Page 479 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

confusion an-rong the Cornrnunist ranks in South Vietnarn as they no
longer hoped for either a rnilitary victory or an early end to the war.
They lost their confidence in the C ornrnuni st leadership, In the face
of the Arnerican rnilitary rnight, they now realized that a victory
would not be as easy as the Haaoi leaders had clairned. They felt they
had been pushed into a bloody war where their individual and crew
served in{antry weapon6 could hardly fight the rnighty air, artillery
and arrnor fire power. They concLuded that continued fighting on such
a basis would certainly lead thern to death.

C ornrnunist soldiers frorn North Vietnarn had to endure
rnore sufferings. They rnissed their wives and children, and were
afraid they would di.e away frorn horne. During their inJiltration into
the South, they had been deceived by their leaders whose order was
to |tgo and take overrr the South as three-fourths of the land had been
occupied by rrour cornrades in the Southrr, In short, the C ornrnunist
general offensive brought about the collapse of the Red soldiers
rnor ale.
Many enerny soldiers kil1ed during the of{ensive were
very young. Most of those arrested were between 14 and 18, and had
corne frorn the No:th. They showed no signs of toughness upon arrest,
and would readily te1l questioners all they knew. They were in direct
contrast to the C ornrnunist soldiers arrested before 1954 who never
gave any irJorrnation, Such young boys had been sent by North Vietnarn
into the South probably because they had no farnily ties and were con-
sidered rrrore enthusiastic.

These youths, however, did not fighc with rnuch enthu-
siasrn during the general offensive, as illustrated by the fact that
no RVN key positions fell into their hands. This showed that the younger
generation of North Vietnarnese are less fanatic about C ornrnuni srn
than their elders were during the resistance war against the French.
Youths fighting the resistance war against the French, in addition to
their desire for independence, also wanted to overthrow the feudal
regirne then prevailing in Vietnarn. Now that the feudal regirne had
been abolished and replaced by a Cornrnunist regirne which turned out
to be no better and even worse, the new youths of North Vietnarn felt
they had no cause to fight for.

According to C ornrnuni st returnees, the soldiers in
North Vietnarn were subjected to a very sirnple propaganda drive,
Without the endless terminology of Marxisrn and other C ornrnunist

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