Page 268 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

lost the knperial Palace. Property destruction wae cornparatively
srnall in the area but civilian casualties were considered high' Most
of the casualties were caused by the enerny through lrrassacres'
rnurders etc. Scores of civilians had been rnurdered in cold blood'
They had been sirnultaneously rnurdered by bursts of subrnachinegun
fire or sirnply buried alive in rnaes graves'

The battle for Hue was considered over on the Z6th
day, The friendly forces, Vietflarnese and Arnerican' started a series
oI outwards sweep oPerations frorn their recaptured positions in town'
The city *"" pt"tti"u'lly calrn although gun{-rr e was still heard aknost
continuously, Friendly artillery units fired all day and night' The
average Ioc iI citizen tliought that although the city itsel{ had been secured by
friendly troops the war was far frorn finished' The city was still
vulnerable to enemy attack. An estirnated {ive enerny divisions still
refused to withdra.Jr frorn the area. According to Arnerican rnilitary
sources sorne 2,500 enerny were killed' The C ornrmrnists however'
'
adrnittedtoonlyl,042kitledandfailedtodisclosethetotaloftheir
wounded.onthealtiedsideZl3Vj.etnarnesetroopswerekilledand
879 wounded' The Arnerican forces suJfered 53 killed and 380 wounded

in action.

B. - THE ANCIENT CAPITAL IN DISTRESS
Frorn the second through the fourth day of Tet (Jan 3I
through Feb 2) the Viet Cong rnoved freely in the streets of Hue' There
were no reactions frorn friendly forces at this tirne'
During this period the enerny had a field day rnaking
political propaganda lor what he called the People's Alliance for
b.tro."."y anJFt.edott. On the Quang Tri - Thua Thien front this
organization was led by the forrner Hue University teacher Le Van
gal. e nurnber of college and civilians, who had participated
'tud.ents
in the abortive Buddhist-led anti-government carnpaigns in previous
years, supPorted the Alliance and played a fairl'y active part in its
Hue chapter' Leading student rnernbers of the Alliance included
Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong and Hoang Phu Ngoc Anh' There had been
.rr*o-. that Professor Hao had sneaked out of town three days before
"
Tet Day, or J an Z?, to join the Viet Cong'
People blarned the high rate of civilian murders on
resident in-f orrner s acting in response to personal feuds over political
disputes in preceding years. A number of civilian agencies held out

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