Page 68 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

rNorth Northeast o{ the rnetropolis the enerny occupied the
Hang Xanh area with the intentlon of attacking the Gia Dinh rnilitary
district headquarters and rnaking their presence felt on the Bien-Hoa
Highway.
r1.{est o{ Saigon a Viet Cong colurnn Penetrated the regions
of Phu-Tho and Ba-H?t.
Two Viet-Cong units, which at the tirne were in the Thu
Duc and Hoc Mon districts, were active around the Thu Duc district
headquarters and the Quang Trung rnilitary training camp.
In the downtown section of Saigon V. C. sapper troops
assaulted their assigned targets while their cornrades frorn the outlying
areas did their best to occupy populated areas, thus forcing Allied
garrisons to be spread. They {ailed in a1l atternpts for the very sirnple
reason that their few troops were deployed against too rnany targets.
Although operating right within our back yards, they could not exploit
this tactical advantage. As the sun rose again,enerny troops outside of
and within the city could not assernble for a coordinated attack'

The following rnorning the South Vietnarnese high corn-
rnand had the situati.on well under control, not only in Saigon r;ut
throughout the nation as well, During all these troubled hours JGS was
constantly in control o{ rnilitary oPerations throughout the nation'
Despite the difficulties of the rnornent, JGS succeeded in bringing a
few srnal1 units back to the capital city for its liberation.
In the first hours of the carnpaign the Cornrnunists left the
Aa'rericans very rnuch alone. Except for an attack on the U. S, Ernbassy,
the rnany U. S. rnilitary and civilian installations throughout the
elongated country rernained untouched.

At the start of the Tet offensive only two general reserve
battalions were in Saigon, the First and Eighth Airborne Battalions.
They were preparing to go to the northernrrro st part o{ the Republic to
help with the battle of Khe Sanh and another battle in the Highlands.

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