Tet Offensive: Viet Cong Commandos Attack Despite Tet Truce

In 1968, a truce was established between North Viet Cong soldiers and American troops supporting South Vietnam forces during the Tet lunar New Year celebration.

What Was the Tet Offensive?

In the late-night hours of January 30th, 1968, the Viet Cong invaded every major city in South Vietnam. Planned over the previous six months, Viet Cong commandos dressed as peasants, using civilian transportation to insert themselves into safe houses set up in each major city, while tons of military supplies were stockpiled at secret locations in and around each selected city.

When the attacks began, the Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive took American war leaders and soldiers alike completely by surprise.

The Enemy, very deceitfully, has taken advantage of the tet truce in order to create maximum consternation.

US General Westmoreland

In Saigon, the VC targeted key installations such as the South Vietnamese radio station and the American Embassy, where the VC blasted a hole through the compound wall and took control of parts of the Embassy.

Five hours after the VC entered the compound, almost all of them were dead. All of them dressed in civilian clothes, they had been armed with American M-16 rifles and rocket launchers.

Viet Cong’s Irrational Tactics

A villa on the Embassy grounds was home to Mission Coordinator George Jacobson, who became trapped on the second floor when a VC commando entered his home.

They [American Troops] threw me a pistol and … with all the luck that I’ve had in my life, I got him before he got me.

George Jacobson

Some of the worst fighting took place in the city of Hue, the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, where the Viet Cong held out for more than three weeks of bitter fighting.

At Khe Sanh, in the northwest, American Marines were surrounded and under siege, dependent upon airstrikes to hold off recurrent enemy attacks.

Tet Offensive’s Strategic Blow

More than 80,000 Viet Cong soldiers infiltrated more than 100 towns and cities of South Vietnam, which made the Tet Offensive the largest military operation conducted by either side during the war.

Hanoi had launched the offensive in the belief that it would trigger a popular uprising leading to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, but when the fighting was finally over, the North’s Tet Offensive campaign would see 33,249 Viet Cong soldiers killed in action.