Page 12 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

PREFACE

Authors of strategic tenets, past and present, have dis_
played one noted sirnilarity : advocacy of any strategern to accorn-
plish the objectives . In actual warfare it is only natural that a party to
a con{lict should take full advantage of the opponentrs weaknesse6
to better its own chance of success.

Sun-tse, the great Chinese strategist, has dwelt exten_
sively on this point in a book entitled "Military Struggler'. A Chinese
rnilitary author of the narne of Ly Te Xuyen, who lived rnany centu-
ries after Sun, also was to propose sornething closely related to the
Chinese rnasterrs teaching. In his book entitled "VIET DIEN U LINH
TAPtr, Xuyen clairned that,trlt is rnuch better to attack the enerny than
to wait f or his attackrr.

Against this background of military advice, should we
forgive North Vietnarn and the Cornrnunist Liberation Front (NLF)for
seeking our destruction in the holiday period that rnarked the begin-
ning of the Year of the Monkey (1968)? This action was in obvious
conternpt of the safety and well-being of the coqlrrron people.
No, we certainly should not.

The enerny should not get all the blarne, however. Each
and evety one of us should clairn eorne o{ it too. We cornrnitted the
rnistake of considering our foes as civiLized hurnan beings lrhose sug-
gestion for a week-long holiday truce reflected to sorne extent a re6-
pect for traditions and the well-being of the citizen. In the pre-Tet
days of 1a6t year we also rnade the tragic error of under e stirnating
the rnac hi.ave lli srn of our foes and failed to devise proper rneaaures to
prevent their plot.

For those who still nurtured doubts about the ;rx'ickednegs
of the enerny or still rnight toy with the idea that the Cornrnuniste
lare patriots in thei.r own wayrr,the Tet offensive was the beet oppor-
tunity to see the Viet Cong insurgents and their North Vietnarnese
accornplices in their true light. Not only did the Cornrnunists ahow
absolute conternpt for the peoplers welfare in starting an unpreceden-
ted offensive at the height of the nationrs rro6t gacred holiday but
their conduct throughout the land eloquently disproved their clairne

-13-