DO YOU BELIEVE IN COINCIDENCE?

The time was late November 1967. The North Vietnamese New Year, Tet, was a month away. There were several incursions into our theater of operations, and our mission was to patrol Highway QL-1A running past Chu Lai to Hoi An.

Field observers reported significant activity along the Ho Chi Minh trail, indicating the North Vietnamese were planning a major assault. As a precursor to the Tet Offensive of 1968, the enemy instigated raids against major base camps in the Central Highlands. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Johnson administration and the U.S. military did not believe the enemy could launch a powerful attack.

The Tet Offensive of 1968 cost more American lives than any other conflict period, and it would come to define the war as unwinnable. But it did not stop the government from needlessly sending more troops into battle for another five years.

The strategy of Ho Chi Minh was to divert American forces away from the coastal cities to the central highlands and then attack these weak strongholds, including Saigon. The U.S. military promptly complied, allowing the coastal cities vulnerable to attack. The North Vietnamese Premier did not expect to win the war with a foe capable of bombing his country into cinders.

Ho Chi Minh understood success was impossible on the battlefield against such a powerful…