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The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters Volume 35 Number 2 Parameters Summer 2005 Article 1 5-1-2005 From the Archives: The Tet Attack Parameters Editors Follow this and additional works at: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters Recommended Citation Parameters Editors, "From the Archives: The Tet Attack," Parameters 35, no. 2 (2005), doi:10.55540/0031-1723.2248. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by USAWC Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters by an authorized editor of USAWC Press. From the ArchivesThe Tet AttackGeneral Nguyen Hue made his plans carefully. The foreigners were holdingthe cities of his beloved Vietnam, but he was not about to despair. Althoughvastly outnumbered, the Vietnamese general felt that a surprise attack against theforeigners occupying his land could be successful. When could maximum sur-prise be attained? As he thought this over, he considered Tet.Tet is the great holiday of the Vietnamese year. Officially the start of theChinese lunar new year, it is a grand religious, patriotic, vernal, and family holi-day rolled into one. It is also everyone’s birthday. The week-long celebration wasa national holiday and customarily a time for family reunions. In previous years,even the war had abated during that week for a holiday cease-fire.Such a diverting relaxation of tension could also mean a relaxation ofvigil. To General Hue, it looked like the ideal time to launch his surprise attack.His soldiers, disguised as peasants returning home for family reunions and cele-brations, had no trouble infiltrating enemy lines. Weapons were concealed incarts filled with flowers for the forthcoming festivities, as the Vietnamese troopsslowly worked their way into position for the surprise attack.At a preplanned signal, during the height of the Tet celebration, GeneralHue launched his surprise attack. He achieved a great success—one of the mostsignal victories ever won by Vietnamese forces.And that’s the way it was on 29 January 1789, as the Vietnamese liber-ated Hanoi from the Chinese.Source: Richard J. Sommers, ed., Vignettes of Military History, Volume III (Carlisle, Pa.: US Army MilitaryHistory Research Collection, now the US Army Military History Institute, February 1982), Vignette No. 110,contributed by then-Colonel Donald C. Odegard, drawn from Dave Richard Palmer, Summons of the Trumpet(San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1978).

From the Archives: The Tet Attack

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From the Archives: The Tet Attack

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