6 - The Vietnam War - S01E06 - Things Fall Apart (january 1968-july 1968) - Impact of the Tet Offensive

The Technical Realities of the Helicopter War in Vietnam

• Phenomenality of Flight: Helicopters are described as phenomenal machines that allow pilots to float in the air, creating a sensation comparable to being like a god.
• Altitude and Tactics:
  • Flight below $500\,ft$ is essential; any altitude above $500\,ft$ is considered a "kill zone."
  • The preferred flight altitude is below $200\,ft$, following the principle that "the lower, the better."
• The Pilot's Role as Decoy: Pilots often served as decoys with the specific job of drawing enemy fire to locate their positions. This involved frequent engagement with the enemy and being a literal "duck" for incoming fire.
• Combat Sensory Experience:
  • Incoming rounds from a $.50$ caliber gun (shooting a half-inch piece of lead) create a distinct "popping" sound as they pass the ear.
  • Pilots often avoid hearing the actual gunshot due to the noise of the aircraft and the speed of the lead.
  • Evasive maneuvers often involve turning the aircraft $90\,degrees$ the other way, sometimes feeling as though the pilot is shooting themselves down because the rotor blades are positioned directly in front of the gun.
  • Gun maintenance is critical; if a weapon jams during a high-stakes encounter, the crew is effectively "done."
• Operational Statistics:
  • Vietnam is characterized as the first real helicopter war.
  • Helicopter pilots flew more than $36,000,000$ sorties over the course of the conflict.
• Multifaceted Utility:
  • Crews scattered propaganda leaflets over enemy territory.
  • Aircraft poured lethal fire into enemy positions.
  • They carried troops, supplies, and artillery directly into battle.
  • Medevac capabilities allowed wounded soldiers to reach field hospitals within an average of $15\,min$.

The Personnel and Atmosphere of late 1967

• Ron Farisi's Account: A policeman's son from the "swamp poodle" neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Farisi arrived in Vietnam in November 1967. He served as a crew chief and scout helicopter pilot with the First Air Cavalry, operating out of Landing Zone 2 Bits in the Central Highlands.
• Journalistic Interaction: Farisi describes an encounter with a journalist who asked what it was like "out there." His reaction highlights the psychological strain of combat, noting that describing the feeling of a $.50$ caliber round flying at a person is difficult and that the reality is best understood by seeing the bodies firsthand. He describes a feeling of "insanity" where he wanted to "blast" the person asking the question because he did not want to remember the trauma.
• The Watershed Year: 1968 is identified as the watershed year for both the war and the United States.
• Troop Levels and Official Optimism: At the beginning of 1968, there were $485,600$ American troops in Vietnam. Leaders promised that victory was in sight and there was "light at the end of the tunnel."

North Vietnamese Planning for the General Offensive

• Ho Chi Minh's Signal: On the evening of January 1, 1968, Ho Chi Minh broadcast a poem over Radio Hanoi, which Communist commanders interpreted as a signal for the "ultimate battle."
• The General Offensive and General Uprising:
  • The plan was spearheaded by Party First Secretary Le Duan, who had purged those opposed to the offensive.
  • The objective was to have Vietcong units, supported by North Vietnamese troops, simultaneously attack cities and bases throughout the South.
  • Assumptions: Le Duan believed the people of South Vietnam would rise up and overthrow the Saigon government, similar to the August 1945 uprising against the Japanese. He assumed that once Saigon was defeated, American withdrawal would be inevitable.
• Tactics of Infiltration:
  • Weapons were smuggled in sampans, flower carts, and false-bottom trucks.
  • Arms were buried in paddy fields, garbage dumps, and cemeteries.
  • Specific targets included 36 of 44 provincial capitals, dozens of military bases, and the six largest cities, including Hue, Da Nang, and Saigon.

Intelligence and the Buildup at Khe Sanh

• Intelligence Indicators: Despite over $10,000$ American military and civilian intelligence officers working in South Vietnam, the full scope of the coming offensive was not understood. Signs included:
  • Inexplicable movement of enemy units.
  • Reports of coming attacks on cities.
  • The capture of 11 agents in Qui Nhon carrying prerecorded tapes calling for a general uprising.
• The Diversion Theory: General Westmoreland believed the primary enemy objective was Khe Sanh, the westernmost strong point below the DMZ.
  • $30,000$ North Vietnamese troops gathered near Khe Sanh, which was held by only $6,000$ Marines.
  • Westmoreland feared a repeat of Dien Bien Phu (1954), where the French were annihilated.
  • Lyndon Johnson had a scale model of Khe Sanh in the White House and made the Joint Chiefs sign a pledge that the base would never fall.
• Strategic Realignment: General Frederick C. Weyand persuaded Westmoreland to pull half his troops back from the Cambodian border to defend Saigon, a move that proved vital when the offensive began.

The Experience of Captain Hal Kushner

• Background: A 26-year-old medical school graduate from Danville, Virginia, and father of a three-year-old with another child on the way. He volunteered as a flight surgeon with the First Air Cavalry.
• The Crash: In November 1967, during heavy rain and fog, Kushner's helicopter crashed into a mountain. Major Porcello was killed immediately. Kushner was left hanging upside down in a burning aircraft while $.60$ machine gun rounds "cooked off" in the fire, wounding him in the shoulder.
• Survival and Capture:
  • Kushner survived on the mountain for three days without food or water. His comrade, Warrant Officer Bedworth, died on the third day.
  • After four hours of staggering down the mountain, Kushner was captured by Vietcong near a rice paddy.
  • Despite his status as a doctor, a Vietcong soldier shot him through the neck with an $M2$ carbine.
  • His Geneva Convention card was torn up, and he was told he was a "criminal," not a prisoner of war (POW).
• Treatment and Captivity:
  • Kushner was marched for 30 days, mostly at night, through the Central Highlands.
  • At a cave hospital, a nurse treated his wound by pushing a red-hot rifle cleaning rod through his neck while he bit on a bamboo stick. He was given one aspirin tablet.
  • He refused to make a recorded statement against the war in exchange for contacting his family. His captor responded: "You will find dying is very easy. Living will be the difficult thing."

The Outbreak of the Tet Offensive (January 30–31, 1968)

• Timing: Attacks began during the Lunar New Year (Tet) celebration, during which a $36\,hr$ truce was supposedly in effect. Thousands of ARVN troops were away on holiday leave.
• The Scale of Attack: $84,000$ Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops launched the offensive with the goal to "crack the sky and shake the earth."
• Events in Saigon:
  • Initial explosions were mistaken by Westmoreland for holiday firecrackers.
  • Attackers reached the Presidential Palace but were stopped by ARVN tanks.
  • The national radio station was seized, but a technician prevented the broadcast of Ho Chi Minh’s message by cutting the transmission and playing Viennese waltzes and Beatles songs instead.
  • At Long Binh, an ammunition dump was blown up, creating a mushroom cloud so large it was mistaken for a nuclear explosion.
• The US Embassy Assault: 19 commandos blasted into the embassy compound. While they never made it inside the building itself, they held the grounds for hours. A Marine and four Army MPs were killed before all intruders were killed or captured.

Media and the Execution of Nguyen Van Lem

• The Execution: On the second day of fighting, a Vietcong agent named Nguyen Van Lem was brought before Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the head of the South Vietnamese National Police. Loan executed the prisoner in the street with a $.45$ caliber pistol.
• Public Impact: The event was captured by an AP photographer and an NBC cameraman. The image of the man's head bulging from the bullet became a defining symbol of the war's brutality.
• The "Credibility Gap": Lyndon Johnson expressed intense frustration with the press, accusing them of lying "like drunken sailors" and failing to report on the atrocities committed by the Vietcong while focusing on US failures.

The Battle of Hue

• Duration: The longest and bloodiest battle of the Tet Offensive, lasting 26 days.
• Topography: The city was divided by the Perfume River. North Vietnamese regulars and Vietcong held most of the city, with the exception of the MACV compound and the ARVN first division headquarters in the Citadel.
• Urban Combat: US Marines engaged in brutal block-by-block, house-by-house fighting.
• Civilian Toll:
  • $6,000$ civilians died during the battle.
  • $110,000$ out of the city's $135,000$ citizens lost their homes.
  • The Communist forces systematically executed at least $2,800$ people they designated as "hooligans and reactionaries" during their occupation.

Political Aftermath in the United States

• Military vs. Political Outcome: Militarily, Tet was a disaster for the Communists. Not a single ARVN unit defected, and the public did not rise up. By the end of the offensive, an estimated $58,000$ enemy troops had been killed, wounded, or captured.
• Public Perception: Despite the military victory, Tet shattered the American public's trust in the administration's claims of progress.
• The "Wise Men": On March 26, a group of veteran advisors, including Dean Acheson, informed the president that the US could no longer achieve its goals in the time remaining and must begin to disengage.
• Walter Cronkite’s Editorial: The CBS anchor concluded that the war was mired in a stalemate and that the only rational way out was to negotiate "not as victors, but as an honorable people."
• LBJ's Withdrawal: On March 31, 1968, Lyndon Johnson announced a partial bombing halt and declared: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president."

Domestic Turmoil and the 1968 Election

• Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968):
  • Riots broke out in over 100 cities.
  • National Guard and Army units were deployed to American streets.
  • Marine Roger Harris refused to deploy for domestic riot control in Washington DC after his return from Vietnam, resulting in him losing his rank of Sergeant.
  • Domestic violence resulted in 46 deaths and $20,000$ arrests.
• Columbia University Protests: Anti-war students occupied buildings for a week, marking the first time students forced a major US university to shut down.
• Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (June 1968): Kennedy had run on a platform of ending the war and bridging racial divides. His death deepened the sense of national uncertainty.
• Continuing Conflict:
  • May 1968 was the bloodiest month of the war, with $2,416$ American deaths.
  • Negotiations began in Paris at the Hotel Majestic, but the Communists adopted a policy of "talking while fighting."
  • A "mini-Tet" offensive in May resulted in $36,000$ more North Vietnamese casualties.
• Final Toll Perspective: Before the conflict ended seven years later, another $27,184$ Americans and hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians would die.