Introduction
The Vietnam War was an undeclared war without front lines or clear objectives that lasted almost 20 years from 1955 to 1975. Over two and a half million Americans fought and over 50,000 died during the conflicts. During January 1968, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese conducted several simultaneous attacks against the South Vietnamese, Americans and their allies known as the Tet Offensive. There were several indicators were ignored by the Intelligence Community (IC) and intelligence officials due to perceptive predispositions and political settings which resulted in the successful surprise attacks on January 31, 1968. The purpose of this paper is to identify how a different application and utilization of intelligence assets used differently could have had an alternate outcome of the Tet Offensive.
Background
Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia with a population of roughly 35 million in 1960s (Lahmeyer, 2006). During this time, France had been in control of the country administratively. During World War II, Japan invaded and occupied the country until roughly 1945. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese who was inspired by Russian and Chinese Communism, formed Viet Minh to fight both Japan …show more content…
The MACV, CIA, DIA and IC were all at odds about the enemy’s order of battle. According to the Pentagon Papers from July 1967, each agency had its own interpretations of whether VC self-defense and secret self-defense forces should be accounted towards the enemy order of battle. James Wirtz points out in his book, Tet Offensive-Intelligence Failure, analysts argued based on analysis of captured documents and prisoners. The failure to include the approximately 120,000+ members of the VC would undermine the war effort. The U.S. and its allies had only a rough estimate of what they perceived the enemy forces were when the actual amount was significantly
The Vietnam War was an undeclared war without front lines or clear objectives that lasted almost 20 years from 1955 to 1975. Over two and a half million Americans fought and over 50,000 died during the conflicts. During January 1968, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese conducted several simultaneous attacks against the South Vietnamese, Americans and their allies known as the Tet Offensive. There were several indicators were ignored by the Intelligence Community (IC) and intelligence officials due to perceptive predispositions and political settings which resulted in the successful surprise attacks on January 31, 1968. The purpose of this paper is to identify how a different application and utilization of intelligence assets used differently could have had an alternate outcome of the Tet Offensive.
Background
Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia with a population of roughly 35 million in 1960s (Lahmeyer, 2006). During this time, France had been in control of the country administratively. During World War II, Japan invaded and occupied the country until roughly 1945. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese who was inspired by Russian and Chinese Communism, formed Viet Minh to fight both Japan …show more content…
The MACV, CIA, DIA and IC were all at odds about the enemy’s order of battle. According to the Pentagon Papers from July 1967, each agency had its own interpretations of whether VC self-defense and secret self-defense forces should be accounted towards the enemy order of battle. James Wirtz points out in his book, Tet Offensive-Intelligence Failure, analysts argued based on analysis of captured documents and prisoners. The failure to include the approximately 120,000+ members of the VC would undermine the war effort. The U.S. and its allies had only a rough estimate of what they perceived the enemy forces were when the actual amount was significantly