The Intelligence Community Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity (EEOD) Office is responsible for the overall management of the ODNI EEO and Diversity Program, and provides IC-wide oversight and guidance in developing, implementing, and measuring progress in EEO, diversity, and inclusion. Gravels Marines were ordered to attack and recapture the Thua Thien Province headquarters building and prison, located six blocks west of the MACV enclave. The Mekong Delta alone contained over 3,000 miles of waterways. Aircraft Shots3 These included competencies with light weapons, advanced first aid, and small boat handling. I was there Vietnam Navy Combat Veteran. Marketplace Except for the 1st ARVN Division compound, by dawn of January 31 the NVA 6th Regiment held the entire Citadel, including the Imperial Palace. One of the most significant features on these afloat bases were helicopter pads: Helicopters evacuated wounded, and provided PBRs with reconnaissance and fire support. Hanoi, however, soon realized that its huge sacrifices had not been in vain. Can Tho City, in the capital of what is now Can Tho Province, is a central point where the rivers meet before going to the sea. Email Dr. John Darrell Sherwood works as a historian for the U.S. Navy, and is the author of War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-1968. The Vietcong assaults began with mortar and rocket attacks, followed by massed ground assaults by battalion-sized units backed in some areas by NVA regulars. This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to help show content that is more relevant to your interests. Still, we inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans and their puppets, and this was a big gain for us. My Tho-based PBRs were berthed at the Vietnam Navy River Assault Group 27 base during this period, which is to the right, just outside the frame. The force's ability to quickly bring firepower and ground forces into action RVN Troops Of the 84,000 troops committed to Tet, nearly 58,000 had been killed. Since the palace and historical buildings in the city were sacred to the Vietnamese people, the commanders imposed limitations on the use of artillery and close air support to minimize collateral damage, a decision that would lead to difficulties. The Tet Offensive: A CIA Assessment Summary. The Tet Offensive included a series of battles in South Vietnam's Mekong Delta region, where North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attempted to seize key cities and towns. Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines (A/1/1) was ordered to move up Highway 1 from Phu Bai by truck to relieve the surrounded advisers at the MACV enclave. There, the longest and bloodiest battle of the Tet offensive began to unfold. On the night of February 14, a U.S. Marine forward observer, working with ARVN units inside the Citadel and monitoring enemy radio frequencies, learned that the NVA was planning a battalion-sized attack through the west gate of the Citadel. Both approaches would be tried with varying degrees of success later in the war. Can Tho (or Cantho; Vietnamese: . For the U.S. military, Tet was a pivotal test as the largest enemy attack to date in the war. U.S. Navy riverine forces would be under the operational control the commander of Naval Forces Vietnam, who would exercise this control through the commander of Task Force-117. The legal strategy is rare, but may become more common as research into the disease develops. A fresh U.S. Marine unit, Capt. In 1971, for example, three years after the dramatic events of 1968 which included the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the violence at . South of the river and linked to the Citadel by the six-span Nguyen Hoang Bridge, over which Highway 1 passed, lay the New City. After the 802nd came close to penetrating the 1st Division compound, Truong ordered the Black Panthers to withdraw from the airfield to bolster his defenses at the division compound. Town Shots 2 The Hau Giang or Hau River runs through it. You don't support a damnthing with your little commiecrat tweets and you certainly don't support me. Instead of sparking a countrywide insurrection, it ended up a bloodbath, virtually destroying the Vietcong infrastructure in the south and eliminating the VC as an effective fighting force. Progress was slow and costly. At the south end of the Citadel lay another enclave, the Imperial Palace compound, a square with 20-foot-high walls that measured 800 yards per side. Not until the next day, after Company D, 1/5 was inserted into the fighting by boat, was the wall tower finally recaptured. During the war, the Navy developed a light helicopter attack squadron specifically for riverine operations. On the first night of Tet, Viet Cong units attacked nearly every major city and town in the Mekong Delta, including My Tho, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, and Can Tho. It represented the only time in its recent history that large numbers of sailors experienced riverine warfare in small boats a combat experience more akin to that of an infantry soldier than a sailor on a large oceangoing surface combatant. On Jan. 31, 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops attacked over 100 of South Vietnams cities and towns. Photo Credit: American Marines advance cautiously up the outer walls of the Citadel at Hue on February 13, 1968, following the surprise attack by North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces. Today 2 By Bret Stephens. . The main effort of Giaps preliminary phase began on January 21, 1968, at Khe Sanh in northwestern South Vietnam, where two NVA divisions lay siege to the U.S. Marine combat base there. By mid-1967, Dong Tam occupied 12-square kilometers. Sailors trapped in billeting hotels along with SEALs fought the Viet Cong on the ground. It also abutted Saigon, the capital. The MRF transported forces to battlefields in eight provinces in February and sustained them once the battle was joined by providing gunfire support a significant asset during Tet when aviation and artillery assets were in short supply and ammunition, food, water, and medical aid. Despite the efforts of the American units trying to seal off Hue from outside reinforcement, Communist soldiers and supplies continued to flow into the Citadel from the west and north and even on boats coming down the river. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. B. December 1966. A high-ranking NVA officer and a large number of reinforcements were killed. While its sailors would have appreciated more speed and armor capable of withstanding direct hits from larger caliber rockets, no other riverine platform offered such capability and versatility. A four-man NVA sapper team, dressed in ARVN uniforms, killed the guards and opened the western gate to the Citadel, allowing the lead elements of the 6th NVA Regiment to enter the old city and launch the main attack. This was true in Vietnam, the Civil War, and even more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. All he knew was that the 1st ARVN Division and MACV compound had been attacked. On February 10, Cushman ordered LaHue to send a Marine battalion to the Citadel. When the MRF weighed anchor, the Navy component commander would assume control until the movement was over. After encountering intense small-arms and automatic-weapons fire, the units managed to reach Truongs headquarters, arriving in the late afternoon. Two brigades of the elite 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile), including the 7th and 12th Cavalry Regiments, were scattered over a wide area from Phu Bai in the south to Landing Zone (LZ) Jane just below Quang Tri in the north. Commanded by Brig. During the TET Offensive the force was saving My Tho, Can Tho, and Vinh Long from complete enemy destruction. The tide of the battle of My Tho changed dramatically with the arrival of MRF units late in the afternoon on Feb. 1. While the Marines were fighting their way toward the palace, a South Vietnamese Marine task force entered the battle. Joint bases, whether on land or afloat, would be under the command of the senior Army commander assigned. Security within the city was the responsibility of the National Police. When Defense Minister and Chief of Staff General Vo Nguyen Giap, vanquisher of the French in 1954 after a brutal eight-year war, voiced opposition to the offensive, command was given to General Nguyen Chi Thanh, leader of Communist Viet Cong guerrilla forces in South Vietnam. White. John Niotiss Company L, 1/5, was brought in for the final assault on the Imperial Palace. The U.S. Marines suffered 147 dead and 857 wounded, while U.S. Army units lost 74 dead and 507 wounded. Meanwhile, the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry conducted search-and-clear operations along suspected enemy routes west of Hue. War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-1968. Until units from MRF arrived at Ben Tre late in the day on Feb. 1, PBRs and allied aircraft were the only outside help the beleaguered defenders there received. The Communist strategy of bringing local VC cadres into the streets resulted in an unmitigated disaster. Heavy fighting continued for a while in Kontum Province, Can Tho, Ben Tre, and Saigon, but after a week the offensive, by far the largest of the war to date, had been essentially halted everywhere except for Hue. Feedback North of the Vietnamese Marine units, the 3rd ARVN Regiment, in the northwest sector of the Citadel, was having problems as well. Six more Marines were killed in action and more than 50 wounded. At 3:40 am, the Communists launched a rocket and mortar barrage from the mountains west of the city and followed it with a three-pronged ground assault. |New FOR THE TET OFFENSIVE Go 1/50th Infantry Go 101st A Shau Valley Ops Go 101ST AIRBORNE SERVICE ACKNOWLEDGMENT Go 101st ArnbDiv/159th ASHB Go 101st Aviation Go 101st Campaigns & Operations Go 101st During 1968 Go 101st Fire Base Locations Go 101st in A Shau Go 101st in Vietnam Go 101st LRPs Go 101st Mad Minute Go 101st Viet Vets Web Ring Go 101st . Take Bobby Kennedy Jr. events, and resources, The Battle of Hue City: In the Thick of the Tet Offensive. The 235th AHC, the 244th SAC and a platoon from the 221st RAC are stationed at the airfield. Xuan Khanh Market at the start of the street is a daily stop for many . As South Vietnamese relaxed during the Tet holiday in 1968, North Vietnamese and Vietcong launch the most audacious offensive of the Vietnam War. At 8 am on February 14, the Marines renewed the attack, but made almost no headway against the entrenched Communist defenders. The mission of the 1/5 Marines was to push their way down the east wall of the Citadel toward the Perfume River, with the Imperial Palace on their right. Consequently, a 120-boat U.S. Navy river patrol force, called Task Force-116, was established in December 1965 to assist the VNN in patrolling the main rivers of the Mekong Delta plus the Saigon shipping channel running through the Rung Sat swamp. The South Vietnamese and American losses totaled a fraction of that number. By February 4, their advance north of the river had essentially stalled among the houses, alleys, and narrow streets adjacent to the Citadel wall, leaving the Communists still in possession of the Imperial Palace and most of the surrounding area. Once more the Marines were raked by intense small-arms, machine-gun, and rocket fire that seemed to come from every direction. Using tanks and 106mm recoilless rifles mounted on mechanical mules (flat-bedded, self-propelled carriers about the size of a jeep), the Marines advanced against heavy automatic-weapon, rocket, and mortar fire. LaHue received reports of enemy strikes all along Highway 1 between the Hai Van Pass and Hue. Operation Game Warden: The Navys Mission Expands to the Rivers. The NVA and VC gunners continued to pour machine-gun and rocket fire into the Marine positions. They, along with the U.S. Army troops they carried, would prove instrumental in taking back some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the country. Without U.S. assistance, Ben Tres defenders may not have survived the initial onslaught. Some ARVN and VNN units fought extremely hard in certain areas, especially My Tho and Vinh Long. Reluctantly, Gravel gave the order to fire on the church, and Marines pounded the building with mortars and 106mm recoilless rifle fire, finally killing off or driving away the defenders. The MRF's efforts were especially significant during Tet. On February 7, they made contact with an entrenched NVA force and tried for 24 hours to expel the Communists. The nearest U.S. combat base was at Phu Bai, eight miles south on Highway 1. The Navy hastily acquired 50-foot commercial aluminum boats (known as Swift boats), and adapted them for the mission by adding a variety of weaponry, communications equipment, and radar. They were a small force but held the ramp during the Tet Offensive of Hue. Costs were high, including 40 killed and another 91 wounded. The next day, his depleted battalion exhausted and almost out of ammunition, Thompson rested his troops in preparation for a renewal of the attack. 2. In most cases, these enlisted boat captains exceeded expectations. Of the 84,000 troops . On the afternoon of February 2, Hughes decided to move his command group from Phu Bai into Hue, where he could more directly control the battle. The NVA 806th Battalion blocked Highway 1 northwest of Hue, while the 804th and K4B Battalions took up positions in southern Hue and the 810th dug in along Highway 1 south of the modern city. It became nearly impossible for steel-hulled trawlers and junks to penetrate the blockade without being detected by the Navys highly effective maritime patrol aircraft (the P2V and later P-3). Across the Perfume River in southern Hue, much the same situation existed. In the early hours of January 31, the guerrillas took up positions within the city and waited to link up with NVA and Vietcong assault troops. U.S. intelligence then learned that the NVA/VC were staging out of a base camp 12 miles west of the city and that reinforcements from that area were entering the Citadel using the west gate. At dawn on February 24, the South Vietnamese flag replaced the Vietcong banner that had flown over the city for 24 days. The closest South Vietnamese unit was the 3rd ARVN Regiment, with three battalions, five miles northwest of Hue. Over time, the allies reconquered almost all of the lost ground and inflicted significant losses on the enemy, but the scale and ferocity of the attacks proved a major political blow for the U.S. war effort in Southeast Asia. While Communist troops roamed the streets consolidating their gains, political officers marched with them, reading out names from their blacklists and instructing South Vietnamese and foreigners alike to report to a local school for relocation. Phu Bai was a major Marine Corps command post and support facility, home to Task Force X-Ray, a forward headquarters of the storied 1st Marine Division. The Marines simply did not have enough men to deal with the entrenched enemy. Gen. Foster LaHue, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, the task force consisted of two Marine regimental headquarters and three battalionsthe 5th Regiment, with two battalions; and the 1st Regiment, with one battalion. By February 17, the Marines of 1/5 had suffered 47 killed and 240 wounded in five days of fighting, the battle so intense that U.S. Navy medics and doctors had a difficult time keeping up with the casualties. Thus over approximately how many miles did the north vietnamese attacks stretch. Unfortunately for Truong, who was regarded by many American advisers as one of the ablest senior commanders in the South Vietnamese armed forces, over half his division was on holiday leave and out of the city when the Tet offensive erupted. Deprived of their supply centers to the west, the Communists were forced to pull back. Gravel received orders from LaHue to cross the Perfume River with his two companies and push through to the 1st ARVN Division compound in the Citadel. TET OFFENSIVE During the Communist Tet Offensive of 1968, General Truong commanded ARVN 1st Division during some of the bloodiest fighting of the Vietnam War in the Battle of Hue. Today 4 The 1968 Tet offensive was a total and complete miltary disasterfor the North Vietnamese Communists no matter how you look at it. Did the MRF save the delta, as Westmoreland allegedly told Capt. The 1st Brigade of the famed 101st Airborne Division, recently attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, had recently arrived at Camp Evans, north on Highway 1 between Hue and Quang Tri. Their lightly fortified compound lay on the eastern edge of the city just south of the Nguyen Hoang Bridge. As Communist fighters poured into Hue, the 800th and 802nd Battalions of the 6th Regiment rapidly overran most of the Citadel. Moreover, he was severely curtailing the bombing of North Vietnam and would pursue peace negotiations with the enemy, virtually admitting that the war had been lost. Using their own mortars and CS gas, a crowd-control agent, the Marines overwhelmed the defenders in mid-afternoon. The relief force pushed north up Highway 1, reinforced by two self-propelled 40mm guns. There were U.S. Army units in the area as well. 2. During Tet '68 a 52nd Sig NCO (E-6/7) jumped in his jeep, backed up cutting his wheels to the left, then spinning the wheels to the right he put it in first and gave it the gas. The offensive created a political crisis within the Johnson administration, which became increasingly unable to convince the American public that the Communists had suffered a devastating defeat. Opinion Columnist. Can Tho, and Ben Tre. Pink Palace On February 14, Communist forces broke out of the salient west of the Tay Loc airfield and cut off the 1st Battalion, 3rd ARVN Regiment in the Citadels western corner. 1. In 26 days of fighting, the ARVN lost 384 men killed, more than 1,800 wounded, and 30 missing. Another 10 Marines were killed or wounded as the relief force encountered a hail of machine-gun fire from a position at the north end of the bridge. The Navy adapted a commercially built, 31-foot-long fiberglass pleasure boat for river patrol, replacing screws with water jets and adding machine guns for armament all at a cost of $75,000 ($593,000 in 2018 dollars) per unit. Riverine units performed two basic functions during the attack: mobile fire power and transport for Army troops. The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.The Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched the attack on January 30, 1968, against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Armed Forces and their allies.It was a campaign of surprise attacks against . The destruction of the aircraft was completed when it was accidentally dropped by a helicopter as it was being airlifted out of Song Be. In 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson for the . Significant offensive and defensive Actions: a. Airfield: The 307th CAB has one half of its resources at the Can Tho Airfield. Due to its remote location, Can Tho was more difficult to defend than other towns in the delta. The following morning, 1/5 began inching forward toward the Imperial Palace, paying dearly for every inch of ground taken. After further review, we Brian Snyder/Reuters. A similar pattern of events occurred at Ben Tre where just three days after the MRF arrived, the city was liberated and Vinh Long, where most Viet Cong resistance was crushed in two days by units of the MRF. A mortar attack on Song Be badly damaged an O-1G FAC aircraft. In the fall of 1967, Giap launched a series of big battles near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that had two objectives: draw American forces north, away from the heavily populated coastal and lowland cities, and determine if the Americans would respond with an invasion of the north. It seemed that nothing could stem the flow of Communist reinforcements moving into the city. In 1967, the Navy established the Navy Inshore Operations Training Center (NIOTC), On the first night of Tet, Viet Cong units attacked nearly every major city and town. The Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) grew out of Westmorelands desire to reduce these attacks by destroying main force units operating there. As the Navy continues to focus on lethality, it would be wise to remember both the struggles and triumphs of the Brown-Water Navy in Southeast Asia. Main Small groups of Marines moved doggedly from house to house, blowing holes in walls with rocket launchers and recoilless rifles, then sending in fire teams and squads to clear each building room by room. As for making an impact in the United States, it had not been our intentionbut it turned out to be a fortunate result. Despite the overwhelming tactical victory achieved by the allies in Hue and on other battlefields throughout South Vietnam, in the end the Tet offensive proved a strategic defeat for the United States. As the Marines neared the tower, NVA soldiers opened up with rockets and automatic weapons from concealed positions dug into the base of the tower. Although there were some indications that the attack might came in Tet, most analysts thought the Tet holiday too meaningful for the VC to take advantage of it. The Marines 90mm tank guns were ineffective against the concrete and stone buildings, their shells often ricocheting off the thick walls. That night the NVA retook the tower for a short time, but D Company, commanded by Captain Myron Harrington, counterattacked and reclaimed it. Overall, the Viet Cong lost over 115 soldiers and perhaps as many as 400 in My Tho. The distance from the MACV enclave to the confluence of the Perfume River and the Phu Cam Canal was almost 11 city blocks, each of which the enemy had transformed into a fortress that would have to be cleared building by building, room by room. ------------------------- Although a military loss, the Tet Offensive was a stunning propaganda . In the Mekong Delta, the communists attacked 64 district capitals. As Gravel ordered his Marines into position, they first had to secure the Joan of Arc school and church. At dawn on January 31, nearly everyone in the city could see the gold-starred, blue-and-red National Liberation Front flag flying over the Citadel. The NVA were caught off guard but quickly recovered. Mekong Hotel Many enemy troops killed or wounded by the Marines lay where they had fallen, trapped in the rubble of homes and courtyards, attracting rats and dogs. By February 22, the NVA held only the southwestern corner of the Citadel. After the catastrophe, NVA General Tran Van Tra stated bluntly: We did not correctly evaluate the specific balance of forces between ourselves and the enemy, did not fully realize that our capabilities were limited, and set requirements that were beyond our actual strength.. At the end of the day, two Marines had been killed and 34 wounded. Heavy sniper fire erupted, along with 57mm recoilless rifle fire, which knocked out one Marine tank. Cushman moved to reinforce Hue and seal off the enemy inside the city. At Ben Tre, a city of close to 75,000 and the capital of Kien Hoa Province, the Viet Cong attacked early in the morning of Jan. 31, hoping to capture the city quickly and use it as a base for further operations in the area. At 3 am on January 31, NVA and Vietcong forces launched a countrywide general offensive. The attack on Khe Sanh, however, proved to be a diversionary tactic for the larger Tet Offensive. While Lam and Cushman prepared to reinforce their units in Hue, the Communists moved to prevent those reinforcements from reaching the embattled defenders. Countryside The NVA and VC had counted on a "People's Uprising" to carry them Meanwhile, a call for reinforcements had gone out from the embattled MACV compound, but the plea was lost in the confusion caused by the simultaneous attacks. Backed by air strikes, naval gunfire, and artillery support, the Marines inched forward. Even the North Vietnamese admitted they had suffered a terrible defeatmore Communist soldiers died in 1968 than did American soldiers during 10 years of involvement. Believing the Communists might be trying to achieve another Dien Bien Phu, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that Khe Sanh must be held at all costs. Giap would find Westmoreland a far more tenacious commander than Frances Lt. Gen. Henri Navarre, who had allowed 15,000 of Frances finest troops to be surrounded and destroyed at Dien Bien Phu. It took 24 hours of heavy fighting just to reach the treasury building. The Citadel was an imposing fortress, covering three square miles with a labyrinth of readily defensible positions protected by an outer wall 30 feet high and up to 90 feet thick. Vinh Long Shots E. Upon return, the working group prepared a (Sic) interim report, which the DCI sent to ---, General\Taylor ' last week. The provincial headquarters had served as the command post of the NVAs 4th Regiment, and with its loss the Communist defense south of the river began to falter. Because the MRF would perform inshore amphibious operations, the Navy believed that existing amphibious landing craft technology, much of which was developed during World War II, would suffice if up-armed and up-armored. When Thanh died unexpectedly, Giap reassumed command and rapidly massed six North Vietnamese Army infantry divisions in South Vietnams northernmost province, Quang Tri. The Tet offensive and its attendant attack on Khe Sanh was a staggering failure for the Communists. So that was the distance stretched by the North Vietnamese Army during the Tet Offensive. Despite the Marines quick adaptation to street fighting, it was not until February 11 that the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines reached the confluence of the Perfume River and the Phu Cam Canal.
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