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For educational purposes
This episode Covers the Tet Offensive of 1968 in great detail, especially the street battles in Saigon and Hue and the resulting near annihilation of the Vietcong.
This episode Covers the Tet Offensive of 1968 in great detail, especially the street battles in Saigon and Hue and the resulting near annihilation of the Vietcong.
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LearningTranscript
00:00I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
00:53In April 1967,
00:58North Vietnamese Army units opened their biggest offensive of the Vietnam War.
01:08Their role was to draw American forces into the remotest parts of South Vietnam,
01:13far away from the populated areas.
01:19The hope was that the main attacks, scheduled for early 1968,
01:23would find the Americans deployed in all the wrong places.
01:38Fighting began at the end of March when a strategic marine patrol
01:43ran into an ambush near one of the strategic hills
01:46that lay between the fire bases of Khe Sanh and Khan Tien.
01:50Dozens of marines were killed during this first brief and unforeseen combat.
01:55The North Vietnamese had by then assembled nearly 2,000 men near the base at Khan Tien,
02:01and almost every day they hit the marines with artillery, rockets and mortars.
02:05In the rugged countryside around, there were savage battles as patrols from each side
02:11clashed in what became known as the Hill fights.
02:17During these battles, 160 marines were killed and 700 wounded.
02:23The NVA resisted with such courage that, as a mark of respect,
02:28the marines, who usually called the Viet Cong Charlie,
02:31rechristened them Mr. Cong.
02:34But in the end, it was the sheer weight of American firepower
02:38that turned the tables at Khan Tien.
02:43Repeated NVA assaults were broken,
02:45and more than 900 North Vietnamese soldiers were killed by marine artillery,
02:50massive bombing and the guns of naval vessels offshore.
03:05After the battles at Khan Tien,
03:07the next clashes were near the border with Cambodia in the south.
03:14At Song Bay in late October 1967,
03:18a South Vietnamese Army battalion
03:20was attacked by the North Vietnamese 88th Regiment.
03:26The attackers were driven off with help from heavy American airstrikes.
03:32Two days earlier, Loch Ninh, another provincial capital,
03:35had been stormed by the elite 273rd Regiment of the 9th Viet Cong Division,
03:41supported by the 65th Regiment of the NVA.
03:47Reinforcements from the South Vietnamese 5th Division and the American 1st
03:51fought for several days and shattered the NVA Regiment,
03:54leaving over 850 NVA and NLF dead.
04:00The fiercest of all the border battles was near an American camp at Docteau in the Central Highlands,
04:06which had been massively reinforced following a tip-off from an NVA deserter.
04:11By November 1967, the 1st NVA Division, reinforced by two independent regiments,
04:18faced the American 4th Infantry Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and a mechanized task force.
04:24Bloody battles would rage around Docteau for the whole month.
04:39Of all the desperate encounters of the Battle of Docteau,
04:43the most costly for both sides was the fight for Hill 875.
04:47In the Highlands, whoever controlled the hills could rain down mortar and artillery fire on the valleys.
05:03The task of taking Hill 875 fell to two American battalions,
05:08one airborne and one from the 4th Infantry Division.
05:15Supporting them were fighters, B-52 bombers and artillery,
05:20blasting the enemy defenses with high explosives and napalm.
05:24170,000 artillery shells were fired on the enemy during this battle,
05:29and the fighter bombers flew 2,100 missions.
05:33The North Vietnamese defenders were so well dug in and so determined
05:37that the Americans were forced to launch repeated assaults,
05:41punctuated by yet more airstrikes, before they could reach the crest of the hill.
05:48It was a desperate and often nightmarish battle.
06:00It took a full week to capture Hill 875.
06:06The assaults cost more than 150 dead and 400 wounded,
06:11bringing American casualties at Docteau to almost 350, with just under 1,000 wounded.
06:19The North Vietnamese army had lost 1,200 men.
06:30In December 1967, the dry season had just begun in the southern provinces.
06:36Every year, that was the signal for intense Viet Cong activity
06:40as the Goroas moved troops and supplies into place for their next offensive.
06:52At the headquarters of Military Assistance Command Vietnam near Saigon,
06:57General Westmoreland and his senior officers ran a series of studies
07:01to try and predict where the enemy would strike in 1968.
07:17The enemy's Tet offensive, though it had been predicted, took the U.S. command by surprise.
07:23They suspected that the Viet Cong would concentrate their efforts on the northern part of the country.
07:27The North Vietnamese army might use up to five divisions to try and capture South Vietnam's two northernmost provinces.
07:38Other attacks in the highlands and near Saigon could provide the diversion.
07:46To counter the expected northern thrust, the Americans decided to send up their most mobile reaction force,
07:52the 1st Air Cavalry Division.
07:56In early January 1968, the division began the massive task of moving north together with other U.S. and South
08:04Vietnamese troops.
08:12By now, three quarters of the American battalions in the south of Vietnam were deployed deep in the interior,
08:19near the Cambodian border.
08:23Unknown to them, elements of the NLF's 9th, 7th and 5th divisions, along with other units,
08:33were already heading towards the capital for the Tet offensive.
08:40The Americans, suspicious of increased NLF radio traffic behind them
08:45and the lack of activity in the border areas began a rapid redeployment back towards Saigon.
09:03American forces were pulled back from the border areas with astonishing speed.
09:13Such incredible mobility was something the Viet Cong had never expected.
09:18The ploy to use the battles on the borders to draw the Americans away from the real targets of the
09:23Tet Offensive had failed,
09:25although it had allowed NLF forces to get closer to Saigon.
09:34It was Lieutenant General Frederick Wayand, the commander of the U.S. Second Field Force, that had requested the American
09:41redeployment.
09:44Soon, more than half his battalions were again at bases close to Saigon.
09:54Wayand ordered a series of sweeps to try and find the Viet Cong units that were surely somewhere within reach.
10:09The Americans were now convinced that a major offensive was coming soon.
10:17However, no one imagined that the Viet Cong were planning coordinated attacks across the whole country.
10:22Neither did anyone guess that they meant to break the traditional Tet New Year truce.
10:33As a precaution, the Americans did ask the South Vietnamese government to call off the truce and cancel army leave.
10:41But for political reasons, the request was refused.
11:08By the last week in January 1968, the Viet Cong had almost completed the war.
11:14The massive task of deploying 84,000 guerrillas for the Tet Offensive.
11:22Most of the movement of troops and supplies had successfully been kept secret.
11:30Even villagers who didn't support the Viet Cong stayed neutral,
11:34and few reports of guerrilla activity reached the government's intelligence agencies.
11:47The traditional Viet Cong base areas around Saigon, districts like the Iron Triangle, played a vital part in the Viet
11:55Cong's preparations.
12:00Even the huge tunnel complex at Ku Chi, which the Americans had long believed had been completely destroyed,
12:07was still an important staging area in command center.
12:16Nearer the city, the growing crowds of travelers arriving for the Tet celebrations covered the infiltration of guerrillas and their
12:24weapons.
12:35As Tet drew closer, General Jap, the North Vietnamese commander and architect of the offensive, began to worry that his
12:42forces might not be in place on time.
12:47As it happened, dozens of attacks were launched a full day too soon.
12:52The North was still using the old calendar, which gave Tet as the 31st of January.
12:58In the South, the official New Year was the 30th of January.
13:15The wave of Viet Cong assaults in the early morning of January 30th, 1968, confirmed to the Americans that the
13:23suspected offensive was underway.
13:28General Westmoreland ordered all his forces to be on maximum alert.
13:36At the same time, the South Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Van Thieu, announced that the Tet truce was over and
13:42canceled the army's leave.
13:45Thirty-six of the 44 provincial capitals were attacked, as were five of the nation's cities.
13:51The premature attacks should have been a disaster for General Jap's plan, but in fact they were a great success,
13:58and Jap still had at least some elements of tactical surprise.
14:03American attention remained fixed on the northern border, where Westmoreland expected the real offensive to come.
14:14There, the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh had already been under siege for ten days.
14:27In the rest of the country, although headquarters had sent out warnings, alerts happened all the time, and there was
14:33no real sense of urgency.
14:37Half the South Vietnamese Army's troops were still away from their units on leave.
14:50Even in the capital, Saigon, the Viet Cong's most important objective, government forces were scattered and under strength.
15:17In the days leading up to Tet, eleven Viet Cong battalions, mostly local units,
15:23had assembled for the main assaults inside Saigon.
15:30The spearhead force was the C-10 local sapper commando battalion.
15:37Outside the city, elements of the 5th, 7th and 9th Viet Cong divisions and two independent battalions were positioned to
15:47attack American bases,
15:48block roads, and reinforce the city units.
16:03The government forces responsible for the defense of Saigon were the South Vietnamese Army's 5th Ranger Group,
16:09three regional militia units, and two military police battalions.
16:21However, two elite airborne battalions were also in the city, at Tan Sanut Airport, on their way north.
16:31The only American units inside Saigon were the 716th U.S. Army Military Police Battalion and a Marine Security Guard
16:40Detachment.
16:53The Viet Cong plan for the attacks inside Saigon had been worked out to the last detail.
17:02Most of the assaults were to be carried out by units of C-10.
17:08The Independence Palace, the offices of the South Vietnamese President, would be hit first.
17:16Next on the list was the Joint General Staff Headquarters of the South Vietnamese Army,
17:22near to the American's main headquarters in Vietnam.
17:29Tan Sanut Air Base was to be seized along with the South Vietnamese Navy Headquarters and the American Embassy,
17:36the main symbol of U.S. power in Vietnam.
17:43The government radio station would also be occupied.
17:50After the initial assault by C-10, the main Viet Cong battalions were to sweep into the city from all
17:57sides to support the offensive.
18:09In the early morning of January 31st, 1968, Viet Cong units the length and breadth of South Vietnam surged into
18:17action.
18:25In more than a hundred cities and towns, shock assaults by Viet Cong sapper commandos were followed by wave after
18:32wave of supporting troops.
18:49In Saigon, as one attack after another had erupted, there was complete confusion.
18:55Neither the South Vietnamese Army nor the Americans had a plan to deal with anything like this.
19:11The army's units were under strength and scattered, while the American MPs of the 716th Battalion had been left out
19:19of the alert issued the day before.
19:26Only 300 military police were on duty.
19:43Of the many attacks the Viet Cong unleashed in Saigon on the morning of January 31st, the assault on the
19:50government radio station was the best organized.
19:57The station was captured and the plan was to broadcast a tape of Ho Chi Minh calling for the population
20:03to rise up against the government.
20:11Ho's message never was broadcast.
20:16The station's electricity was cut off by the army in the first minutes of the attack.
20:26After a fierce six-hour battle, government soldiers, including paratroopers brought in from the airport, succeeded in forcing out the
20:34surviving Viet Cong.
20:40Barely a mile away, at the Independence Palace and the nearby Navy headquarters, the Viet Cong attackers had been driven
20:47away from their main targets within minutes.
20:53The sapper team had been forced to hole up in a nearby building.
20:58The fight lasted more than 15 hours.
21:05In the end, nearly all the Viet Cong inside were killed.
21:14Although U.S. military police were involved in firefights all over the city, in fact, very few American installations had
21:21been targeted in Saigon.
21:26The exception was the American Embassy, the ultimate symbol of U.S. support for South Vietnam.
21:39The assault on the American Embassy began at 2.30 a.m. on January 31st.
21:45Fifteen sapper commandos blew a hole in the wall of the compound and charged through the breach.
21:54The fighters had killed four American military police guards and a Marine, but their own officers had been killed almost
22:02at once.
22:06The sappers took cover and waited for reinforcements.
22:18Soon, the Viet Cong were trapped within the compound, under fire from all sides.
22:34The fight for the compound lasted for six hours, but the effects of the battle would last much longer.
22:41All around the world, an abiding image had been created.
22:45That of American troops battling to recapture their own embassy in the very heart of Saigon.
23:14The Viet Cong attack on the American Embassy, and most other targets in Saigon's city center, had been long-term,
23:21launched by the elite sapper commandos, launched by the elite sapper commandos of the C-10 battalion.
23:28The plan was that a follow-up force of 4,000 would arrive quickly.
23:35But time and time again, the main battalions had been bogged down in firefights and house-to-house battles.
23:56One of the sharpest clashes yet had happened near an American officer's quarters.
24:02The battle had quickly drawn in military police and any other U.S. personnel that could grab a weapon.
24:11During the night, a truck carrying 25 American military policemen to the fight was hit by a VC rocket head
24:18-on,
24:18and subsequent machine gun fire killed 16 Americans in a narrow street.
24:24Relief attempts had developed into a furious engagement, which would go on for 12 hours.
24:39Only a few miles away, Thanh Sa Nhat Air Base was one of the most important centers of American power
24:45in Vietnam.
24:51The defenders of Thanh Sa Nhat were a squadron of U.S. Air Force police,
24:56two platoons of Army headquarters guards,
24:58and the only two companies of South Vietnamese Army airborne troops
25:02not yet committed to battle elsewhere in the city.
25:15On the perimeter of Thanh Sa Nhat, the Viet Cong had seized several key buildings as springboards for their main
25:22assault
25:22and attacked the compound containing the villas of senior officers of the South Vietnamese general staff.
25:31The guerrillas meant to hit the base from three sides with more than a thousand troops.
25:37A large textiles plant was occupied as the base for their heavy machine guns and rockets.
25:54Only the arrival of an armored reconnaissance unit of the 25th Infantry Division
25:58that had raced to the scene from its base 15 miles away save Thanh Sa Nhat.
26:07The tanks and APCs hit the attackers from behind
26:10and in furious fighting had split the Viet Cong force.
26:34In the hours that followed, the guerrillas were hammered by American helicopter gunships and fighter bombers.
26:45The attack on Thanh Sa Nhat was soon completely broken.
27:04Fifteen miles north of Saigon was the massive American logistical complex at Long Beach.
27:13Nearby was the U.S. base at Ben Hoa, and between them the headquarters of 2nd Field Force and 3
27:20Corps,
27:22from which the American and South Vietnamese battles in the Saigon area were being coordinated.
27:32The main attacking forces were two full regiments of the Viet Cong 5th Division.
27:41After a heavy rocket and mortar barrage, the 275th assaulted Long Binh from the north side,
27:47while a local force battalion mounted a diversionary raid and sappers blew up part of a massive ammunition dump outside
27:54the main complex.
28:02At the same time, the 274th hit Ben Hoa, and a local battalion tried to seize 3 Corps headquarters.
28:16The American 199th Flight Infantry Brigade defending Long Binh was attacked by a mechanized reserve,
28:23which hit the flank of the Viet Cong attacking Ben Hoa.
28:32A unit of the 101st Airborne Division was airlifted in while helicopter gunships and more mechanized units joined the day
28:40-long battle,
28:41eventually driving the Viet Cong away from all their objectives.
28:57For American commanders faced with the huge scale of the Viet Cong assault in and around Saigon,
29:02Tet had been an extraordinary test of nerve.
29:12It had seemed as if the enemy was everywhere at once.
29:22Throughout the day, General Wayand had been directing the American battle,
29:27even as his own headquarters at Long Binh was under attack.
29:36In the first two hours of the Tet Offensive, Wayand had deployed 5,000 airborne and armored reinforcements.
29:43More than 500 armored personnel carriers, mounting their deadly .50 caliber machine guns, had been sent into combat.
30:00So far, all the main Viet Cong assaults had been at least contained.
30:09But no one doubted there was still hard fighting ahead.
30:18How would you assess the enemy's purposes yesterday and today?
30:23The enemy very deceitfully has taken advantage of the Tet Truce in order to create maximum consternation within South Vietnam,
30:39particularly in the populated areas.
30:42In my opinion, this is...
30:44In spite of the temptation to throw everything he had into the battle against the guerrillas,
30:49General Westmoreland was determined to hold back.
30:52He was still convinced that the Tet attacks were a diversion from the main effort,
30:57which he expected to come in the northern border areas.
31:05He was deeply reluctant to commit his most mobile forces to street battles.
31:17By now, Westmoreland knew that the Viet Cong attacks were being countered successfully all over the country,
31:24but at a great cost to American lives.
31:28The South Vietnamese army was standing up well.
31:33The next stage would be to defeat the guerrillas town by town and battalion by battalion.
31:53In the far south of Vietnam, in the heavily populated Mekong Delta,
31:58the Tet Offensive had seen Viet Cong assaults on nearly all of the 16 provincial capitals.
32:09Can Tho, the South Vietnamese Army's four corps headquarters, was also hit.
32:16Route 4 was cut in 62 places.
32:28In the central and northern provinces,
32:31eleven cities, towns and bases, including two corps headquarters,
32:37had been attacked in the premature offensive of January 30th.
32:45Eight more had been hit the following night.
32:50All the major attacks would be repulsed within a week, except in one city.
32:59The assault on the old Vietnamese imperial capital of Hue would lead to the biggest and bloodiest battle of the
33:06whole Tet Offensive.
33:14The city of Hue was the third largest in South Vietnam and the ancient capital of its former emperors.
33:22It was split in two by the perfumed river, over which ran key rail and road bridges.
33:29On the north side of the river was the citadel, a walled city within the city, surrounded by a maze
33:36of streets and originally the home of the emperor.
33:40Near the citadel was the headquarters of the 1st South Vietnamese Army Division.
33:45On the other side of the river was the American headquarters compound.
33:50The only South Vietnamese unit inside Hue was the elite Black Panther Reconnaissance Company.
34:01The assault on Hue was launched by two local Viet Cong battalions, elements of the 6th Regiment of the 325th
34:09NVA Division and the 4th Independent Regiment.
34:19Within 24 hours, Hue fell to 5,000 NVA troops who were quickly reinforced by a further 7,000.
34:28They instantly raised the North Vietnamese flag over the citadel.
34:33Thousands of NVA troops ranged through the streets, mopping up pockets of resistance, and most of Hue was quickly secured.
34:42The exceptions were small areas around the American and South Vietnamese headquarters.
34:50There, the defenders held out and had been reinforced by small units rushed in from outside the city.
35:02The U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese troops that had come to the aid of their beleaguered headquarters
35:08had run a gauntlet of NVA forces to get into the city.
35:12Bigger units were battling to follow them, but it would be days before they would get inside Hue in any
35:18strength.
35:30Meantime, it was clear that the North Vietnamese Army meant to remain and would not be dislodged without a major
35:36battle.
35:54By the second day of the Tet Offensive, it was clear to Viet Cong commanders that the attacks in Saigon
36:00were in trouble.
36:06The assault teams had been driven out of most of their main objectives.
36:13The promised reinforcements had rarely arrived, and even nearby units had often failed to support each other.
36:26Secrecy meant they usually knew nothing of any orders but their own.
36:39The fight for Saigon had, by now, settled into a large number of separate battles raging in different parts of
36:46the city.
36:51Often, the Viet Cong were completely surrounded by government forces.
36:57Isolated units now faced concentrated assault from armored vehicles, planes, and helicopters.
37:16In spite of the setbacks, the Viet Cong had succeeded in winning control of huge areas of Saigon.
37:29To many Viet Cong fighters, it seemed that victory was at last in sight.
37:43They had been promised that the people of Saigon would rise up to support them.
37:51If they did, the war could be won soon, whatever happened on the battlefield.
38:13At the same time as the attacks on Saigon, the Viet Cong had launched powerful assaults on the surrounding towns.
38:23The headquarters of the 18th South Vietnamese Army Division was also hit.
38:30The headquarters had held out, and the town had been retaken after fierce fighting by American, South Vietnamese, and Australian
38:37units.
38:47As part of an attempt to surround Saigon and cut off the capital from reinforcements,
38:51the Viet Cong 273rd Regiment launched a massive assault on the town of Tu Duc,
38:57which contained one of the two South Vietnamese military academies.
39:01The regiment took heavy losses, but the following day, it seized the Newport Bridge over the Saigon River.
39:09Together, South Vietnamese and American units recaptured the bridge after a violent battle.
39:25At the high point of the Viet Cong assault on Saigon, the guerrillas occupied whole tracts of the west and
39:32south of the city.
39:37They used the Phu Tho Racetrack as a major assembly area.
39:43The American 199th Light Infantry Brigade launched an all-out assault on the racetrack buildings, driving the Viet Cong into
39:50the streets around.
39:56By the fourth day of the Tet Battles, the Viet Cong were being squeezed into the sprawling and crowded district
40:02of Cho Lan.
40:15The drive to clear the Viet Cong from their last strongholds in Cho Lan and other parts of Saigon would
40:21last more than a month.
40:23Like the battles to clear residential districts all over South Vietnam, the fighting would be immensely costly in lives.
40:44Everywhere, instead of surrendering in mass, the guerrillas were fighting back with determination and skill.
40:56Most Viet Cong units committed to the Tet Offensive had made no plans for a possible retreat.
41:02The hopes of Viet Cong leaders were now fading fast.
41:08They were forced to accept that the Tet Offensive was failing.
41:11The South Vietnamese Army had been meant to collapse or even join the guerrillas, but instead most of its units
41:18had bravely chosen to fight.
41:21According to General Jap, it was their skill and determination that largely blunted the North's Tet Offensive.
41:43Even more disastrous, the uprising that was supposed to have seen thousands of civilians storming government buildings and proclaiming the
41:50revolution had not happened.
42:01On February 17th, 1968, the Viet Cong launched sudden mortar and rocket attacks all over South Vietnam.
42:13The attacks were no more than a symbolic gesture.
42:18A few days later, the Viet Cong High Command ordered its units to pull back from the cities to regroup
42:24and refit their remaining forces.
42:48When the Viet Cong High Command ordered its guerrilla units to withdraw from the cities, it made one clear exception.
42:57The city of Hue was not to be abandoned.
43:04Although South Vietnamese Army and American forces had launched a determined counter-assault, Hue was too valuable a prize to
43:11lose.
43:17By the fourth day of the Hue battle, a thousand more South Vietnamese Army troops had been airlifted to the
43:23city.
43:27The Americans had been reinforced by 1,200 Marines.
43:34Fierce assaults had been launched on the gates of the citadel and into the streets of the southern city.
43:43By now, the 12,000 NVA and NLF troops in and adjacent to Hue had fortified almost every city block.
43:53The attackers were forced to advance down narrow streets and through gardens, fighting their way from house to house.
43:59Around every corner were strong points, bristling with heavy weapons.
44:11Any house or wall could conceal a heavily armed NVA assault group.
44:22At the start of the battle, in the hope of saving the imperial city from complete destruction, the South Vietnamese
44:28had insisted that the Americans not use artillery or aircraft to destroy enemy fortifications.
44:39After five days of fierce and bloody fighting, most restrictions were lifted.
44:51Bombers and artillery support were called in to hit NVA strong points.
44:59Most devastating of all, the guns of American warships joined the battle.
45:04Directed by marine spotters, the ships fired thousands of shells into the city from 14 miles away.
45:30Meanwhile, in spite of frantic American efforts, US reinforcements west of the city were still struggling to reach the battle
45:38zone.
45:54When the Tet Offensive had begun, it had caught the American 1st Air Cavalry Division in the middle of its
46:01redeployment from further south.
46:05The division was split with its headquarters and 3rd Brigade at Camp Evans and its main logistical base at Phu
46:13Bai.
46:18When the North Vietnamese had begun their attack on Hue, they had cut Highway 1, the vital road link between
46:25the Air Cavalry's fighting units and its stocks of fuel and ammunition.
46:36Meanwhile, the NVA had a clear supply line running from the Aushal Valley into Hue and a ring of anti
46:43-aircraft defenses around the city.
46:50The Air Cavalry could send only a single battalion to advance on Hue.
46:56It was dispatched without artillery support, and with air cover impossible because of bad weather, the battalion was cut off
47:04and only just escaped annihilation.
47:08It would take nearly three weeks for the 1st Cavalry Division to assemble the men, fuel and ammunition it needed
47:15to start cutting the North Vietnamese Army's supply lines into Hue.
47:31By the 12th day of the battle for Hue City, South Vietnamese units had reoccupied parts of the citadel.
47:41The Americans had almost cleared the city south of the river and had been reinforced by 500 more Marines.
47:58The North Vietnamese still had open supply lines to the west and were able to launch aggressive counterattacks.
48:05But with the Marines now pressing into the old city, the NVA position was deteriorating fast.
48:26To help defend the citadel, the Truong Tinh Bridge across the perfumed river had been blown up by a Viet
48:33Cong demolition team.
48:36Supplies and reinforcements for the South Vietnamese Army and the US Marines fighting inside the citadel had to be sent
48:42by landing craft.
48:51It was a hazardous journey.
48:54The boats had to go away.
48:56The boats had to skirt an enemy-held area and sail under the guns of NVA troops.
49:08During the following week, as the Americans and the South Vietnamese blasted their way deeper into the city, the sheer
49:16weight of firepower began to tell on the NVA.
49:21Their commander asked for permission to pull out.
49:27But he was told he had to fight on.
49:43The battle continued through to the night of February 23rd with days and nights of savage fighting before the NVA
49:51were finally driven from their last redoubt in the citadel's imperial palace.
49:58And the stars and stripes was raised above it.
50:09Retaking Hue cost nearly 400 South Vietnamese Army and more than 140 US Marines lives.
50:245,000 NVA and Viet Cong died in the city and a further 3,000 in the adjacent fighting.
50:335,800 civilians were caught in the crossfire or killed by NVA forces in the first days of the occupation.
50:41American firepower, bombs and artillery had reduced 80% of the city to rubble.
51:00By the end of the city battles, 37,000 Viet Cong troops deployed for the Tet Offensive had been killed.
51:14Many more had been wounded or captured and the fighting had created more than half a million civilian refugees.
51:23The casualties had included most of the Viet Cong's best fighters and many political officers and secret organizers.
51:32For the guerrillas, it was nothing less than a catastrophe.
51:36But for the Americans, who lost two and a half thousand men, it would prove to be a most severe
51:41blow to public support.
51:44Viet Cong leaders were now forced to claim that Tet had always been intended as a series of offenses, not
51:51just one push.
51:54To keep up some kind of momentum, two more waves of attacks were planned, one for May and another for
52:01the following September.
52:07The guerrillas also meant to tighten their grip on the countryside, now mostly abandoned by government forces drawn into the
52:14city fighting.
52:22In the battles, the Americans had lost more than 2,500 men and nearly 8,000 had been wounded.
52:37The South Vietnamese Army had suffered much worse.
52:40Its best units had been hit so hard, they would be useless for up to a year.
52:50Meantime, American forces would spearhead follow-up operations against the Viet Cong.
53:09Starting March 11th, 1968, massive search and destroy sweeps were launched against the Viet Cong remnants around Saigon and in
53:18other parts of the country.
53:20On March 16th, one of these operations resulted in the now infamous massacre by U.S. Charlie Company of over
53:27200 civilians at the hamlet of My Lai.
53:32Altogether, nearly 20,000 Americans and 9,000 South Vietnamese troops ranged throughout the Iron Triangle,
53:40Cu Chi District and other long-time Viet Cong strongholds.
53:45In three weeks, possibly three and a half thousand Viet Cong were killed
53:51and their ability to pose a serious threat to the capital was delayed for the foreseeable future.
54:04The Tet battles had delivered a massive victory to American military leaders.
54:09What they wanted was an all-out push to win the war, including ground offensives into Laos and Cambodia.
54:19The Joint Chiefs of Staff asked for 206,000 extra men, half for Vietnam, the rest to boost the reserves.
54:29The answer from the White House was no. Tet had changed everything.
54:55To the American public, already disillusioned with the war, the Tet battles had come as a dreadful shock.
55:05If the Communists were close to defeat, as the President and the military had claimed so often,
55:10how could they have launched a nationwide offensive on such a scale?
55:23By now, support for President Johnson's handling of the war was at an all-time low.
55:30He faced a re-election battle in the fall, and inside his own party,
55:34Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy were opposing him on an anti-war platform.
55:45Even his own advisers, especially Clark Clifford, the new Defense Secretary, were coming out against the war.
55:52The pressure on Johnson was overwhelming.
56:01On March 31, 1968, on national television, the President announced a new American peace initiative.
56:09He invited the North Vietnamese to negotiate, and stated that as a goodwill gesture,
56:15he was curtailing the bombing campaign against the North.
56:26He also made a dramatic announcement about his own future.
56:32I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
56:45Within days of the President's speech,
56:48Clark Clifford ordered officials to start planning for a new American strategy in Vietnam.
56:57The South Vietnamese army would be built up so it could gradually take over the fighting itself.
57:06Meanwhile, the U.S. would work for a negotiated peace with the North.
57:13For the United States, it was the beginning of a new phase in the war.
57:17The start of a long and costly battle to disengage from Vietnam.
57:39As a dead system of the West, it wasemi-based.
57:40It was virtually no longer absolute Antarctica.
57:40The original Japanese money was made of the paradise into the war.
57:41For the American
57:42and the losers is risen than stars.
57:52Famouscroft
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