ose the plans for the Tet offensive. Vietcong leaders had carried out a violent campaign in order to prepare their forces. Ho Chi Minh urged the troops on to ever-greater feats of battle in 1968.
             The Tet Offensive's goal was simple minded but not an easy task to fulfill. They wanted to totally destroy the Southern Vietnamese government, and to change the people of South Vietnam into communists. This attempt failed and during the Tet celebrations the PAVN(Peoples Army of Vietnam) and NLF forces surrounded the cities in the South. In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early morning of January 30, 1968 at many cities of Central Vietnam, such as Da Nang and Qui Nhon, as well as cities in the central coastal and highland areas, that lied within the Communist 5th Military Region.. The other cities to the south that included Saigon, were attacked 24 hours later at the small hours of January 31. Thus the offensive lost its element of total surprise that was very important. It was obviously that the North Vietnamese leaders had ordered the offensives to be launched on the night of the first day of Tet to take the South Vietnamese by total surprise. By some reason, the North Vietnamese Army Supreme Command was not aware of the fact that there were different dates for Tet between North and South Vietnam. Therefore, most NVA units in the Communist 5th Military Region - closer to North Vietnam - probably used North Vietnamese calendar, and conducted their attacks in the night between Jan 29 and 30, while their comrades farther to the south attacked in the night from Jan 30 to 31. By the next night 27 of the South Vietnamese capitals, five of six cities, 58 of 245 towns and more than fifty hamlets were under fire. The attacks led by the north concentrated solely on South Vietnams government facilities, military sites, and their communication centers. If these attacks were timed better and were not held on diffe...