Posted on 01/31/2015 2:52:57 PM PST by DJ Taylor
The Butterfly Effect
January 31, 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 all 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 in 2008 they managed to elect an avowed Marxist Communist to the Presidency of the United States, it made the 1968 Tet Offensive the biggest Communist victory of all time.
Now, Americans are learning what I learned on the morning of January 31, 1968:
All Communists are ends justify the means liars (period)
The Tet Offensive 1968: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy1CZrVsbSY
The Muslims are worse on the end/means issue. Obama, being both, and LGBTQ besides, is the absoulte worst.
And lets not forget the Fellow Travelers in the media: they were the ones who parrotted the line that Tet was a VC success, because it “showed that they had not been destroyed”....but forgot to mention that they were by the end of the battle.
courtesy ping
They could not have done it without a willing and compliant press.
The CPUSA has been asking for it for a long time.
Soon, the worm will turn, and these evil scumbags are going to get housed.
Tet was a twofer for the North, the Southern VC were
annihilated thereby removing any political opposition
to Northern control once the war was over.
Thank you Walter...
Wasn’t it around that time that Walter Cronkite declared the Vietnam War was a lost cause?
And didn’t the media at the time report that the Tet offensive was an overwhelming North Vietnamese victory, even though it was not a military victory for them??? Which in turn greatly influenced public opinion in this country???
Thanks bro. It was a lively time.
I hope you are managing to stay warm up there in the mountains.
I seldom leave my hollow log except when absolutely necessary.
I’ll be like that until springtime.
Hasn’t been bad so far, going to need propane before it’s
spring though. Got a wood stove in the shop I could always
move into the house in emergency.
Hope you are doing ok.
t.
The one day every year when Walter Cronkite smiles in hell
We are all OK here.
I hope to retire in another year or so.
Don’t know what I will do with myself then.
Did I ever share pics of the restored old singer sewing machine
after you made the repairs on the broken treadle?
Let me know if you ever want to sell me that jeep.
You ever want to shut up somebody that knows nothing about Viet Nam yet everything at the same time and in particular TET get the book “This Time We Win” revisiting the TET offensive. By James S. Robbins. The Cong got slaughtered. It was a disaster for them but the American media were all in for the bad guys on this one and some of the false stuff they reported beyond treason. Some by incompetence and some on purpose but with the same effect.
Absolutely. Who can forget the "The War is Lost" Cronkite.
I was in 65 - 67 but not in country ... 17yrs old in Korea turned 18 for the first time with a Korean whore ... it WAS a different time
Radio teletype operator ...
God help us to remain strong in the fight for our nation ... enemies foreign and domestic ... help us, Oh God
I watched that video a few weeks back and intended to use it today. The mental bookmark and the link I saved disappeared. Much thanks.
Well, tet68 is the real deal and he did the real thing.
I was still trying to finish college in 1971 and
after my ping-pong ball got pulled from the goldfish bowl,
and in order to avoid being drafted and sent to the rice paddies,
I joined the Georgia National Guard and served there for 6 years.
You can just call me a “Dan Quayle”.
But tet68 has my utmost respect.
yes
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