suprise attack- tet offensive

A detailed Summary of suprise attack- tet offensive

Shortly after midnight on January 31, 1968, nineteen members of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF)--better known to the world as Vietcong (VC)--secretly assembled in a garage about five blocks away from the American Embassy in Saigon. They sat huddled together in silence, cleaning and oiling their weapons, listening to final instructions from their leaders on their forthcoming commando-style operation. Tet is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. It is celebrated on the night between Jan. 30 and Jan. 31. The president of South Vietnam, President Nguyen Thieu suggested a cease-fire, and communist General Vo Nguyen Giap readily accepted it. But, a "general offensive and a general uprising" was about to take place. The communist leaders were planning a surprise attack. The 1968 Tet Offensive sparked future battles, helped to bring an end to the Vietnam War, and helped the U.S. gain a huge win over the communists. General Vo Nguyen Giap was an extreme nationalist. Ho Chi Minh, one of Vietnam's communist leaders, taught Giap. Minh taught Giap about the Vietnamese war hero Emperor Quang Trung. During the 1789 Tet holidays, Trung let his troops celebrate a day early. Then, on Tet, Trung's

troops attacked and drove their hated enemy, the Chinese, out of their land. Gen. Giap had a statue of Emperor Quang Trung in his courtyard. The statue stood as a silent reminder of the earlier 1789 Tet Offensive. Gen. Giap had ordered that a poem by Ho Chi Minh be broadcast over Radio Hanoi. The poem read: This Spring far outshines the previous Springs, Of victories throughout the land come happy tidings. Let the North and South emulate each other in fighting the U.S. Aggressors! Forward! Total victory will be ours. Following the poem was an explanation for the upcoming assaults on South Vietnamese and American forces. It was said that the "general offensive and general uprising" was meant to restore power to the people. The order also mentioned that Tet would be the greatest battle fought in the history of the country. "It will bring worldwide changes, but will also require many sacrifices." The final message of the broadcast stated that this "offensive" would begin at 0135 on Jan. 30. The U.S. and South Vietnamese possessed many pieces of evidence of the upcoming Tet strike. The problem was that U.S. and ARVN (South Vietnamese) personnel did not use the evidence efficiently. One U.S. intelligence officer recalled, "If we'd gotten the whole battle plan, it wouldn't have been believed. It wouldn't have been credible to us." One piece of evidence was a captured attack order. The order stressed strong military attacks used in conjunction with local uprisings. The document also instructed VC forces to move toward the capital city, Saigon, take power, and try to rally enemy (U.S. and South Vietnamese) over to the communist cause. Finally, it said to disperse propaganda and enlist as many soldiers as possible. This order should have informed the U.S. and the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam, or ARVN, that a massive attack was being conceived. But instead, U.S. officials believed that the order was simply enemy propaganda, intended to raise NVA and VC troop morale. Therefore, when the document was published, it failed to draw serious attention. Another piece of evidence that proved a large-scale attack was coming up was the interception of two recorded messages. The tapes were found on two of the eleven VC leaders holding a secret meet

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Approximate Word count = 1523
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History