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09.09.2010 02:56
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The Tet Holiday

31.1.1968

The Tet Holiday. The Lunar New Year. The greatest Holiday of South East Asia. In January 1968, most of the South Vietnamese people were looking forward to a great celebration, fireworks, and also a few hours of peace and safety. The country was ravaged by civil war and endangered by its aggressive northern communist neighbour. It was sure that the truce declared by communists for the Tet Holiday would allow it to forget the war at least for a few brief days.

But Hanoi had other plans. The winner from Dien Bien Phu, general Giap, devised a grandiose plan, which would allow total victory for the communists. Both the North Vietnamese Army and their guerrilla allies, the Viet Cong, suffered many defeats during the year of 1967. The collapse of the communist forces in the South Vietnam was nearly as aggressive as Westmoreland's operations were bringing the communist soldiers to their knees again and again. Giap, with his career built upon victories, where countless of his countrymen died in ill-prepared operations, decided to take the great risk once again. He convinced Ho Chi Minh to authorize a massive attack against South Vietnamese targets, which should (at least from the Hanoi ideologists' point of view) incite a revolution between the South Vietnamese.
So the communists violated their own truce the 31st of January 1968. They started a great offensive against the capitals of the provinces, South Vietnamese and American bases and also against government offices. Over 60,000 of guerrilla soldiers, supported by thousands of regulars from the North Vietnamese Army, launched the attack. The last day of January 1968, thousands and thousands of people were celebrating the New Year on the streets of South Vietnam. And suddenly the sounds of fireworks were mixed with other sounds: gunshots, explosions from the grenades and mortar shells. The communist attack arrived unexpectedly like a storm. It seemed as if there was no end of the communist soldiers, and that the end of the Vietnamese Republic was near. But after a few days, American and South Vietnamese forces managed to regroup, and they started to push the guerrillas out of the cities. Despite Ho Chi Minh's appeal to the South Vietnamese, none of them raised against the government. The South Vietnamese civilians enraged by violation of the truce, joined forces with soldiers and fought against their self-appointed "liberators". The communist offensive drowned in blood. Although both Hanoi and Viet Cong overestimated their strength, there were places where fierce battles raged for days and days. The worst fights were in an old city named Hue, which was the home of the Forbidden Palace.