Word: tet
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Alphabetical Ratings. After the Communists' 1968 Tet offensive, U.S. and South Vietnamese officials cast a critical eye on their Hamlet Evaluation System (H.E.S.), which was supposed to determine the relative extent of both the government and V.C. control. The system was found to be misleading. Districts were often shamelessly gerrymandered to create impressions of progress that had no relation to reality. A complex new scheme was devised that requires field advisers to answer no fewer than 149 multiple-choice questions; the replies are fed into a computer in Saigon, which digests them and then prints out alphabetical ratings...
...point of collapse. Saigon's bankrupt bus system stopped operating last year. Danang lacks sewers and garbage disposal; its water supply is contaminated. All the cities have vast slum areas. Adequate housing remains critically short, especially in Saigon and Hue, which suffered heavily in the Communists' 1968 Tet offensive against the cities. Medical care lags far behind demand...
When North Viet Nam's chief strategist made that statement in a Hanoi speech, U.S. intelligence had a pretty good idea about what Giap had in mind. The 1968 Tet offensive exploded U.S. generals' assurances that the war was all but over and proved that the enemy could still hit anywhere seemingly at will. On the other hand, the Tet attackers were unable to hold any South Vietnamese cities-a failure that fairly stunned the planners in Hanoi. The logical move for Giap & Co. would be reversion to guerrilla and terror tactics. In recent weeks it has become...
...order calls for a step-up in terror and sapper attacks; it also urges guerrillas to form secret three-to five-man cells that can operate "legally" in towns and hamlets. They will be poised to help Communist assault forces and thus correct the failures of the 1968 Tet campaign...
UNDERMINING PACIFICATION. The Communists are especially anxious to collapse South Vietnam's local volunteer units, such as the Regional Forces, the Popular Forces and the People's Self-Defense Forces. They were organized after the 1968 Tet offensive to provide local security, which is essential to the pacification program. These irregulars have never been known to fight well when U.S. or ARVN regulars were not around to bolster their confidence, but lately they have been holding their own in the face of Communist attacks...