HUE
February 8th - 23rd, 1968

"But by the middle of February, he [the NVA] was through. He had not gained the popular support he expected. The American presence in Vietnam was unshaken. The Vietnamese armed forces _ had done surprisingly well _ not a single ARVN unit defected. He had won no battle field victories, held no new territory, and in I Corps alone had used up the equivalent of three divisions." General William Westmoreland Hue was another story. The beautiful ancient capital had always been something of an open city thus far in the war, and was not properly defended. In less than a day, seven Communist battalions took almost the entire city. The only holdouts were the MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) compound south of the river, and the headquarters of the 1st ARVN Division within the imperial citadel. Early on January 31st, A/1/1st Company Marines arrived at the MACV compound. They were soon joined by G/2/5th Company and a tank platoon. The compound was safe. Reinforcements composed of F and H/2/5th Marines joined them on the 1st and 2nd of February respectively, followed by B/1/1st Company on the 4th. The five companies were organised into two (understrength) battalions, the 1/5th and 2/5th. Not until February 9th did the Marines recapture the whole city south of the river.
Meanwhile, north of the river, the 3rd ARVN Regiment reinforced by three airborne battalions was making slow, steady progress, moving from the northeast corner (where the ARVN HQ was located) towards the southwest. Three days later, after further calls from the ARVN, the Marines moved into the old city north of the river. Monsoon rains nullified airpower. The US Marines took the left flank, the ARVN Marines the right, with the 3rd ARVN Regiment in the centre. It was eleven days of hard house-to-house, block-by-block combat before the bulk of the NVA in the city had been eliminated.
The NVA had committed between eight and eleven battalions tothe battle, under the aegis of the 6th NVA Regiment. Facing them were three understrength battalions of Marines andthirteen ARVN battalions, although not all at the same time. West of the city five US Army battalions had been used to cut the NVA supply lines to the hills.
Militarily speaking, the Tet offensive in general and the Hue battle in particular were a disaster for the North Vietnamese. The Viet Cong organisation in South Vietnam was shattered, the NVA severely battered, and no lasting results were obtained. But politically it must be counted a success. The US public were shaken to discover that an enemy supposed to be on the brink of defeat could deal such a blow.