AP WAS THERE: The Vietnam War.....

 

Early on the morning of Jan. 31, 1968, as Vietnamese celebrated the Lunar New Year, or Tet as it is known locally, Communist forces launched a wave of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam.

The campaign — one of the largest of the Vietnam War — led to intense fighting and heavy casualties in cities and towns across the South.

While battles raged for more than a month in some places like the city of Hue, the Tet Offensive was from a strictly military standpoint a defeat for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

Yet the campaign had a profound impact on the U.S. war effort, stunning leaders in Washington and leaving Americans questioning their country’s involvement in the overseas campaign.

Fifty years after their original publication, The Associated Press is making available four stories from Jan. 31, Feb. 2 and Feb. 21, 1968, written by AP journalists Peter Arnett, Edwin Q. White and John Lengel documenting the offensive. The package includes a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by the AP’s Eddie Adams.

The Communists have paid with nearly 5,000 dead in their frenzied guerrilla strikes at Saigon and other major centers throughout South Vietnam this week, the U.S. Command said Thursday.

A soaring general casualty toll was announced as the third day of the coordinated Communist campaign brought new clashes in outlying sections of Saigon and heavy action in other parts of the country.

Some Viet Cong soldiers and agents were reported circulating openly in some crowded sections of Saigon, knocking on doors and telling occupants, “We have come to liberate Saigon.” There were reports that the Communist National Liberation Front was claiming formation of a revolutionary council to run Saigon.

Command spokesman said 4,959 enemy were killed in action from 6 p.m. Monday to midnight Wednesday. Another 1,862 persons were seized as Viet Cong suspects.

U.S. casualties for the period were listed as 232 killed and 929 wounded. South Vietnamese government casualties were 300 killed and 747 wounded, a spokesman said

Other allied casualties were put at three killed and 22 wounded.

South Vietnamese authorities said 660 Viet Cong were killed in Saigon alone in less than two days of fighting. 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 400 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.S. embassy and military and civilian installations from Hue to the Mekong Delta.

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.

During the morning Thursday, a Vietnamese police precinct station in Saigon’s Chinese sector, Cholon, came under heavy attack, and sharp exchanges of fire were reported in areas of Gia Dinh, the province that surrounds Saigon.

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.

Government troops rushed in, and the Viet Cong slipped into the cemetery, where many heroes of Vietnam’s wars are buried.