Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Generally known simply as North Vietnam, the Hanoi Government had been established in 1945 with the end of Japanese occupation of Vietnam, as the victorious Viet Minh entered the city to declare a new state. Despite this, the new government was not able to assert control over the southern half of the country, which was quickly placed back under the control of returning French authorities, and the control of Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party was quickly contested throughout the country. Infighting also took a toll as factions across the country fought one another, with various religious and political factions all vying for power.
The French eventually began the process of pulling back from Indochina in 1948, establishing the first of a series of governments that would eventually morph into the Republic of Vietnam, but the war with the French would not end until 1954. It was at this time that the Viet Minh were able to secure a deceive victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu, which resulted in the collapse of French authority and sent shockwaves around the world. Vietnam would now be an independent state, with the colonial authorities defeated.
Despite this, the Geneva Accords of 1954 divided the new nation into two states along the 17th parallel, with a demilitarized zone between them, with a planned 1956 reunification referendum deciding the final fate of the nation. During the years leading up to this vote both governments set about eliminating political opposition and consolidating power, as citizens moved north or south to support their chosen factions or to flee repression. The setting was a powder keg for civil war, and when the planned referendum did not take place, with various foreign observes acknowledging that neither side would likely hold a fair election nor respect the outcome, the situation deteriorated yet further.
Over the next five years an insurgency would develop in the RVN, with President Diem in Saigon clamping down increasingly on the rural population. This was further escalated by Diem’s moves against non-Catholics in South Vietnam. The Hanoi Government would begin moving to quietly support the insurgency, entering Laos to create a line of supply and forming the National Liberation Front (NLF, commonly known as the Viet Cong) to organize the insurgents in 1960. As this caused a general escalation of the war in Vietnam, the United States under the Kennedy Administration began to increase its support for Saigon, and the war only escalated further as Diem was assassinated and replaced by a military junta from 1963 to 1967, as the new Johnson Administration in the United States began a massive increase of American military presence in South Vietnam, a move which was used by Hanoi to depict them as the return of colonial forces.
From the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1954 onward, the Americans essentially replaced the ARVN as the main force in South Vietnam, and the north boosted the Viet Cong accordingly, supporting them also with regular forces of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN, commonly known as the NVA or North Vietnamese Army) for various insurgent operations throughout the next four years. As 1968 dawned, however, a major plan was in the works, a Tong Kong Kich-Tong Khoi Nghia (General Offensive-General Uprising) planned to take place during the lunar new year, or Tet. A massive operation with the NLF taking control of cites across South Vietnam would lead to a general uprising of the population, leading to a massive, decisive victory in the conflict.
Chairman Ho Chi Minh
The man who would be known to history as Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyen Sinh Cung as the nineteenth century waned in the village of Kim Liên, in northern French Indochina. The son of a Confucian scholar, who refused a position in the Imperial government due to a dislike of the French colonial authorities that controlled it. He would later attend a French school in Hue, notably the same school that educated both his future General, Vo Nguyen Giap and his rival, RVN President Ngo Dinh Diem. He would later travel the world, adopting a communist ideology, but would not return home until it was occupied by a new foreign power: the Empire of Japan.
Adopting the name Ho Chi Minh, he would form and lead a resistance movement against the Japanese known as the Viet Minh, fighting throughout the Second World War with the aid of the Allies against both the Japanese and the Vichy French authorities. With the fall of Japan in 1945 the Viet Minh seized control of the country, with Ho being named President, although the French would soon return, forcing another war.
After the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu Ho would base his government in Hanoi, and would by 1959 be pushing to escalate the nascent insurgency in the South. Despite this, his health was beginning to fail, and he would that year hand over direct control of the government to Le Duan, and by 1967 conceded that the war had become a stalemate with the increased American presence, as well as American bombing of the North. He eventually agreed to a planned offensive in early 1968, in part due to a desire to see Vietnam united under his rule before his death, which he was quite aware was fast approaching.
General Secretary Le Duan
Le Duan was actually a native of what was now South Vietnam, and had spent the period of the Japanese occupation in prison for attempting to start an uprising against the French just before the fall of the Third Republic. Following the collapse of the Japanese Empire and the communist takeover of Vietnam, Duan became a member of Ho Chi Minh’s inner circle, first organizing revolutionaries in the south before returning to Hanoi after the Geneva Accords of 1954.
In the ensuing years he would continue his rise through the party ranks, gaining a seat on the Politburo and ever increasing influence in the party structure, eventually placing himself as second only to Ho Chi Minh himself. He would be named First Secretary by Ho in 1959, and he would move to consolidate power over the next few years. In this position he was the leader of North Vietnam, although the cult of personality surrounding “Uncle Ho” remained dominant in Hanoi for the time being, despite the old leader’s uncertainty over the Tet plan Duan championed. Duan was thoroughly convinced that the people of the South were waiting eagerly for communist revolution, and that any major action would cause a spontaneous uprising to topple the RVN and oust the Americans.
Army General Vo Nguyen Giap
Born around 1912 in northern Vietnam, Vo Nguyen Giap had been raised as the son of a Vietnamese nationalist, and as a teenager had attended the same academy in Hue that had produced both Ho Chi Minh and RVN President Ngo Dinh Diem, and eventually would attent university in Hanoi for Law. Despite this he would not be able to practice law due to joining communist movements, and would instead take a job as a history teacher, where he would spend a considerable amount of time reading and learning about everyone from Sun Tzu to Napoleon as he developed a passion for military history. Also influencial was T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and his tactics used to conduct a guerilla war against the Ottomans during the Great War.
With the French moving against the communists in Vietnam in 1939 Giap was forced to flee to China, where he would meet Ho Chi Minh, and after the Japanese occupation began in 1940 would be instrumental in the creation of the Viet Minh to resist the Japanese. This resistance would grow in strength over the next few years, and by 1945 was receiving active support from the Americans, and Giap personally led the Viet Minh forces as they marched into Hanoi to take control of the government in August. The French would soon return, however, and the communists soon marshalled their forces for another conflict. This First Indochina War would continue with Giap in command until the decisive defeat of the French at Dien Mien Phi in 1954 left the country divided between a communist North and free South.
Giap was still in command as war continued between north and south, and after the American intervention in 1965. His strategy focused on concentrating attacks against the weaker ARVN, rather than the strong American forces, and when the proposal for a major offensive against the entire Southern government and its allies in 1968 was proposed, he was actually a strong opponent. He would, indeed, not even be present in Vietnam for the Tet holiday, instead being in Hungary for medical treatments.
The National Liberation Front - Viet Cong
Le Tu Minh - NLF Commander
The commander of the Thua-Thien-Hue Front of the Vietcong had been born in the area, and had been active in local nationalist and communist groups before and during the Second World War. By the time of the Tet Offensive in 1968 Minh had been in control of most VC activities in and around Hue for some time, and as appointed by Hanoi as overall commander of the combined VC and NVA force tasked with taking control of the old Imperial City, with his headquarters located to the north of the city, within a large American built concrete bunker at the village of Thon La Chu.
Unfortunately, like most of the Vietcong leadership, relatively little information is readily available.
People’s Army of Vietnam - North Vietnamese Army
The NVA had been infiltrating significant forces into the Hue area from nearby Laos, as well as over the DMZ in small numbers. Little information exists about the NVA units themselves, save for the designations of those tasked to participate. It should also be noted that in order to confuse American and RVN intelligence NVA units commonly were shuffled and designations shifted over the course of the war.
5th NVA Regiment
6th NVA Regiment
8th NVA Regiment
9th NVA Regiment
Sources differ from here, some report the 4th Regiment rather than the 8th or 9th12th NVA Sapper Battalion
Unidentified NVA Rocket Artillery Battalion
The assault force was to divide into two wings, attacking and securing the Citadel and the Triangle respectively.
Liberation Army of South Vietnam - Viet Cong
The Vietcong forces are generally more decentralized than those of the NVA, and as such are even harder to discern. They also commonly eschewed numerical designations in favor of naming units after locations or revolutionary personalities. During the operations in Hue the entire force would be commanded by a VC officer, but for tactical control in the city itself the VC units were attached to NVA units.
Hue City Sapper Battalions (8 in total, with 4 attached to each of the two main assault forces)
VC mortar units
Huong River Infiltration Squad
Political Officers