The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong leadership in 1967 planned synchronized strikes against cities, towns, and military bases throughout the length of South Vietnam. They assigned 35 battalions to the Saigon attack where the prime target was the United States Embassy; while the embassy was not the main center of the American effort in South Vietnam, its symbolism was enormous. After years of being told that "there was light at the end of the tunnel," the news that the embassy's defenses had been breached was indeed stunning.
The Mekong Delta, the southernmost of the nation's provinces, was the granary of South Vietnam. This writer, as a matter of fact, was a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of CanTho from 1966 to 1967. We were told at the time that the South Vietnamese general of the IV Corps (Delta) had a separate peace with the local Viet Cong. Be that as it may, in 1968, American military advisors were astounded by the fanaticism, yes, and even the gallantry of the Viet Cong attacks.
The U.S. Military bases of Long Binh and Bien Hoa, northeast of Saigon were attacked, as well as Da Nang, South Vietnam's second largest city.
Perhaps the grimmest struggle was within the ancient capital of Hue. We were totally unprepared. Units of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong rapidly controlled the city with the exception of the U.S. Army advisory compound and the Headquarters of the First Vietnamese Division. It took American and South Vietnamese forces 25 days to retake the city. The carnage and destruction were indescribable.
(Information for this report was taken from Don Oberdofer's TET!, 1971)
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