Page 40 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

The V.C. Offensive plan

The Viet Cong general offensive was planned in rninute st
detail. The Hanoi leadership expected rnuch, iJ not total success. The
reaaons for failure of the plan, therefore, rnust be traced to its au-
thorer lack of objectivity in assessing the s ituation, e spe c ially their
rnisconception concerning their ability to achieve popular support.

The rrgeneral offensive, general uprisingl actually began
in the Spring of 1967 when Hanoi learned that Arnerican troops and
their firepower were far superior to that which the French arrny could
rnuster in the fifties and therefore no decisive victories on the pattero
of past actions could be expected. In their review of the Btrategy for
the conquest o{ the South the Hanoi leadership aleo carne to the conclu-
sion that continuation of the protracted struggle rnight not lead thern
anywhere, especially after a top 6ecret group of rnilitary experts frorn
North Korea, C ornrnuni st China,and Cuba also expressed sirnilar
wiews.

In the ensuing rnonths the North Vietnarnese Politburo
requested a basic change in the Cornrnunist strategy for South Viet-
narn. In its Resolution 13, victory was called for rrin the 6horte6t pos-
gible tirnerr, At about the 6arne tirne, General Nguyen Chi Thanh,
who had been serving as C ornrnande r - in- Chief of the Viet Cong forces
and Lao-Dong (C ornrnunist) Party boss below the lTth Parallel, died.
Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor of Dien Bien Phu, was rnade re sponsible
fo.r planning the Tet offensive.
Cornrnunist cadres in South Vietnarn attended the first
etudy sessions on the Etrategy to be adopted for the 1967-68 Winter-
Spring Carnpaign as early as August 1967. In the course of these ses-
6ion6, conatant reference was rnade to a docurnent entitled rrFor an
Under standing of the New Situation and the New Tasks, rrwhich was
widely distributed in one forrn or another,

Booklet
A copy of thi6 paper was found in Tay-Ninh prowince on
25 Novernber 1967. The book consisted of ten pages and was dated 1
Septernber 1957. Like all other such docurnents it has the appearance
of a seerningly inoffensive brochure the true nature of which was

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