Ba Tra, deputy chief and operating leader of what was known as the ‘Intellectual Proselytizing Section’ for Saigon, at a conference in War Zone D, learned that the fighting-and-negotiating phase of the war would begin at the end of 1967. In July 1967 Resolution 13 was issued from Hanoi and passed on to the South, officially adopting this strategy. It also called for an offensive in early 1968. Giap, however, opposed the idea of an offensive against the American-led forces. He believed the greatest threat to North Vietnam would be an invasion by the United States. He especially feared an invasion just north of the DMZ. General Giap believed that an attack northward was Westmoreland’s only logical next step. He also thought the United States planned to invade Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, either in conjunction with an invasion of the North or as an entirely separate campaign. In an article published in September 1967, Giap wrote that his major concern was that the United States would expand the conflict beyond South Vietnam’s borders, and that an American landing in North Vietnam might have disastrous consequences for the North Vietnamese regime. Because he had originally opposed it, Giap had not been given command of the offensive, but with the death of General Nguyen Chi Thanh, Giap became its architect and commander.

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Nonetheless, Giap insisted that the defense of North Vietnam held top priority, regardless of any other actions by the Communist forces. Robert Pisor, in The End Of The Line: A Narrative History of the Siege of Khe Sanh, describes Giap’s preparations for an allied invasion of North Vietnam: ‘He prepared his people and his armed forces for invasion. Nearly 300,000 soldiers of the People’s Army were at home, arrayed in depth to receive the Americans. Every hamlet and village had many bunkers, trenches, and fighting positions. Even schoolgirls took bayonet drill.’

The North Vietnamese forces were ready, but Giap and Hanoi still had to determine what the Americans planned to do. Hanoi needed to know how the United States would respond to a Communist buildup and offensive. If Communist movements triggered a U.S. counterattack into North Vietnam or Laos, then the NVA must be ready to respond, and Giap would be able to terminate the General Offensive/General Uprising at that moment and revert to a defensive posture. He needed to test Westmoreland’s as well as Washington’s response. He decided to launch attacks near the DMZ. The U.S. response to this tactical phase would help Giap formulate and develop the offensive he was to command.

The battles along the DMZ near Cam Lo, Khe Sanh, Con Thien, Camp Carroll, Quang Tri city, the Rockpile and Route 9, from March to August 1967, served as the test. During this time, Giap placed five NVA divisions and three NVA regiments near or in Quang Tri. Westmoreland responded to the assaults with more units and firepower in I Corps. The NVA soldiers incurred heavy losses, but when Westmoreland did not send U.S. troops into either North Vietnam or Laos, Hanoi believed the United States would continue to react only defensively.

Later in 1967, Giap ordered the initiation of the winter-spring campaign, with Phase I to last from October to December. The campaign included the famous ‘border battles’ at Loc Ninh (in III Corps) and Dak To (in II Corps), designed to divert U.S. attention away from the vulnerable northern provinces of I Corps. Thus the DMZ battles and the border battles were fought for entirely different purposes–the former was to test the American response, the latter to act as a diversion. The midyear Communist assaults on the Khe Sanh base were part of Vo Nguyen Giap’s test scenario. The attacks were not meant to be a diversion, nor had Giap intended for the action to escalate into a battle like Dien Bien Phu.

North Vietnam’s strategic goals and objectives for 1968, to which Giap tailored the offensive, had been established by a series of resolutions. Resolution 13 had discussed the objective of the new fighting-negotiating phase: ‘The strategic objective was to insist upon a coalition government. Once success was achieved politically, such a government would…initiate negotiations with the United States to solve pending political and military matters in the event of victory.’

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