Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #698… HANSON BALDWIN: PUBLIC OPINION IN U.S. AND SOUTH VIETNAM VIEWED AS MAIN TARGET OF NEW NORTH VIETNAMESE/VIETCONG OFFENSIVE… “The impact of the Tet Offensive on the American public was immense. Press reports stressed that the NVA/VC forces had achieved a strategic victory. In retrospect, it became clear that they had suffered a devastating tactical defeat, with the eradication of nearly 70-per cent of NVA/VC cadres in the South. In the immediate aftermath, however, public opinion polls reflected that the American public turned sharply against supporting a continuation of President Lyndon Johnson’s efforts in Vietnam.” …but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED NINETY-EIGHT of a return to the events of the Vietnam War, highlighting the 40-month air war called Rolling Thunder that took the war to the enemy where he lived–the Red River Valley…
1 FEBRUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a drizzly Thursday in the Big Apple…
TET OFFENSIVE: Page 14: “CASUALTY TOTALS”… “In three days of fighting the enemy has lost 4,949 dead, according to an allied tabulation reported this afternoon. American forces reported 232 men killed and 929 wounded. At least 1,862 people have been held as suspected Vietcong”… Page 14: “HO CHI MINH PLEASED”… “President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam said today in a broadcast over the Hanoi radio he was ‘very happy with the victories’ of the Vietcong in the past two days.”... Page 14: “Torpedoed Truce Cited”… “The Communist party newspaper Nhan Dan carried a dispatch from the Vietcong press agency today that said the Vietcong had struck during the Lunar New Yea holidays, despite the announced seven-day holiday truce they had begun on Saturday, because the United States had ‘openly torpedoed the ceasefire order of the front.”…
Page 1: “Vietcong Press Guerrilla Raids–Martial Law Declared By Thieu–Johnson Weighs New Asian Steps–Hue Is Embattled–Other Cities Besieged–Allies Bomb Foe in Cholon Near Saigon”… “Vietcong forces stubbornly held pockets of resistance in Saigon and other areas today after their spectacular attacks on cities and American bases throughout South Vietnam. in one suburb northwest of the Capital, South Vietnamese sources reported, families were serving meals to guerrillas who had routed police forces from the area. Allied planes bombed Vietcong forces in the Cholon district of Saigon Thursday, UPI reported. The planes’ targets were guerrilla units holed up in the district, long a Vietcong stronghold. Earlier the Government was reported to have ordered the evacuation of some areas of the city to permit air strikes…. The Vietnamese still held parts of Hue, the major city in northernmost South Vietnam… After many hours of bitter fighting, South Korean marines had apparently not dislodged the guerrillas from a hospital at Hoian that they had fortified. Five miles north of Danang, the major American air base in northern South Vietnam. Vietcong flags were flying over a village, Namo… Reports from the field though sometimes contradictory, indicated that the Central Vietnamese province capitals of Kontom and Banmethuot were besieged and that the intensity of Vietcong attacks was increasing rather than diminishing… Late at night, strong enemy units were still fighting in and near the compound of the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff, a few hundred yards from General Westmoreland’s office near the Saigon racetrack.”…American officials asserted that the Vietcong had failed in their general offensive. But since the attacks were apparently meant primarily to achieve psychological effect, there was–debate about their effectiveness… In a practical sense the Vietcong had closed all the major highways to Saigon and the airport was closed to commercial and nonessential flights.”… Page 14: “Enemy Revolutionary Council Is Reported Formed in Saigon”...”…set up while its suicide squads attacked the United States Embassy and the Presidential Palace yesterday. Hanoi radio reported: ‘The people in Saigon have risen up and smashed the puppet administration machine and set up revolutionary power in many sectors of Saigon.’ “… Page 1: “Village Endures Night of Terror–Apba, Near Danang, Counts Is Dead After Battle”…
Page 1: “President Studies New Call of Reservists And Seoul Aid”… Page 1: “U.S. Again To Put Issue of Pueblo to North Korea–Plans To Raise Question At Pamnunjom After a Hint By Pamnunjom Aid”… Page 3: “Two Carriers Now In Sea Of Japan–Enterprise and Yorktown”… Page 15: “China says 2 U.S. Planes Intruded In Air Space”… Page 1: “Stony Brook Dean Accused Of Foiling Narcotics Raid”…
State Department, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Affairs, 1964-68… Four documents dated 1 February 1968 of interest. Document 33 is an Editorial Note that very briefly summarized the Tet Offensive and includes the short note concerning Public Opinion as a target of the Tet Offensive quoted in my opener… Document 43 is a response from General Westmoreland to General Wheeler that answers six questions that are worth perusal…. Documents 250 and 251 are explicit instructions (orders?) from Secretary Rusk to his Ambassador in Seoul concerning Pueblo conversations with North Korea… read at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d33
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d43
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d250
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d251
1 FEBRUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times devoid of coverage on the air war in the North…“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were eight fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 1 February 1968… “During the Tet Offensive the Citadel at Hue was captured by enemy troops and many hundreds of Vietnamese civilians were executed for collaborating with the Americans. The small airfield near the city was attacked by rocket and mortar fire and eight FAC aircraft (2 O-1E; 2 O-1F; and 4 O-2A ) were destroyed on the ground during the day.
RIPPLE SALVO… #698… The Vietnam war was all about RESOLVE. The will to win. North Vietnam had it, the American people had it and lost it. It was a weakness that invited exploitation. An opportunity North Vietnam seized and hung onto to the bitter end.
New York Times, 1 February 1968, Page 12: Hanson Baldwin: “PUBLIC OPINION IN U.S. AND SOUTH VIETNAM IS VIEWED AS MAIN TARGET OF NEW OFFENSIVE BY VIETCONG”…
“United States intelligence officers believe that the latest nationwide attacks in South Vietnam by Communist guerrillas and sabotage and terrorist units, as well as the impending battle around Khesanh, are focused squarely on public opinion in this country and South Vietnam. The enemy hopes to foster war-weariness; to strengthen the opposition to the war in the United States and in South Vietnam, and to force the allies to enter negotiations at a disadvantage. The enemy’s principal military effort is concentrated against the Marine base near Khesanh and its outlying posts, which are on the western end of the demilitarized zone. In this area, where massive North Vietnamese reinforcements can be supported by fire from artillery emplaced in the demilitarized zone, across the frontiers in North Vietnam, and Laos, the enemy has been building up supplies and digging trenches and tunnels toward the Marine line.
“The attack against Khesanh had been expected to coincide with Tet, the lunar new year, but apparently the North Vietnamese have been delayed by heavy United States bombing and artillery fire. Marine officers said yesterday that the enemy’s burrowing and tunneling operations and digging of approach trenches had not yet moved close enough to the Marines barbed wire to permit the establishment of jump-off positions for attack.
“As viewed from Washington the situation in Vietnam is developing in outline–though not in degree or scope–along the lines foreseen by General William C. Westmoreland, the United States commander, and his staff last year. The demilitarized zone had been expected to be the major focus of enemy efforts since it offers the shortest supply route and gives the enemy an advantage he enjoys nowhere else–the capability of supporting the infantry with heavy artillery.
“At the same time the enemy had been expected to utilize the Tet truce to build up and resupply his forces and perhaps to make diversionary attacks elsewhere in South Vietnam to prevent the reinforcement of the demilitarized zone area, if possible. all of these things have occurred, what was not anticipated was the scope, strength, and skill of the attacks, and the surprise they apparently achieved in many areas.
“Officers asserted that the widespread attacks, including the assault on the embassy in Saigon, must have been long-planned and carefully coordinated and were deliberately timed to violate the enemy’s own truce. The attacks coincided with the holiday merrymaking and relaxation always associated with Tet. In some cities the popping of firecrackers covered the sound of enemy guns at first.
“The South Vietnamese, while not completely surprised, hd their guard down, ‘although officials in Washington spoke last night in high praise of the Vietnamese Army’s rapid reaction. The overall strategy of the enemy, as interpreted in the Pentagon is aimed primarily at political and psychological objectives. the terrorist attack in Saigon and elsewhere were intended as ‘headline grabbers,’ as one officer put i, ‘to make us look silly,’ and to impress United States and South Vietnamese public opinion with the enemy’s strength.
“Some of the attacks, like the mortar and rocket barrages against United States airfields were military in nature, but many, like that on the embassy, were against nonmilitary objectives. Presumably, none of them, with the possible exception of the attacks against Banmethout, Hue and Kontum were envisaged as sustained efforts. The ‘one-shot’ efforts were launched in most cases by terrorist, or sapper units, called ‘suicide squads’ and ‘special action’ units, and were covered by attacks by local guerrilla units.
“Last year the South Vietnamese police and military wiped out one such unit consisting of 12 men. A special action unit, it had accounted for about 80 per cent of the sabotage and terrorist acts in Saigon from 1965 to 1967. As the military see the situation, the widespread Vietcong attacks resulted in a loss of face for the United States and South Vietnamese and will have intangible political and psychological effects.
“The costs to the enemy were very high, with most of his very highly trained action units and many local guerrilla units believed to have been wiped out. Further, there was no diversion of allied strength from the Khesanh region and the DMZ, where the Marines had already been re-enforced by large elements of the First Calvary division (Airmobile) and by South Vietnamese troops. On the other hand, the officers warned that the enemy’s effort was far from over, and they believed that in the impending fighting around Khesanh he would make a supreme drive to achieve another Dien Bien Phu–the climatic battle that wiped out a French force of 15,000 men in 1954 and resulted in the defeat of France in Indochina.
“Most officers in Washington are said to be confident that the enemy cannot repeat such a victory against American forces but to agree that the United States might well meet reverses and suffer heavy casualties. and it is heavy casualties that are the key factor in the enemy’s attempt to influence American public opinion and to undermine the will power of the United States and South Vietnam.”…
RTR Quote for 1 February: FOUNDING FATHER JOHN DICKINSON, The Liberty Song, July 1768: “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!”…
Lest we fall… Bear
