What you don't mind seeing the next morning, counting enemy dead instead of your own
Posted on 01/30/2019 10:23:43 AM PST by redcatcherb412
51 years old, how time flies. For all you TETvets on here that had a memorable night January 31st 1968.
What you don't mind seeing the next morning, counting enemy dead instead of your own
"present"
I had always suspected the VC and NVA combined forces. Is this true?
4th grade
I was a toddler and still remember my dad yelling at Walter Cronkite.
My experiences in the TET offensive of Jan/Feb were VC units, primarily 274/275th regiments then later working Cambodian border (Tay Ninh sector) coming across many NVA. The May 68 TET second phase (mini Tet) South of Saigon was pretty well full Battalion strength NVA units. I don’t doubt some NVA/VC may have combined or fought in the same skirmishes, but no, don’t remember my unit running across both uniformed NVA and typical VC casualties together.
“I had always suspected the VC and NVA combined forces. Is this true?”
IIRC the NVA convinced the Viet Cong into leading the Tet assaults on the cities of South Vietnam.
And the result was that the Viet Cong were nearly wiped out in the process, with the center of gravity of the war then shifting to NVA regulars.
I doubt that Hanoi was all that unhappy about the outcome. Their goal was to conquer South Vietnam for themselves and they may have seen the VC as a potential rival that they would need to push aside anyway.
Walter Cronkite deserves an honorable mention from Hanoi for his useful idiot role in convincing the American public that Tet was a Communist victory, and “proof” that the South Vietnamese people didn’t care about defending their country from conquest.
When it’s there 24/7 it’s understandable that it kinda becomes routine. I hated firebase security duty and much preferred search and destroy patrol. A dug in firebase was like a million candle power spotlight for moths to swarm over.
I always thought from reading about the war that the VC and NVA really didn’t fight together very well and there was a lot of rivalry between them.
Yes, Jan 68 I was stationed at Can Tho U.S. Army Airfield.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/2018/01/31/what-happened-in-the-tet-offensives-first-36-hours/
VC and NVA were never actually separate. NVA always ruled and VC had many NVA cadres and officers.
Tet was the highlight of my tour of duty there.
Later, I heard that the general of the North Army (Giap, I believe) wrote a book and said they were seriously considering to surrender, but then heard of Cronkite and other idiots talking trash and he changed his mind.
So the VC were not technically terrorist but actual Geneva Conference soldiers?
Never forget it.
Rocket attack at 0-dark thrity. Run outside with gear as i was on hot platoon. Chu Lai deep sand. Rocket hit maybe 100 feet in front of me in the sand. Big expanding ball of orange sparks, sand must have attenuated the stuff low down or would have gotten hit.
After platoon formed up on the road, whole sky lit up. Big fireball rising to the south, looked like a nuke. Recall thinking “Where did the gooks get a nuke?”
Just the south bomb dump going up.
No more action rest of the night, sat in a tower waiting with a M-60 until dawn.
Didn’t get much sleep that week.
Work aircraft all day, stay awake all night.
Good Times.
Chu Lai RVN.
“So, does this mean that Ann-Margrat is not coming?”
Now that is an outrage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.