Tet 1968

At dawn on Jan. 31, 1968, South Vietnam was rocked by attacks throughout the country by Viet Cong (VC), the communist guerrilla military force attempting to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. The attacks took place on the first day of the truce celebrating the Vietnamese Tet holiday. The VC were being supported and assisted by the regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA), but the offensive used almost all VC units. The cities of Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quang Tri were captured in simultaneous attacks that struck at 30 provincial capitals as well as U.S. and South Vietnamese military bases.

The attacks caused heavy casualties in all forces with the VC taking advantage of the element of surprise with large forces unexpected by the U.S. and South Vietnamese defenders. In one of the more dramatic attacks, a unit of 19 VC attacked and captured the U.S. embassy in Saigon. U.S. military police were unable to stop the VC from entering and holding the building for six hours, and the VC were killed when counterattacked by U.S. troops who landed on the embassy roof and fought down through the building.

The fighting in the Tet Offensive lasted for more than 11 days and decimated the VC. The U.S. news media largely and incorrectly interpreted the early communist successes as being a victory for the enemy. The VC were not able to hold any of the cities and major targets they captured early in the offensive. The fighting killed VC to such an extent that North Vietnam was forced to replace the VC with NVA troops. The American public read or saw the losses in the offensive and recalled the overly optimistic reports from the military that had claimed the near defeat of the VC for years. Ironically, the Tet offensive ultimately was a defeat for the VC, but the early violence and success of the attacks seemingly disproved the prior U.S. military claims.

The South Vietnamese military would begin to replace U.S. ground combat units, and by August 1972 that process would continue. The NVA would make another major assault in March 1972 and launched a fight that would continue until October. The NVA used artillery and tanks in a failed conventional attack against the South Vietnamese supported by U.S. air power.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.