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VN marks 50th anniversary of 1968 Tet Offensive

VGP - A grand ceremony was held at the Thong Nhat (Reunification) Palace, Ho Chi Minh City on January 31 to mark the 50th anniversary of the General Tet Offensive in the spring of 1968.

February 01, 2018 9:27 AM GMT+7

The 50th anniversary of the General Tet Offensive in the spring of 1968

The event drew the attendance of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; State President Tran Dai Quang, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee Tran Thanh Man, former Party, State, Government, National Assembly and Viet Nam Fatherland Front leaders, and foreign diplomats, among others.  

On behalf of the Party, State, and the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan delivered a speech to review the heroic fight of Vietnamese army and people 50 years ago. 

The Tet Offensive began in the early morning of January 31 in 1968 when liberation forces simultaneously launched attacks on American and Southern Vietnamese bases in cities such as Hue, Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Saigon, and hundreds of towns from Quang Tri to Ca Mau.

The offensive helped destroy huge amounts of facilities and logistics used by the U.S. and the Southern regime’s armies. The seven-month long campaign ended with tens of thousands of enemy troops dead, 600 strategic hamlets destroyed and 100 communes liberated with a population of 1.6 million people.

People in rural areas also took this opportunity to rise up against the US-backed government’s administration.

Sai Gon-Gia Dinh (now HCM City), the headquarters of the US-backed Southern regime, was a focus of the offensive.

The Tet Offensive marked a strategic turning point for the resistance war against the US and its allies. It caused the US a ‘sudden shock’, disrupting their strategic plan, shaking the White House, the Pentagon and all of the US and forced President Johnson to deescalate the war and agree to sign the historic Paris Peace Accord. The victory also helped lead to the liberation of southern Viet Nam and national reunification in 1975. 

Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan described the Tet Offensive the peak of Viet Nam’s history in the 20th century, and a symbol of patriotism, iron will and determination, and combat spirit of the entire Party, people and army under the clear-sighted leadership and right guidelines of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and President Ho Chi Minh to gain national liberation.

The celebration of the Tet Offensive which took place almost the same time with the founding anniversary of the CPV (February 3, 1930) has helped raise the pride of the Party and national strength.

The Party has learnt from the success of the offensive to serve the present cause of nation-building and development, he noted, saying it is the people’s assistance and support that helped the country overcome all challenges to win the ultimate victory./.

By Kim Anh