Celebrating Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, and Remembering Tet 1968

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One response to “Celebrating Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, and Remembering Tet 1968”

1. 

   Monday, January 23, 2012

   1SG Joseph Welsh USA (Ret)

   I read your write up and you mentioned that the Americans will to fight started to wane? I was there during Tet 68 and I can tell you this. They never stopped fighting during any Holidays, and IMO TET was not the turning point. The turning point was when the NV Government said as long as your bombing North Vietnam we will not sit with you at the Paris Peace talks. And as dumb as it was Johnson had them stop bombing. I was a 20 year old who was on my second tour with a Long Range Patrol Unit and we all knew that was a stupid move. Since they had the manpower to move their supplies from the North, however, if we continued the bombing of all the major ware houses and other places that were storing or producing their supplies, eventually they would not have enough supplies to be able to continue and they would have been defeated. I think that was also found in the NVA Commanding Generals Memoirs and he stated “If the bombing had continued in Hanoi, eventually our supply line would be ruined and we could have been defeated”. We fought all of 68 and that year there were more Americans in country than ever before and both sides paid a heavy price but they paid the heaviest and again by the end of 1968 they were hurting had they not stopped the bombing, it may have turned out entirely different. But as history has shown us our government is quick to send our men to WAR, but will not let the Generals run the show…….it’s time for them to realize they do not know about WAR, so let the soldiers make the call, since that’s what they get paid for. RANGERS LEAD THE WAY
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