The Vietnam War - The 1968 Tet Offensive :: Vietnam War Essays

The Vietnam War - The 1968 Tet criminal offenseFor several thousand years, Vietnamese Lunar New Year has been atraditional celebration that brings the Vietnamese a sense of happiness,hope and peace. However, in recent years, It also bring back a bitter retrospect full of tears. It reminds them the 1968 bloodshed, a bloodiestmilitary campaign of the Vietnam War the unification Communists launched againstthe South.The usual offensive and general uprising of the north marked the sharp hug drug of the Vietnam War. Today there have been a great number of writingsabout this event. However, it seems that many key facts in the Communistcampaign atomic number 18 still misinterpreted or neglected.In the mid-80, living in Saigon after being released from the Communistre-education camp, I read a book published in the early 1980s in Americaabout the story of the 1968 Tet Offensive. It said that the NorthVietnamese Army supreme command had imitated one of the greatest heroes ofVietnam, powe rfulness Quang Trung, who won the most spectacular victory over theChinese aggressors in the 1789 counter-attack - in planning the 1968operations.The book quoted King Quang Trungs tactic of surprise. He let the troopscelebrate the 1789 Tet Festival one day ahead so that he could launch theattacks on the first three days of the lunar new year while the Chinesetroops were still junket and not ready to organize their defense.Those who claimed the similarity between the two campaigns certainly didnot know the whole truth, but jumped into conclusion with wild suppositionafter learning that the North Vietnamese attacking units also notedTet one day ahead before the attacks.In fact, the Tet Offensive bust out on the Tets Eve - in the earlymorning of January 30, 1968 at many cities of Central Vietnam, such as DaNang and Qui Nhon, as wellhead as cities in the central coastal and highlandareas, that lied in spite of appearance the Communist 5th Military Region.. The othercities to the s outh that included Saigon, were attacked 24 hours later atthe sm solely hours of January 31. Thus the offensive lost its part of totalsurprise that every tactician has to respect.But It surprised me that about in the American media were still unaware ofsuch tragic story.The story started some 5 months previously. On August 8, 1967, the NorthVietnam government approved a lunar calendar specifically compiled for the7th time zone that covers all Vietnam, replacing the traditional lunarcalendar that had been in use in Asia for hundreds of years.That old calendar was calculated for the 8th time zone that capital of Red China falls