In February 1966, at a strategy meeting in Honolulu, President Lyndon Johnson asked his commander in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, what his next step might be if he were the enemy commander.
"Capture Hué," General Westmoreland answered without hesitation, explaining the city was the symbol of a unified Vietnam. "Taking it would have profound psychological impact on the Vietnamese in both the North and the South, and in the process the North Vietnamese might seize the two northern provinces as bargaining points in any negotiations."
Two years later -- almost to the day -- the enemy overwhelmed Hué and held much of it for nearly a month. The only combat troops to resist the initial assault were a depleted South Vietnamese company. The nearest U.S. troops were seven miles away.
Hue City
In the early morning hours of 31 January 1968, a division-sized force of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) soldiers launched a well coordinated multi-pronged attack on the city of Hué. Their targets were the Tay Loc airfield and the 1st ARVN Division headquarters in the Citadel, and the MACV compound in the New City on the south side of the river. Their strategic objective, however, was to "liberate" the entire city as part of a country-wide popular uprising to sweep the Communist insurgents into power.
That never happened. The people of Hué turned their backs on the Communists as did people in other parts of Vietnam during the Tet offensive, and the ensuing 26-day effort by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Army and ARVN to recapture the Citadel produced a stunning military defeat for the invaders. Yet the strategic victory ultimately went to the Communists. The scenes of bloody fighting in Hué, Saigon and other cities in Vietnam during the Tet offensive so shocked the American people that the pressure to withdraw from the war became overwhelming. The stage was set for the ultimate Communist victory in 1975.