal soldiers and 28,000 Confederate soldiers killed in action. The Gettysburg Battle was not decisive and Lee was able to retreat with his force mostly intact back into Virginia.
Had Gettysburg ended with as severe a defeat of the Confederacy as that suffered by the communists in Tet, the American Civil War would have ended in 1863.
In the Tet Offensive, the Viet Cong insurgents in the south were shattered as a fighting structure, and until the American portion of the war ended they had no more major role to play.
After Tet, the fighting was primarily against the organizations of the North Vietnamese regulars -- roughly the same situation as had happened in Korea in the fall of 1950, after MacArthur’s Inchon Invasion in September 1950.
In the Korean War, that campaign shattered the north Korean ability to fight and, from late November through the signing of the Armistice Agreement in July of 1953, the struggle for freedom in Korea was primarily against the Chinese.
In both Korea then, and after Tet in Vietnam, it became a whole different war.
World War II, Guadalcanal, 1942
This battle was the first major allied land victory over the Japanese in World War II. Japan lost 25,000 military members KIA. American losses were 1,500 dead and 4,800 wounded. The number of Americans killed in action during Tet was about the same number of those killed in action (KIA) on Guadalcanal.
In Vietnam, however, more than 7,000 were wounded....a figure more than two thousand higher than the number wounded on Guadalcanal.
Fighting on Guadalcanal in 1942 and early 1943 marked a turning point in the Pacific for our air, naval and ground forces. All battles after that campaign focused on taking terrain away from the enemy, and resulted in defeat after defeat for the Japanese.
The same can be said of what happened in Vietnam. From Tet, until the political decision was made in the United States to disengage, never again was the enemy able to control the flow of battlefield events.
** There was fighting in 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of six autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals, and in 50 hamlets. Every allied airfield was hit as were many different kinds of military installations and government facilities.
** About 70,000 enemy troops actually participated the first day. There was a total of 84,000 enemy finally committed in the course of the campaign and 40,000 plus of these were lost.
** The enemy’s attack against Tan Son Nhut Air Base, just outside Saigon, was in fact a strike against the very heart of the American effort in-country. MACV Headquarters was located on part of the installation. Beginning at 0320 hours, 31 January, 1968, four reinforced enemy battalions came against the west perimeter, while elements of two battalions attacked MACV itself. The defending force consisted of US Air Force personnel, mostly assigned to the base combat defense force, US Army soldiers, some from other Allied nations, and Republic of Vietnam armed forces members. The allied side, in the initial few hours of battle, suffered 55 killed in action and 163 wounded. There were 157 enemy bodies on the air base and another 267 were counted just outside the fence line. In all, it is estimated that 962 or more enemy died in the attack against Tan Son Nhut and facilities in its immediate area. The number of wounded are not known. As of 23 February 1968, 5,519 enemy were killed in action in the greater Saigon area.
** Allied losses were great throughout the country. South Vietnamese lost 3,000 killed and 8,000 wounded. US losses were 1,500 KIA and 7,764 wounded. About 800,000 people became refugees and the communists are believed to have committed at least 6,000 murders.
** The 77 day siege of Khe Sanh of the 6,000 US Marines and handful of personnel from other services may have really been intended as a feint, with Hue being the true objective. About 500 Americans were KIA at Khe Sanh. About 10,000 enemy are believed to have been KIA at Khe Sanh, and it is suspected that more than 5,000 native Bru people of the region also died in the fighting. The siege began in January and was was lifted in April. There is no question, whatsoever, that the US Marines holding Khe Sanh as well as hilltop outposts, and in the battle being supported by elements of the other services, completely defeated the enemy offensive.
** The ancient imperial city of Hue was attacked 31 January and the enemy held parts of it for 26 days. In the fighting, 142 US Marines were killed and 857 were wounded. The US Army lost 74 KIA and 507 WIA. South Vietnam military lost 384 KIA and 1,830 WIA. The enemy lost over 5,000 KIA with 89 taken prisoner. More than 50 percent of the city was destroyed and more than 116,000 were made homeless.
Respectfully,
Rick Fulton
THE VIETNAM WAR
1968 TET OFFENSIVE
(31 January-30 June 1968)
Some 1968 Tet Offensive Facts: