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) | yearcost1 = 77,350,000,000 }} The year 1968 saw major developments in the Vietnam War. The military operations started with an attack on a US base by the Vietnam People's Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong on January 1, ending a truce declared by the Pope and agreed upon by all sides. At the end of January, the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive. Although militarily the operation was a failure for the Vietnamese communists, for them it was a propaganda victory, as on the home front the American public were shocked by the images they were seeing on their televisions. Reflecting this public outrage the media made a number of iconic news stories including Peter Arnett quoting an unnamed US major as saying, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it." Eddie Adams' iconic image of South Vietnamese General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan's live execution of a Vietcong operative was taken in 1968 as was Walter Cronkite's call to honourably exit Vietnam because he thought the war was lost. This negative impression forced the US into the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam. US troop numbers peaked in 1969 with President Johnson approving an increased maximum number of US troops in Vietnam at 549,500. The year was the most expensive in the Vietnam war with the American spending US$ (US$ in ) on the war. The year also became the deadliest of the Vietnam War for America and its allies with 27,915 South Vietnamese (ARVN) soldiers killed and the Americans suffering 16,592 killed compared to around two hundred thousand of the communist forces killed. The deadliest week of the Vietnam War for the USA was during the Tet Offensive specifically February 11–17, 1968, during which period 543 Americans were killed in action, and 2547 were wounded. ==January== ;January 1 The North Vietnamese Army violated a New Year's truce. At the New Year's Day Battle of 1968 among the Americans were future writer Larry Heinemann and future film director Oliver Stone. In Newsweek magazine Ambassador Robert Komer touted the early success of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) pacification program he led. He said that "only one South Vietnamese in six now lives under VC (Cong ) control."〔Asprey, Robert B. (1994), ''War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History'', New YorK: William Morrow and Company, p. 871〕 ; 19 January In the first two weeks of 1968, communist forces shelled 49 district and provincial capitals in South Vietnam and temporarily occupied two of them. The Commander of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) General William Westmoreland described to Time (Magazine) the fighting "as the most intense of the entire war." MACV claimed that 5,000 communist forces had been killed.〔Asprey, Robert P. (1994), ''War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History'', New York: William Morrow and Company, p. 896〕 ; 21 January The long and bloody Battle of Khe Sanh began with an assault by the North Vietnamese Army on a hill held by U.S. Marines. Khe Sanh is in northwestern Quảng Trị Province, near the Demilitarized Zone. The combatants were elements of the U.S. III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) against two to three division-size elements of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).〔Clarke, Bruce B. G. (2007), ''Expendable warriors: the Battle of Khe Sanh and the Vietnam War'', Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 69〕 NVA General Vo Nguyen Giap later explained that his objective was to create a diversion to draw U.S. forces away from the populated areas of South Vietnam. Khe Sanh diverted 30,000 US troops away from the cities that would be the main targets of the Tet Offensive.〔Page, Tim and Pimlott, John Pimlott (1990) , ''Nam – The Vietnam Experience, 1965-75'', London: Hamlyn, p. 324〕 ;January 23–24, 1968 Battle of Ban Houei Sane was a battle of the Vietnam War that began on the night of 23 January 1968, when the 24th Regiment of the North Vietnamese 304th Division overran the small Laotian Army outpost at Ban Houei Sane. ;January 24 − March 1 Operation Coburg was an Australian military action during the Vietnam War. The operation saw heavy fighting between the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) and North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during the wider fighting around Long Binh and Biên Hòa. ; 26 January In Time Magazine, General Westmoreland said, "the Communists seem to have run temporarily out of steam."〔Asprey, p. 896〕 ; 28 January General Westmoreland in his annual report said "In many areas the enemy has been driven away from the population centers; in others he has been compelled to disperse and evade contact thus nullifying much of his potential. The year ended with the enemy increasingly resorting to desperation tactics in attempting to achieve military/psychological victory; and he has experienced only failure in those attempts."〔Asprey, p. 872〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1968 in the Vietnam War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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