Tet

Like the Beatles sang about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band "it was forty years ago today that Sgt. Pepper began to play"... Change the name from Sgt. Pepper to "the Cong" and you folks that are old enough to remember will recall that four decades ago on this date the all out offensive that is known today as the Tet Offensive began. It was the beginning of the end. Unfortunately the politicians took a few more years before they got the picture. Sound familiar? Just change the country and that thought even has meaning in today's times.

I was in-country for what we vets commonly refer to as Tet. I was stationed near Pleiku in II Corp. Life for a young greenhorn changed for this G.I. Suddenly I began to seriously see what that conflict was all about. After wading through all the rhetoric that war was for a country that wanted to be independent of foreign domination. Uncle Ho, as he was popularly referred to, was trying to lead his native country to become a democratic society. Things would have been quite different back then if it wasn't for Eisenhower.

On the heels of WWII Eisenhower didn't want to get into another battle and especially against the French. Viet Nam was a French possession back in those days. France was a strong U.S. ally and Ike considered them good friends. Consequently he counseled against American involvement in that jungle paradise. In the infancy of the Cold War, Russia welcomed Ho with open arms. Did you know that Eisenhower put the first American troops in Viet Nam? They were called advisers and observers. It was a small number compared to what it built up to in later years. The Russians poured big money into RVN to buy the soul of Ho Chi Minh.

When the Tet Offensive came around a lot of things changed across the pond. Suddenly towns were off limits and for a time being troops were permitted to fight without first asking if they could return fire. I even witnessed a trooper slowly going bonkers stressing out about the new surge "Charlie" was putting on. It was sad to see but that guy got out of there early because of it. Around Pleiku the Americans were boss doing the day and "Charlie" ruled the night. For awhile it all changed after the beginning of Tet.

A few months later my tour was up. I got "short" and me and my guardian angel rotated back to the states. Care to share any thoughts on Tet?

ole nib