Page 467 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

speaking there was no syrnpathy with the enerny. The general reaction

of the population throughout the country was recorded as follows :
- Everybody sought to flee the battle scene although
the enerny tried hard to prevent people frorn fleeing;

- Except Hue where a srnall rninority supported the
enemy, people in a1l other cities rernained indifferent to the C ornrnu-
nist c all for rebellion;

- In only a few provinces, peaaants were brought into
town by the enerny for street dernonstrations, but they were stopped
and disbanded as soon as they reached the cityts outskirts, and
showed signs of relief upon escaping enerny hands;
- There were no popular rnovernents, Only leaflets
were distributed by sorne Cornrnunist political cadres operating
underground,

As early as on the very first day of the general offen-
sive, one could already see the strategic errors of tlre whole Corn-
rnunist p1an. The enerny had indeed underestirnated the ARVN strength
A high-ranking VC cadre by the narne of Narn Dong, arrested befbre
the offensiwe, said the Cornrnunists believed the ARVN had no capa-
cities {or both offensi.ve and defensive actions because ARVN sol-diers
had no ideal to fight for, being rnere rnercenaries for the irnperialists.
The Cornrnunists had expected that a general, surprise o{fensive into
key ARVN positions would cause the collapse of the whole RVN arrny.

Such a reasoning, based on subjective considerations
rather than facts, was the cause of the C ornrnuni st defeat.
The RVN arrned forces, indeed, have always been
anirnated by a strong anti - C ornrnuni st tradition rnarked by a deep

(l) Throughout the offensive period, the VC radio broadcast false
reports of defections to their side by a nurnber of officers and enlisted
rnen of tlne Z/9 Battalion and the 269th Regional Force C ornpany. In
reality, these units were fighting fiercely and inflicted heavy casual-
tie s on the enerny.
(Z) ffre reaction was irnrnediate in aknost all the cities and townships
throughout the country, within no rnore than 3 hours after the enerny
offensive was launched. Hue was a particular case with the reaction
force being isolated.