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An analysis of the 1968 Tet Offensive in II Corps published on the eve of the New Year interprets the actions of the Viet Cong as resulting in more than a military setback.
THE voice rose sharply into the phone, "Tet or no Tet, I want you to move four more tanks into downtown Pleiku immediately."
It was 2000 hours, 29 January 1968 and most of South Vietnam had already begun relaxing for the anticipated 36 hours of cease-fire, scheduled to commence at midnight.
However, Colonel Le Trung Tuong, Chief of Staff, II Corps, was still at his desk reflecting upon intelligence reports which indicated that the Viet Cong might launch a major offensive-the missing piece to the intelligence jigsaw puzzle was the timing of the attack.
One of the colonel's decisions was to deploy additional tanks into Pleiku City-a decision acted upon after some procrastination by the unit commander, who like most others, believed that the VC would honor the Tet cease-fire. Before dawn of 30 January several of these tanks had been destroyed, but they had played a decisive role in limiting the VC intrusion into Pleiku City.
Elsewhere in II Corps similar defensive measures were being taken, however, in many of the province capitals the VC infrastructure was already extremely active and the VC plan of attack had begun to unfold. Outside of Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh Province, groups of "ARVN soldiers" had flagged down US military vehicles, and they rode in style into the city-the unique thing about these "ARVN soldiers" was that they were almost all wearing Ho Chi Minh sandals. A "convoy" of lambrettas loaded with "ARVN soldiers" drove past the main checkpoints of Nha Trang city in Khanh Hoa Province and proceeded to unload within a few blocks of the Province Headquarters. But for the needless killing of a sentry by one of these lambrella-lifted soldiers they could have walked unchallenged into the MAC-V administrative compound. In Kontum City the VC province chief and his staff of some 15 cadre casually walked up and occupied a main bunker within 50 meters of the Province Headquarters. In Pleiku City the II Corps G-2 was smartly saluted by three "ARVN soldiers" as he left his home to...