Vietnam ~ Thailand Vietnam Security Police Association, Inc. (USAF)
January 29 - February 14, 1968
The Tet Offensive 1968:
The fact that the United States won all the battles it fought, but did not win the Vietnam War, is summarized in the following exchange between US Army Colonel Harry Summers and his counterpart in the North Vietnamese Army, Colonel Tu:
"You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield," Summers said. The North Vietnamese Colonel Tu replied, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."
“Military historians regard Tet as the greatest US victory of the Vietnam War. It broke the back of the VC and forced the NVA on the defensive for four years. What the Tet Offensive did was basically destroy the PAVN/VC at the cost of the cohesion of the US Army.” Steve and Jen (Blog)
“The Tet offensive was a country-wide coordinated surprise attack by the NVA and VC on more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 provincial capitals and Saigon. The attack, at the time, was the largest battle of the war. The VC and NVA struck nearly simultaneously, during the most sacred Vietnamese holiday while many ARVN troops were on leave. Initially the attacks took the South Vietnamese and Americans by surprise, but they were beaten back by the ARVN and the Americans, inflicting massive casualties on the Viet Cong. The offensive included attacks on the city of Hue, where intense fighting lasted a month, at the U.S. base at Khe Sanh, where fighting continued for 2 months, and the raid on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, which was repulsed within a few hours.
Many people, both at the time and in retrospect, have criticized the U.S. media for the negative light in which it portrayed both the war in general and the Tet Offensive in particular. Earle Wheeler, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained of "all the doom and gloom we see in the U.S. press" after Tet. General Westmoreland would later write: "The war still could have been brought to a favorable end following the defeat of the enemy’s Tet Offensive. But this was not to be. Press and television had created an aura, not of victory, but defeat." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Air Base Attacks
Bien Hoa AB: BMVETS: Bien Hoa AB was attacked by 2 battalions of NVA/VC and 1 battalion of NVA sappers. Loses were for US Forces, 4 USAF killed and 26 wounded and NVA/VC losses were 139 killed, 25 POWs. Two US aircraft were destroyed and 20 more damaged. In the local area of Bien Hoa, there were 1,164 NVA/VC killed and 98 prisoners taken.
BMVETS: At Tan
Son Nhut, the air field/base, the NVA/VC attacked
with 4 infantry battalions and a sapper battalion, their
losses being 962 killed and 9 prisoners taken. The Us
losses were 19 US Army killed, 75 wounded, USAF losses
4 killed, 11 wounded, ARVN losses were 32 killed and
79 wounded. damage inflicted was 13 aircraft damaged.
The period of the TET OFFENSIVE is recorded as being
from January 31 to March 31, 1968.
BMVETS: The
casualties on both sides were very heavy. The US Forces lost
119 killed, with 961 wounded, ARVN Marine losses were 363 killed
with 1,242 wounded, while the NVA/VC lost over 8,000 killed,
with the number of wounded unknown. There were also 5,800 civilians
killed, mostly executed by the NVA/VC during their occupation
of the city...The offensive was a military disaster for the
NVA/VC Forces and an outstanding victory for the Allied Forces.
But in political terms, it was the opposite for the enemy.
Capt Reginald Maisey