If I’m not mistaken; it really started in the 60’s.
“If I’m not mistaken; it really started in the 60’s.”
January 30, 1968 is an important date in American History, but very few Americans are aware it. Since the birth of our Republic, there have been a number of significant events that have drastically affected our country’s future development and wellbeing. Some of these events were immediately recognized as significant but others took more time, and the damage caused to our country by the “Butterfly Effect” spawned by the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War is just now beginning to be realized by a few of us who were there. Those who were there know all too well the meaning of Tet and what occurred during Tet 1968 and its aftermath, but for those who weren’t there, let me explain.
During the Vietnam War, the Chinese New Year celebration was called Tet and it was the only holiday the Vietnamese celebrated during the year. The Tet celebration lasted for two weeks, and it wasn’t just a time for drinking, feasting, and partying, it was a time for family reunions where Vietnamese traveled great distances to be with their families during these two weeks.
Prior to Tet 1967, a truce had been negotiated with the Communists, and both sides had agreed to a cease-fire during the two week Tet 1967 holiday. The Communists had honored this mutually agreed upon truce and had maintained a cease-fire throughout the 1967 two week Tet celebration, but we had observed them blatantly moving troops and equipment in the open without fear of attack from us.
In 1968, the South Vietnamese Government negotiated another truce with the Communists and both sides agreed to another cease-fire again for Tet 1968. The Communists had profited greatly from the previous Tet 1967 cease-fire when they had used the cease-fire to resupply and refit their units in the field without interference from U.S. air and artillery strikes, so we fully expected them to honor their agreed upon Tet 1968 cease-fire, as it was fully to their advantage to do so, or so we thought at the time.
However, the Communists used this 1968 mutually agreed upon cease-fire to infiltrate its Viet Cong combat units into all major cities in South Vietnam under the cover of the extensive pre-holiday travel that preceded Tet, when many Vietnamese returned home to be with their families during the Tet holidays. This Communist infiltration was in preparation for simultaneous attacks throughout South Vietnam at midnight on January 30, 1968. An estimated fifteen Viet Cong battalions, to include the entire Viet Cong 9th Division with its 271st, 272nd, and 273rd Regiments, were infiltrated to positions in and around Saigon with the intent of capturing South Vietnam’s Capitol. For some reason, we had forgotten that all Communists are “Ends Justify the Means” liars, and in the end, it cost us the war.
The 1968 Tet Offensive was a coordinated “Do or Die” attack by every Viet Cong unit in Vietnam on the night of January 30 and the morning of January 31, 1968 that simultaneously struck every South Vietnamese City, village, and military installation in an attempt to win the war in one country wide surprise attack; they failed and they paid the price for their failure; they died. The annihilation of Viet Cong units was carried out by American and South Vietnamese combat units throughout South Vietnam and was a disaster for the Communist insurgency, as it never recovered from its loses. The war was carried on after Tet 1968 by invading North Vietnamese, and North Vietnam could never move sufficient troops down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to ever hope to defeat the United States effort in South Vietnam, so they resorted to their favorite Communist tactic; they lied.
1968 was a Presidential Election year in the United States, and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) attempted to use the Tet Offensive to influence the election by claiming it was a Communist victory and the war was lost. The CPUSA organized an anti-war movement and assembled enough strength through this movement to seize control of the Democrat Party that summer during the 1968 Democrat Convention in Chicago. These Communists attempted to nominate a Presidential candidate who would end the war and they failed, but the CPUSA still retained control of the Democrat Party, and this Party managed to elect enough Leftist Democrats to Congress to cut funding for the Vietnam War, American troops were withdrawn, and the war was then lost, so in this way the 1968 Tet Offensive was indeed a Communist victory.
After using the Tet Offensive to gain control of the Democrat Party, the Communist Party USA never lost control, and when a few decades later they managed to elect an avowed Marxist Communist to the Presidency of the United States, it made the 1968 Tet Offensive the greatest Communist victory of all time.
Now, every American will learn what I learned on the morning of January 31, 1968:
All Communists are ends justify the means liars (period)
D.J. Taylor
A Vietnam Veteran