Page 465 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

were not what they had expected, Well r'onceived as it was, their
whole scherne colJ.apsed in the end, showing how futile Hanoirs e{forts
had been in rnobilizing all its resources in pursuit of an illusory
victory, The Cornmunists, however, will not give up drearning of
winning the war through rnilitary efforts beyond the capacities of a
srnall nation and with a party dictatorship rnachinery that forces
innocent people into a destructive, never-ending war.

Much has been written here and throughout the wo;:ld,
on the C ornrnuni st Tet offensive of 1958 with conflictj.ng assessrnents
of its results. The enerny clairned it was a victory while our side des-
cribed it as a rnajor defeat, It is therefore extremely difficult for us
to put forth argurnents of our own in assessing the Tet Mau Than
events without the risk of being 1abel1ed as not objective.

At the tirne of this writing, the prelirninary peace
talks between the United States and the Cornrnunists had already
begun in Paris in an atternpt to bring the war to an end. A new assess-
rnent of the causes of the Comrnunist defeat in their 1958 general
offensive, therefore, does not seern out of context :

A. - STRATEGY

In their own judgernent, the Cornrnunists rnaintained
that on the one hand the ARVN had no strength for both offensive and
defensive actions and would collapse in the face of a total, surprise
attack; and on the other hand, the people of South Vietnarn would
welcorne the Viet Cong forces and would help thern destroy the anti-
revolutionary Saigon re g i rne.

What actually occured was the re\,{erse of the C ornrnu-
nist prediction. The arrned forces of the RVN did fight well and
efficiently in both of{ensive and defensive acti.ons to repel the C ornrnu-
nist surprise attack. No ARVN unit surrendered to the enerny although
sorrle were under heavy C ornrnuni st pressure. Only a {ew withdrawals
frorn isolated posts were reported (l),

No city or provincial town was captured by the enerny,
and no key rnilitary position feII into enerny hands, while ewen rninor
positions rernained well defended,

Our reaction was irnrnediate (Z) and efficient although
at the beginning the Arnericans were rather slow in joining the {ight,
As far as the people were concerned, generally

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