The Binh Gia victory in January 1965 by the southern army and people marked the fundamental defeat of the special war strategy of the U.S. imperialists in the south of our country. Faced with this situation, the U.S. imperialists, panicstricken and on the defensive, resorted to all measures to save the puppet authorities and army, who were facing the danger of grave collapse. From the beginning to mid-1965, they carried out a makeshift strategy by hastily introducing a number of U.S. fighting units into the south and, at the same time, expanded the war to the north by using their air force and navy to continually wage a war of destruction, thus hoping to prevent the collapse of the Saigon puppet authorities and army, consolidate and strengthen the reactionary puppet forces in the south, and save their special war strategy from defeat. However, the situation continued to develop in a direction unfavorable to the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys.
Fired with enthusiasm by victories, our people throughout the country unanimously rose up to resist the Americans for national salvation. They continued to develop the initiative on the battlefields and attack the enemy everywhere.
After the Binh Gia victory, between February and June 1965, on the basis of combining armed struggle with political struggle, the southern army and people stepped up the guerrilla war and, at the same time, developed large-scale attacks, completely annihilating puppet companies and battalions in each battle on all battlefields. They drove the puppet troops into a state of collapse, unable to resist the strong attacks of the Liberation Armed Forces.
At that time, the freshly introduced U.S. troops received heavy blows at An Tan, Nui Thanh, Pleiku, Da Nang, and especially Van Tuong. They were tightly encircled in their bases by the guerrilla belts. Neither the U.S. nor the puppet forces were able to stop the massive, continuous, and victorious attacks of the southern army and people. The U.S. imperialists and their lackeys became increasingly confused.
In the north, as of 7 February 1965, when the U.S. imperialists began using their air force to carry out attacks, our army and people dealt resounding blows to the U.S. Air Force, causing the U.S. imperialists to suffer heavy losses and become more defensive. Faced with this state of defeat and danger, and especially faced with the fact that the puppet troops were being repeatedly attacked and annihilated toward the end of July 1965, U.S. President Johnson, after forcing General Taylor to resign, decided to massively introduce U.S. expeditionary troops into South Vietnam to directly participate in combat, thus shifting the aggressive war to a new strategic phase; the local war strategy.
In October 1965, after introducing 180,000 U.S. expeditionary troops into South Vietnam, thus increasing the total of U.S. and puppet troops to 700,000 men, the U.S. imperialists launched their first strategic counteroffensive with the extravagant hope of quickly annihilating the regular units of the southern liberation forces and ending the war in 1966. This strategic counteroffensive developed under the form of two successive major operations during the 1965-1966 dry season.
The first operation was launched during the winter of 1965 with a large force, composed of many of the most seasoned units of the U.S. armed forces such as the First Mobile Division, the First Armored Infantry Division, paratroop units, and so forth. The U.S. imperialists launched their attacks in two main directions: north of Saigon, and the high plateaus, where they believed the liberation troops were concentrating their main forces. Contrary to the desires of the U.S. imperialists, both these attacks failed.
After their heavy defeat in Van Tuong, the Americans and puppets lost many battalions in Bau Bang, Dau Tieng, north of Saigon, Plei Me, the high plateaus, and other areas. Thus the U.S. troops were defeated right at the beginning. McNamara was very surprised, and Washington was flabbergasted. They hastily increased the number of U.S. fighting men, and then launched their second tide of attacks in the spring of 1966.
At that time, the total of U.S. troops reached 250,000 men. They poured their entire mobile force into their five-pronged attack, which was aimed in three main directions: eastern Nam Bo, the Trung Bo delta, and the high plateaus, with the aim of annihilating the Liberation Armed Forces and, at the same time, carrying out the pacification task. But again, they failed ignominiously! During this tide of large-scale attacks, in some battles the enemy even used as many as 27 battalions, such as in Bong Son and Binh Dinh.
The enemy was unable to annihilate any liberation detachment. On the contrary U.S. and puppet troops suffered heavy losses in Cu Chi, Nha Do, Bong Trang, eastern Nam Bo, Phu Yen, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, the Trung Bo delta, the high plateaus, and so forth. The first dry-season strategic counteroffensive of the U.S. imperialists ended tragically, with more than 30 battalions annihilated, of which 14 were U.S. and satellite infantry battalions, and more than 110,000 troops killed or wounded, of whom more than 40,000 were U.S. and satellite troops.
During the 1965-1966 winter-spring period, while U.S. troops sustained heavy defeats during the initial fighting and the puppet troops were continuously on the defensive, the southern army and people, on the contrary, maintained and developed their initiative on the battlefields and stepped up guerrilla and large-size attacks. They took the initiative in counterattacking and annihilating the enemy in his various operations and, at the same time, in attacking and annihilating the enemy deep in his rear--such as the attacks against his lair in Saigon, his barracks and logistic bases in various areas, and so forth.
The southern army and people defeated the U.S. puppet, and satellite troops right in the first round of the local war of the U.S. imperialists. On the basis of the 1965-1966 winter-spring victories, the southern army and people stepped up the combination of military struggle with political struggle and actively attacked the enemy, causing an unstable situation in which the puppet authorities and army encountered crises in all fields, and driving the U.S. imperialists into an embarrassed and defensive position. Thirty cities and municipalities throughout the south seethed with the struggle of city people rising up to struggle against the introduction of U.S. aggressive troops and against the Thieu-Ky clique. In Da Nang and Hue, the political struggle movement developed most widely and vigorously during this period.
It was obvious that contradictions between the U.S. imperialists and the traitors and the southern people were becoming very fierce. The fierce attacks of the southern army and people caused the Americans and puppets to sustain heavy military defeats and encounter grave political crises. This situation brought about quarrels, conflicts, and discord among the puppet authorities and army in the First Corps area. This crisis lasted over two months and led to a change in commanders five times. Six enemy battalions were dispersed as a result of their shooting at each other.
Faced with this situation and especially with U.S. troop defeats, the decline of the puppet troops was accelerated. In some months, there were 20,000 deserters. At the same time, many military revolts broke out, such as at the first regiment in Thu Dau Mot and other puppet units.
During the summer of 1966, after the defeat of their first dry-season strategic counteroffensive, the U.S. imperialists planned to return to the defensive, avoid the major attacks of the liberation troops, and actively reinforce and increase the U.S. expeditionary troops in order to prepare for their new strategic counteroffensive during the 1966-1967 dry season. But during the summer of 1966, U.S. and puppet troops continued to suffer repeated attacks from the southern army and people on all important strategic battlefields from Tri Thien, the high plateaus, and central Trung Bo to eastern, central, and western Nam Bo.
During the 1966-1967 dry season, after having reinforced and increased the U.S. expeditionary troops to 400,000 men, thus boosting the total of U.S. and puppet troops to over l million men, the U.S. imperialists launched their second strategic counteroffensive. The projected prominent characteristics of this major counteroffensive were: a) carrying out their two-pronged strategic plan: search-and-destroy and pacification raids; b) drawing experiences from the defeat of their first counteroffensive so that this time they concentrated on carrying out the main tasks of the new counteroffensive; c) achieving a new distribution of labor between the two strategic forces, with the U.S. forces being in charge of the search-anddestroy mission while the puppet regulars were responsible for pacification.
With a very large military force, the U.S. imperialists, launched their counteroffensive this time with the aim of destroying the areas in which, they believed, resistance organs were concentrated, trying to annihilate the liberation regulars, and stepped up the pacification task in order to change the situation, win a victory of strategic significance in a short period, and solve the Vietnamese problem quickly. But the U.S. imperialists again sustained heavy defeats during this second dry season strategic counteroffensive and faced a more serious defensive state.
In early winter of 1966, carrying out the NFLSV Central Committee’s 17 October 1966 appeal to resolutely fight and defeat the U.S. aggressors during the 1966-1967 winter-spring period, the southern army and people prepared to counterattack the enemy and, at the same time, took the initiative in launching new attacks on all battlefields. After summer ended in 1966, the southern army and people opened a new battlefield in Tri-Thien, attacking the U.S. and puppet troops strongly and repeatedly and forcing them to bring U.S. troops from other battlefields and disperse them to cope with various attacks on this battlefield.
This was a big surprise for the U.S. imperialists which caused them to become passive and embarrassed before pouring their forces into their second dry-season strategic counteroffensive. In the high plateau area, the Liberation Armed Forces lured the U.S. troops into coming to Plei Djereng and annihilated them in bloody battles along the banks of the Sa Thay River. On the Nam Bo battlefield, especially in the Trung Bo delta, the southern army and people developed a new offensive situation.
The southern Liberation Armed Forces inaugurated the 1966-1967 winter-spring victories by attacking the Long Binh bomb depot on 28 October and shelling the military parade of the U.S.-puppet clique in the heart of Saigon on 1 November. These were heavy blows to the enemy.
In eastern Nam Bo, the main target of U.S. troop attacks throughout the 1966-1967 winter-spring period, the enemy launched many military operations. The most important were Attleboro, Cedar Falls, and Junction City. These were defensive operations, aimed at coping with the fierce attacks of the Nam Bo troops and people. For the Attleboro campaign, the enemy mobilized over 30,000 troops. But the campaign ended with heavy losses for the 196th Brigade, units of the 25th Tropical Lightning Division, the Big Red One division, the 173d Paratroop Brigade, and so forth.
The Junction City campaign, begun in February 1967, was one into which the Americans poured the largest number of troops to take a single objective during this dry season. They poured a large force--composed of 45,000 troops and a large number of planes, pieces of artillery, and armored vehicles--into a battlefield of less than 400 square kilometers with the hope of achieving a decisive victory. But this largest campaign was dealt the greatest defeat which ignominiously ended the second dry-season strategic counteroffensive of the Americans. The search-and-destroy operations of the Americans and puppets had failed. Naturally, their pacification task achieved no results.
While fighting fiercely, the southern army and people continued to step up the coordination between the military along with political struggles. The political struggle movement of the southern city people continue to develop strongly. Its anti-U.S. character increased. The southern people’s liberated areas continued to be firmly maintained, and some liberated areas were even enlarged. The bitter failure of the U.S. pacification plan was marked by the dismissal of Cabot Lodge and Lansdale. In the second strategic counteroffensive, the U.S. imperialists were defeated more heavily than in the first. Some 175,000 troops were annihilated, including more than 70,000 U.S. troops. A total of 99 battalions and battalion-size units, including 28 U.S. battalions, were put out of action. Some 3,000 aircraft, hundreds of artillery pieces, and other equipment were destroyed.
The U.S. imperialists and their lackeys have been increasingly bogged down and constantly passive. They could not destroy even one small-size unit of the liberation troops’ main force, and were annihilated in great numbers. They could not gain the initiative, but had to passively resist our forces on all battlefields.
They have suffered the heaviest defeats wherever the greatest bulk of their forces was concentrated. They planned to send troops to the Mekong River delta, but had to postpone this because the situation on all battlefields was very difficult for them and their lackeys. They intended to save the puppet troops, but the regular puppet troops continued to decline and lose their fighting ability, even in the pacification task.
This summer, following the failure of the second dry-season strategic counteroffensive, a pessimistic atmosphere has enveloped the U.S. ruling clique and the Vietnamese traitors in Saigon. The U.S. aggressors and their lackeys got a headache in the face of increasingly serious and insurmountable political and military difficulties and deadlock. They are embarrassed by the increasingly stronger offensive of the southern army and people and the determination of all the Vietnamese people to oppose the Americans for national salvation. They are encountering the increasingly firm opposition of progressive people in the world and even in the United States.
The ruling clique in the White House and the Pentagon have fiercely quarreled with one another about the seriously deadlocked U.S. situation in Vietnam. Westmoreland was called back to the United States to deliver a speech in which he deceitfully said that there was no deadlock, but he himself had to ask Johnson to send many more reinforcements to the south. U.S. Defense Secretary McNamara, who hurriedly went to Saigon for the ninth time in order to study all aspects of the war, openly criticized Westmoreland for wasting human strength and told him to increase the efficiency of U.S. troops now on hand in Vietnam.
Following this, Taylor, a U.S. strategist, and Clifford, a U.S. intelligence ringleader, toured the satellite countries of the United States in Southeast Asia in order to recruit more mercenary troops, but failed to attain the results desired by the U.S. imperialists.
It is clear that the U.S. imperialists have been increasingly stalemated, following the second strategic counteroffensive. Their local war has been disastrously defeated. As for the southern army and people, following the 1966-1967 winter-spring feats of arms, a stimulating, confident, and seething atmosphere has been reigning over all battlefields and has urged the southern army and people to move forward to score greater and more resounding achievements.
The Liberation Armed Forces have matured swiftly and gained many more fighting experiences and have showed that they are in very good shape. This summer, with the impetus of big victories, the southern army and people continue to develop their initiative, step up both military and political offensives everywhere, and deal the U.S., puppet, and satellite troops painful blows in Con Tien, Gioc Mieu, Gio An, Nong Son, Mo Duc, Tan Uyen, Can Le, My Tho, and Quoi Son, and at many airbases such as Da Nang, Chu Lai, and elsewhere. The above is the war situation in the south during the past two years.
In the same period, in the northern part of our country, the U.S. imperialists used an important part of the U.S. Air Force based in the Seventh Fleet, in the south, and in Thailand to attack the north in an attempt to extricate themselves from their predicament in the south, shake the morale of our people in both zones, and check the northern people’s support of the southern oompatriots’ liberation struggle. This is an important measure of the local war strategy and, at the same time, a passive act of the U.S. imperialists.
At the outset, they attacked the southern areas of the Fourth Military Zone. Following this, they have gradually escalated the war against the northern part of North Vietnam. On several occasions, they temporarily stopped attacking the north for some time in order to deceive people with their peace tricks and to reorganize their forces, and then continued to widely escalate the war beyond the 21st, 22d, and 23d parallels.
On 29 June 1966, they began rashly attacking the capital of Hanoi, thus increasing their war of destruction against the north to the most serious degree. They have also used the naval forces of the Seventh Fleet and the artillery units stationed south of the temporary military demarcation line to supplement the activities of their air force against the coastal areas of the military zone and the southern part of Vinh Linh. Their targets have been axes of communications, industrial sites, dams and dikes, cities, popular areas, schools, hospitals, markets, and so forth.
However, for more than two years the U.S. imperialists’ war of destruction in the north has been defeated. the U.S. imperialists have been confronted with an anti-U.S. national salvation high tide of the northern army and people. To date, nearly 2,300 fighter aircraft of the U.S. imperialists have been shot down, and thousands of U.S. pilots have been annihilated or captured in the north. The prestige of the U.S. air force has collapsed disastrously. These figures were computed as of 14 September 1967.
In the war, the north has developed the strength of the socialist regime and has fought well, along with achieving good production. The north has constantly insured good communications and transportation and has incessantly developed its economy and culture. Despite many difficulties created by the enemy, the people’s living conditions continue to be stabilized. The determination of our people to oppose the Americans for national salvation has been increasingly strengthened.
Meanwhile, in the south, with the spirit “The north calls, the south answers,” the southern army and people have continuously attacked the U.S., puppet, and satellite troops everywhere and have striven to attack their airbases and logistical depots, thus causing them to suffer heavy losses and to be increasingly passive.
Generally speaking, the war developments during the past years can be summarized as follows:
On the Enemy Side
A--Because of the failure of their special war strategy, the U.S. imperialists, have passively shifted to the local war strategy. They have waged an unprecedentedly large local war of aggression. With regard to military strength, they have mobilized more than a million troops, including half a million U.S. troops. As for military means, they have used about one-third of the U.S. Strategic Air Force, as many as 4,000 aircraft of all types, including some 1,300 modern fighter aircraft, and 13 of the 17 attack aircraft carriers of the U.S. naval force. They have used very great quantities of the most modern weapons and equipment, except for atomic weapons, in the war.
With regard to their war budget, according to their official sources, in 1966 alone the U.S. imperialists spent as much as 13 billion dollars; they plan to increase (?this) to 30 billion in 1967 and 1968.
The U.S. imperialists mobilized the U.S., rebel, and satellite forces to launch two strategic offensives in South Vietnam, and have continuously used their air and naval forces to attack the north. Yet they have not been able to extricate themselves from their predicament in South Vietnam which is getting worse and worse.
B--The U.S. imperialists have been utterly defeated in all fields--military, political, and tactical--throughout the very important period of the local war. All of their strategic objectives have failed. The U.S. and rebel forces have suffered heavy setbacks, while their pacification plan has gone bankrupt. The puppet administration and armed forces have weakened with every passing day. They are faced with a very bad and seriously stalemated war situation.
C--As a result of their waging of the war of aggression in Vietnam, the U.S. imperialists are increasingly isolated in the world. The progressive people throughout the world, including the American people, have vehemently condemned the U.S. imperialists for their aggression against Vietnam and have risen up to struggle against them by all means. Many of the U.S. imperialists’ satellite countries have shown themselves indifferent to the war of aggression in Vietnam. Some of them have even officially protested against it. Even the U.S. ruling authorities themselves have fallen into discord and dissension in the face of their heavy setbacks in Vietnam.
On Our Side
A--A glance at all aspects of the anti-U.S. national salvation resistance war of our people shows that the war situation has never been so favorable as it is now. The armed forces and people in the entire country have stood up to fight the enemy and are achieving one great victory after another. In South Vietnam, faced with the U.S. imperialists’ change of strategy, the southern armed forces and people have continued developing their initiative, have continuously attacked the enemy on all battlefields, and have defeated two large-scale strategic counteroffensives of the U.S., rebel, and satellite forces. The military struggle has been stepped up in close coordination with the political struggle, which is developing increasingly deeply and widely. The resistance forces of the southern combatants and people have matured rapidly and are strong.
In North Vietnam, our armed forces and people have defeated and are defeating the U.S. imperialists’ war of destruction, have continued building socialism, and at the same time have striven to fulfill the duty of a large rear toward a large frontline. North Vietnam has become increasingly strong and steady in all fields.
B--The victories achieved by the armed forces and people in the entire country have been of great political and military strategic significance. Our people throughout the country are standing shoulder to shoulder in steadily advancing and pushing the anti-U.S. national salvation resistance war to final victory.
C--Our people’s anti-U.S. national salvation resistance war is just and is aimed at safeguarding their independence and freedom. It is of great international significance, because it is strongly approved of and supported by brother socialist countries and progressive people all over the world. Never has our people’s resistance war against foreign aggression been so strongly encouraged and supported by the world’s peoples as it is now. The world’s revolutionary people consider the anti-U.S. national salvation resistance war of our people as an anti-U.S. frontline of the world’s peoples and a center of the present national liberation struggle movement.
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Next: Part II--The U.S. imperialists were heavily defeated during the very important period of the local war of aggression in South Vietnam.