Hue 1968: The Beginning of the End?
During the Chinese New Year, Tet ’68, The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC) launched a major offensive in South Vietnam on January 30th. They hoped to spark a general uprising of the local inhabitants, cause Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) defections, and end the war decisively. This was a dramatic departure from their customary guerrilla, “hit and run” warfare and this new strategy caught General Westmoreland, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) commander, by surprise. Was this the beginning of the end?
Hue was a northern major city in South Vietnam. The population of 140,000 sustained the most intense fighting, marked by carnage and destruction of half of the historic city. Before the Marines could rescue the besieged AVRN forces, the VC committed civilian atrocities, targeting South Vietnam officials, politicians, and professionals. One mass grave held over 3,000 bodies. Urban warfare went on for 25 days, block by block, house to house before the Marines retook the Citadel and took down the NVA flag.
Mark Bowden’s excellent documentary of the battle, Hue-1968, suggests it was the beginning of the end. The author of Black Hawk Down noted the nightly photos of the battle soured public opinion and suggested LBJ’s rosy proclamations were disingenuous. Cronkite declared the war “unwinnable.”
The facts: We lost over 200 Marines, the enemy lost over 1,000 to 5,000 in the Hue battle depending on which source you research. But tactical success does not necessarily translate into strategic victory.
Yet, it was not the beginning of the end. The war went on until 1975. Our combat forces left in 1973, while military advisors, CIA, and Ambassador remained until leaving by helicopters from rooftops in 1975. Essentially we were back to JFK’s 1961 strategy. The AVRN fought on until the Democratic Congress withdrew the funding Nixon promised South Vietnam.
But, you could argue Tet 1968 was the turning point politically in the war. Pivotal, in fact, when public opinion and the media fanned the flames of anti-war activism. While the military statistics suggested otherwise, JBJ announced he would not seek reelection a month later. Soon after, General Westmoreland who “could see light at the end of the tunnel” was relieved of command of over a half million U.S. forces in Vietnam.
Read more details in RECALL, my historical narrative of the war and the aftermath in the United States.
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