Page 53 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

in I Corps declined by at least Z0 per cent.

In the highland and coastal provinces (II Corps),less des_
truction was reported than elsewhere. About 1,I00 civilians were
killed and an estirnated 4,000 wounded while the nurnber s of houses
cornpletely destroyed o1 partially darnaged were given as l Z, 000 and
4, 000 respectively, The'status of road.s in this part of the country
revealed no significant changes, Prior to and following Tet,large con,
voys still needed an escort elernent for their security.
The irnpact of the Cornrnpnist general offensive was rnuch
Iess evident in provinces surrounding Sa[gon (III Corps). Here the
Governrnent controlled up to 82 per cent of .i;he population before Tet
and the Viet Cong only about five per cent. Except for Saigon there
were only I88 civi.Iians dead, about one thousand wounded., and 10,000
houses destroyed in all of III Corps, In the area of Saigon, however,
there were 6,300 civilians killed, 11,000 wounded and a total of 19,000
houses destroyed,creating over 205, 000 refugees.

In the Mekong Delta (IV Corps) sorne 1, 300 dead and
3,700 wounded were listed arnong the civilian population, prior to Tet,
there had been only I4,000 refugees in all of IV Corps but this *"
"ll-
be brought to I70,000 after the Corn.nunigt attack. Irnrnediately fol_
lowing these attacks cornrnunication on land experienced sorne difficul-
ties but transportation on rivers and canals continued to be quite satis-
factory, Shortages of rice were reported only in very exceptional cases.

In closing,it can be said that eleven towns and cities suf_
fered extensive darnage, They were Konturn, pleiku, Ban Me Thuot,
My Tho, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, Chau Doc, Can Tho, Saigon, Hue and
Phan Thiet.