0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
Instead of killing the new model programii, the Tet offen',ive
actually helped strengthen it. What happened was that the VC used the
hamlet cadre and apparatus which were still under thoir control to launch
their assault on t'ie citier, thereby by-passing the bulk of RD-cadre teams,
police and RF/PF outposts. Over 90 per cent of the GVN's pacification
forces were left intact after Tet.128/ Moreover, the communists lost ovEr
45,000 VC cadres and troops killed in th first month of Tet (almost as many
as the US
had lost in 10 years of :he war -- a point not articulated fully
by the US press or televisinn)J'29/
The major GVN priorities after Tet 1968, were:
0 to repair the damaged cities
9 to relocate the over one million refugees created by the enemy
a
became apparent.
offensive
0 to begin the pacification campaign anew as the Accelerated Pacification
Campaign (AFC)
to reconcentrate resources for village protection (the People's
Self-Defense Force - PSDF - waf formed.)130/
By mid-1969, the Thieu government's rural strategy for the 1970's
It consisted of:
0 sustained local security
* an invigorated attack on the VC infrastructure
0 re-energized village initiatives, land reform and self-help
projects.
0 reorganized GVN and RVNAF pacification councils and support
elements to match US CORDS structure (see Figures 5-17 and
5-IP). '31
Though none of the above strategies was particularly well implemented,
by the end of 1970 they had prodizea a breakthrough in the countryside
for the GVN
and security in the rural areas was showing signs of
improving. Vann observed that the GVN goal of providing "relatively
5-55
I•
•