Word: giap
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Regardless of political idealism, the South, as always, suffered again. The N.L.F. is (or was?) mostly Southerners. General Giap must feel quite pleased with his consistent brilliance for blooding both sides at nominal cost to the North, or perhaps China...
Nonetheless, there are analysts who fear that Westmoreland may be falling into a trap set by North Viet Nam Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, hero of Dienbienphu and strategist of the current offensive. Indeed, there are some chilling parallels between Giap's winter-spring offensive in 1954 and the current Red strategy. While the Communists built up their strength at Dienbienphu to 40,000 men-the estimated force now around Khe Sanh-they simultaneously launched assaults against the French throughout Indo-China. The Tet offensive was a similar widespread assault by the Communists which may have been aimed...
...fact that no one knew for sure exactly what had happened, or why; nor was there any certainty that it would not happen again. The full significance of the Communist general offensive still hung on the next move by North Viet Nam's Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap-and whether he would or would not mount an assault on the U.S. Marine position at Khe Sanh...
...Whatever Giap is up to-and weeks may pass before the outline of his campaign becomes apparent-he has already undeniably succeeded in devastating a large part of Viet Nam. With roads out and bridges down, telephones dead and all other kinds of communications clogged, the South Vietnamese are still painfully piecing together the extent of their human and material losses. At least 3,000 civilians were killed and another 350,000 made homeless, adding to the country's already overburdened refugee rolls. Hospitals overflowed with some 7,000 wounded civilians. Food was in short supply in some places...
...quite by accident. One of his Politburo archfoes, Nguyen Chi Thanh, who had shared control of operations in the South, died last summer-of what Hanoi describes as a heart attack but U.S. officers refer to as "B-52-itis" caught in the South. Thanh's death left Giap unchallenged, and he has spent a large part of the past six months planning the New Year's offensive that began last week...