Page 476 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

t'rnbassy, the Tan Son Nhut air base, the Go Vap rear area, and had
control on rnost of Saigonrs 5th, 6th, Zth and gth precincts while
expanding their thrust into the other precincts. The same cornrnunique
said Cornrnunist troops had taken conlrol of Bieri Hoa and Binh Duori
cities and the connected bases, the districrs of Cu Chi, Ben Cat, Du'c
Hoa, Thu Duc and Tan Uyen and rnost of the countryside around. It
said that 10, 000 allied troops including 3, 000 Arnericans had been
killed, while tens of thousand others had defected, and that the whole
governrnent machinery in Saigon had collapsed. The cornrnunique also
clairned that 200 planes, ower 600 rnilitary vehicles including 200
arrnored cars had been deetroyed, and people frorn all walke-of life
in the liberated citie6 and villages had joinld popular geU_d.efenee
units with |tweapons
captured frorn the enernyl , It said. tens of thou_
sands of ARVN officers, soldiers, police rnen and officials had joined
the rrpeople'e ranksrr; and all conditione were favorable for a
final victory. ".*pi"t"

Another C_omrnunist cornmunique, issued by the central
area comrnand, had the following contents I From 30 January to
4 April 1968, our forcee emaehed key military and adminietrative
:1g"": of the enerny in the citiee of My Tho, ben Tre, Chau Doc,
phu,
Dinh Tuong, Kien Phong, Go Cong, the towne of Mo Cay, Thanh
Binh Dai, Cho Lach, Cai Lay, Cai Se, Hoa Dong, Tri Ton, Tinh
Bien, An Phu, Tuyen Nhon, Kien Binh, Thanh Binh, Honc Ngu. Six
sub-area cornrnand headquartere
, and 4 operational sta{f co;mande
of the eub-area lever were d.eetroyea. t6,boo enerny eold.iere including
nearly 1,000 AmericanB were killed. Seven battalions, incl.uding one
Arnerican battalion, three 4l-vehicle arrnor unita were annihilated.
14 veesels and Il5 rnilitary vehiclee were destroyed and 13 planes
w-ere ehot down. In My Tho alone, 5,000 enerny eoldiera wlre put out
of cornbat, 50 posts were cornpletely destroyed, while the Marine
Battalion at Cai Lay lost 500.rrur, *ithi., three days. In addition, 400
enerny eoldiera surrendered to our aide. Key highwaye euch ag
Tiglway 4, Highway 24, the Cao Lanh - An Huu road, Highway 6 and
the Ben Tre - My Tho road were under con6tant preaeure by our
tr_oops. We deatroyed the Rach Mien bridge and took over tie lvfy
Thuanferry,..rl

A thild comrnunique ieaued by the Cornmand of the
western area had the following contenta (aumrnary)
:
rrFrom
3l January to Z April 196g, aimultaneoua
attack! were launched againat the citiep and towna of Can Tho,

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