Tet 1968: From Uncle Ho's New Year greetings on the radio

Exactly at the moment of New Year's Eve 50 years ago, Uncle Ho's New Year's greetings resounded on the Voice of Vietnam radio waves, becoming the proclamation of the Mau Than Tet General Offensive and Uprising 1968. For historical witnesses, this was an unforgettable campaign. For scientists and historical researchers, the General Offensive was the Party's ingenious strategic direction, creating a turning point that changed the situation of the war in our favor before entering the negotiating table.

“This spring is better than the previous springs.

Victory good news across the country

North and South compete to fight the American invaders

Go! Victory is ours.”

Uncle Ho's New Year's greetings rang out right on New Year's Eve, right after that on the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year of Mau Than 1968, from the 17th parallel to Ca Mau, our Liberation Army's armed forces suddenly launched widespread attacks on 4/6 cities, 37/44 towns, hundreds of towns, district capitals... occupied some places, mobilized the masses to rise up, and smashed the Saigon regime's grassroots apparatus in many rural areas.

For soldiers directly involved in the battle, Uncle Ho's New Year's greetings were the command, the endless source of inspiration for them to step into the campaign. Senior Lieutenant General, Academician Nguyen Huy Hieu, former Deputy Minister of National Defense, who was then in his twenties on the Binh Tri Thien front, recalled welcoming Tet with attacks, where life and death were separated by a hair's breadth, but the echo of Uncle Ho's New Year's greetings, combined with his homesickness, sublimated into poetry, into a determined will to win:

“On the day our troops marched into battle, I wrote a poem about Tet far from my motherland:

This Tet I am busy with military affairs.

The spring road of my mother's hometown is deserted

The road of hundreds of mountains and thousands of streams

Still hear the spring of my hometown lingering around me

Wind-blown Camouflage

I thought the butterfly was deeply attached to its homeland.

Former Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Huy Hieu recalled.

As for Major General Le Xuan Tau, Hero of the People's Armed Forces, former Commander of the Armored Corps, who was then a platoon officer of Company 3, Tank Battalion 198, participating in the key battle of Lang Vay (Quang Tri) on the 10th day of Tet Mau Than 50 years ago, Uncle Ho's New Year's greetings were like a command from his heart, urging him and his comrades to move forward. And his New Year, his spring on the battlefield, was the image of the steadfastness of his comrades and teammates in combat service.

Major General Le Xuan Tau recalled: “The infantry comrades, especially the engineers, at that time it was the night of February 6, 1968, after Tet, the weather was very cold but they immersed themselves in the Sepon River to make markers for the tanks to pass. Such courageous and resilient actions gave us, the tank officers and soldiers, a very high fighting spirit.”

According to historical researchers, the 1968 Tet Offensive had enough basis to succeed, both objectively and subjectively. Colonel, Doctor Vu Tang Bong, former officer of the Vietnam Military History Institute, said that before that, the local war campaigns in the South and the large-scale destructive war of the US in the North were fiercely counterattacked by our forces, resulting in heavy defeats with thousands of planes shot down, and the enemy's strategic intentions could not be realized. In the US, the presidential election campaign was also taking place. At the same time, we launched a diversionary campaign in another strategic area to attract the majority of the enemy's forces:

“About 10 days before, according to the plan, we proactively opened the Khe Sanh Route 9 front, making the US Expeditionary Command, as well as the puppet army, think that the main direction of the Communist attack was in the Route 9 area. Therefore, at one point, most of the US combat forces were sent to Route 9 to hold the strategic area at all costs. We achieved our goal of luring the enemy forces to Route 9 to create a surprise attack on the urban area,” said Dr. Vu Tang Bong.

When all the attention of the US side was focused on Khe Sanh, on the night of Tet Mau Than 1968, the armed forces of liberation suddenly launched an attack on almost all the cities in the South; directly attacking the headquarters, making the US and the Saigon government "stunned and stunned"; disrupting the war plans of President Johnson's administration and causing a fierce reaction among the American public, causing the enemy's will to invade to collapse. This was the strategic talent, the skillful direction of the Party, the Politburo, and the Central Military Commission.

Major General Nguyen Van Bao commented: “Our Party chose the opportunity to attack on the occasion of Tet Nguyen Dan, right on New Year's Eve, when the enemy showed weaknesses and subjectivity. Therefore, when we attacked, the enemy was completely surprised. They were not only surprised by the time but also surprised by the targets of the attack, which were urban areas and important bases, and surprised by the scale of the attack when we did not attack a few dozen small points as predicted by enemy intelligence, but attacked simultaneously across the entire southern battlefield. Therefore, they were extremely passive and confused in their response.”

The success of the 1968 Tet Offensive changed the situation of the war, creating a major breakthrough: "Crushing the US's will to invade, forcing the US to sit at the negotiating table"; Destroying the US McNamara electronic fence to control the vital Truong Son road connecting the rear with the front line; Creating an important premise towards the complete liberation of the South and national reunification./.