How many vietcong died in the tet offensive

The audacious attack on the U. Embassy, and its initial success, stunned American and international observers, who saw images of the carnage broadcast on television as it occurred. Though Giap had succeeded in achieving surprise, his forces were spread too thin in the ambitious offensive, and U. Particularly intense fighting took place in the city of Hue, located on the Perfume River some 50 miles south of the border between North and South Vietnam.

Early in their occupation of Hue, Viet Cong soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting civil servants, religious leaders, teachers and other civilians connected with American forces or with the South Vietnamese regime.

They executed these so-called counter-revolutionaries and buried their bodies in mass graves. The toughest fighting in Hue occurred at the ancient citadel, which the North Vietnamese struggled fiercely to hold against superior U. In scenes of carnage recorded on film by numerous television crews on the scene, nearly U. Marines were killed in the Battle of Hue, along with some South Vietnamese troops. On the North Vietnamese side, an estimated 5, soldiers were killed, most of them hit by American air and artillery strikes.

Despite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure to inspire widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for the North Vietnamese.

Before Tet, Westmoreland and other representatives of the Johnson administration had been claiming that the end of the war was in sight; now, it was clear that a long struggle still lay ahead, shaking their confidence in their ability to win the Cold War.

Westmoreland requested more than , new troops in order to mount an effective counteroffensive, an escalation that many Americans saw as an act of desperation.

On March 31, a beleaguered President Johnson declared that he was limiting the bombing of North Vietnam to the area below the 20th parallel thus sparing 90 percent of communist-held territory and calling for negotiations to end the war. At the same time, he announced that he would not be running for re-election that November. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. From the time U. In a war that produced its fair share of atrocities, the Massacre at Hue stands out because of the number of victims, their innocence and the means used by the communist forces to murder them. Later investigations revealed some were still alive when they were buried. The Massacre at Hue fed subsequent rumours to the effect that a bloodbath would ensue if and when communist forces triumphed in the war.

Those rumours motivated South Vietnamese soldiers to fight harder and even produced a wave of eager volunteers for the army just as Saigon issued a general mobilisation order.

Yet circumstance allowed Le Duan to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as the generalised attack sent shock waves not just in South Vietnam but around the world.

It was a public relations effort to rally domestic opinion behind the war by exalting the merits and successes of the US intervention in Vietnam.

The Tet Offensive not only exploded the myth of US progress in the Vietnam War; it also shattered the credibility of the Johnson administration, the military brass and the president himself. The Tet Offensive also served to collapse the moral position of the Johnson administration. During the attack on Saigon, a man presumed to be Viet Cong, wearing a shirt and a pair of shorts, hands tied behind his back, was shot in the head, execution-style, by National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan.

The incident would have gone down in history as another bloody episode in a bloodier war had it not been caught on camera. It looked to the world as if America was working in tandem with men such as Loan and fighting on behalf of a doomed regime that could not even help itself. The net effect of all this was to energise the antiwar movement in the United States. On 30 March , President Johnson declared on American television that he would not seek another term in office.

The announcement was tantamount to an admission of defeat. Costly and bloody, the Tet Offensive proved a turning point in the history of the American War in Vietnam. Heartened by its unforeseen consequences in the US and around the world, he tried his luck again during the next presidential election year, Intractably committed to victory on his terms, Le Duan sanctioned another go-for-broke campaign in He could no longer abide the slow chug of stagnant war: it had been nearly 30 years since Ho Chi Minh had proclaimed the independence of Vietnam on 2 September , but the nation was still divided, unable to enjoy the benefits of complete sovereignty.

This time, communist armies were victorious. It had taken seven years longer than expected, but he finally had his moment of triumph. The country had paid a terrible price for it. Growing impatient with the slow chug of a stagnant war, in the North Vietnamese authorities planned a major offensive.

The Tet Offensive did not deliver the anticipated fatal blow, but it did help turn the tide of the Vietnam War. Pierre Asselin Published 30 Jan There was no immediate word on the number of civilian casualties in the capital or elsewhere across the nation, but they were believed to have been heavy.

Downtown Saigon was quiet early Thursday, but skirmishing continued in suburban areas, and bands of Viet Cong, some disguised in government uniforms, roamed the city.

The Communists captured part of Hue, the old imperial capital miles north of Saigon, and seized control of half of Kon Tum in the central highlands. Two other major cities along the coastline in the north, Nha Trang and Qui Nhon, came under fresh mortar attacks and ground probes. President Nguyen Van Thieu declared martial law throughout the nation in the wake of the Wednesday attacks against the U. Traffic began to move on Saigon streets on Thursday, and some shops and offices cautiously opened their doors.

Military and police patrols were heavy throughout the city, however, and streets were crisscrossed by barbed-wire barricades and checkpoints. Troops and aircraft also swept parts of sprawling Tan Son Nhut air base on the edge of the capital, where heavy fighting occurred Wednesday.

During the night, one spectacular clash took place in the old French national cemetery only about 12 blocks from downtown Saigon. Persons living in the area said roving bands of Viet Cong surged through, pounding on doors and trying to arouse residents.

Helicopter gunships were called in, and the cemetery and nearby residential streets were hit by rocket and machine-gun fire before the Viet Cong fled. There was no report on casualties from that clash.

Similar incidents occurred in other areas of the capital. Small paper red, green and yellow Viet Cong flags were found fluttering in parts of the city at daylight Thursday. The U. Command reported 12, enemy had been killed since Monday evening in allied counterattacks that were said to be crushing the biggest Communist offensive of the war.

Fresh fighting broke out in parts of Saigon, and masses of civilians were reported fleeing a battle in a northern suburb of the capital. The Communists launched heavy ground assaults on at least six provincial capitals and district towns in the rice-growing Mekong Delta below Saigon and in the provinces just north of the city.

Enemy gunners hit the U. Damage to the base and its planes were reported light. It was the third attack on the base in the last five days. The Viet Cong killed six American missionaries in the Central Highlands, a missionary organization announced.

Command said enemy fighters were killed at a rate of plus per hour during the hour period from 6 p. Allied forces also reported they detained 3, enemy suspects. A total allied troops were killed in the hour period, including Americans and South Vietnamese.

Allied wounded totaled 3,, of whom 1, were Americans and 1, South Vietnamese. While the Communists held parts of several cities and towns across the country, President Nguyen Van Thieu declared:.

We can consider they have been totally defeated. Thieu and U. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker appeared on television Friday to tell the people that the guerillas and their North Vietnamese allies were being beaten with unprecedented losses. A battalion of South Vietnamese Rangers was reported moved into Saigon to reinforce security units. Command reported heavy contact with the Viet Cong about daybreak Saturday in the Gia Dinh area on the northern edge of Saigon.

It said the enemy was blocked by a South Vietnamese force on the northeast and a U. The Viet Cong were said to be trying to escape past the South Vietnamese troops, some of them in small boats on the Saigon River.

Cholon was hit by six Viet Cong mortar shells during the night. At Hue, a main gate of the citadel was reported wrested from Communist control. Command said the enemy withdrew into the northern part of the old walled areas under repeated strafing and rocket raids by allied fighter-bombers. Earlier, the U. Command had reported that the enemy was holding onto two corners of the citadel.

The allies reported killing more than enemy in bitter fighting at Hue, Friday. One illustration of the tremendous property damage the Communist offensive has caused was a report from President Johnson on the toll of aircraft at American fields across Vietnam. He said 16 planes and 23 helicopters were destroyed and about other planes so severely damaged that they would have to be replaced.

They are resisting allied forces with machine guns, mortars and rockets. The enemy fire was so intense today that two U.

Marines and infantrymen and South Vietnamese troops are battling more to maintain their positions than to oust the enemy.