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Spread out reply because the forum keeps crashing me
This sentence posted to make the reply upload.
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The Communist forces had taken a series of military defeats. the US/ARVN forces had pacified much of the south by the end of 1967 (222 out of 242 provinces). Operation Junction City (February-March 1967) and other sweeps had seriously disrupted NLF activity in the south and forced the COSVN into Cambodia.
At a July 1967 meeting the Communist Party leadership recognised their failures and decided to re-orientate their operations to target two key political weaknesses. Firstly, the deep gulf between the US public and the US government over support for the war and its actual progress. Secondly, the tensions existing between the US military and their Vietnamese allies.
The leadership decided to concentrate on a few high profile operations, that would take place in the public (and the US media) eye rather than fighting the conflict away from major urban centres. This would bolster Northern moral, possibly inspire uprisings in the South and provide the impression, and hopefully the reality, that the US/ARVN were not winning the war and it was likely to be a long time before they did. The new policy also marked a victory for the 'hawks' over the 'doves' in the Communist Party leadership, in late 1967 around 200 senior officials were purged.
The overall planning of the operation to match the policy was headed by the commander of the NVA, Vo Nguyen Giap. He planned a series of audacious, prominent raids across the south, involving every significant city and utilising almost every unit to hand in almost forty major attacks and countless smaller incidents. In pure military terms this was almost madness, but Giap was pursing the overall policy and was acutely aware that the weaknesses in US military policy could produce success in the longer term from a short term disaster. He also strongly hoped that the NLF and NVA efforts would provoke a general popular uprising in the south.
Tet had traditionally been a truce during war in Vietnam, the NLF had had some form of truce since fighting began against the French. With the need for surprise paramount the NLF and the NVA announced that they would respect a seven day cease-fire from January 31. This unusually long period was designed to comfort the US military, who would interpret it as the action of a force in real need of a break, and also encourage ARVN commanders to give their troops home leave. The NVA was aware of the resentment attacking at Tet would cause amongst civilians.
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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher
Last edited by Marvelous Marv; 01-20-2006 at 08:50 PM..
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