Cable No. 810B from the Central Military Party Committee to the Current Affairs Committee of the Tri Thien Party Committee, the Current Affairs Committees of the B4 and B5 Party Committees, and the Tri Thien Region Party Committee

Comrades Nam and Hoang Dan have briefed me and the senior officers of the General Staff on your plan for the upcoming operation. Generally speaking, the plan correctly reflects the instructions provided by the Current Affairs Committee of the Central Military Party Committee, but there are a number of points that need to be revised to provide greater power and effectiveness.

Our spring and summer operations in the Tri Thien battlefield this time are being conducted in conditions that are more favorable to us than has been the case in the past, and with respect to the forces involved, this time we have both Region 5 forces and military region forces. This means that if our guidance is resolute and flexible, we will certainly achieve a great victory. When studying and absorbing the missions that have been laid out for you, the problem for you is to achieve a truly solid understanding of the relationship between the goal of annihilating and causing the disintegration of enemy forces, the goal of shattering the enemy’s blocking defensive line to improve and to firmly maintain our strategic posture in the west, and the goal of stepping up people’s warfare to secure control of additional population and to shatter the enemy’s pacification program.

The problem of improving and maintaining our strategic posture in the west is extremely important, not just for achieving victory in this campaign, but also for creating a springboard from which we can launch our next campaign.

For those reasons:

1. On the question of the utilization of main force units (including the regiments subordinate to the Military Region), you must establish a sector blocking Moc Hoa and an important coordinating [supporting] sector.

a) The primary offensive sector is the Nui Bong-Mo Tau area where you are to annihilate enemy forces defending these positions and forces sent to reinforce and relieve them, in parallel with attacking, disrupting, and cutting road traffic.

b) The important coordinating [supporting] offensive sector is the 104-335-126-127-142-315-128-111 area.^[1] This sector will coordinate closely with the primary sector to disperse and destroy enemy forces. You need to concentrate at least two regiments for the attack in this sector.

2. In order to shatter the enemy’s blocking defensive line and improve our strategic posture, we must clearly and definitively designate the positions that must be overrun, occupied, and defended, and we must build them into heavily fortified military defensive strong-points for our troops to defend. This will not only threaten the enemy and draw in his forces; it will also create new conditions that will enable us to annihilate enemy troops and create new gaps and weaknesses in the lowlands that we can exploit to step up our activities and advance our movement there. Even along the foothill border line from Route 12 to the Trieu Phong-Hai Lang border area, you need to study how to fight battles of annihilation and how to determine which positions you can and should occupy to expand our corridor and to further disperse the enemy’s forces. We must stress that this is an extremely important matter for the Tri-Thien battlefield.

3. With regard to the matter of inciting people’s warfare in the lowlands, gaining control of additional population, and defeating the enemy’s pacification program, you must develop a concrete plan that lays out concrete steps to be taken in terms of the methods to be used and the areas of operations and that specifies focal point areas that are to be liberated or turned into contested areas in order to create common springboard positions around Hue. The issue for you is that you must provide good guidance to the armed operations teams, you must annihilate puppet officials and spies in an overall, comprehensive manner, and you must provide good guidance to local force units in order to overrun and destroy district capitals and district military headquarters and to create the conditions necessary to assault isolated district capitals and military headquarters. In addition to annihilating or disintegrating the enemy’s forces, you also need to have a plan ready to quickly develop and expand our armed and political forces and to conduct a coordinated three-pronged attack to move our movement forward so that it becomes a powerful and solid force. The more powerful we make our main force operations, the better our prospects become in the lowlands. For that reason, in your guidance you must maintain a firm grasp on concrete opportunities and devote special attention to maintaining timely coordination between our attacks in the lowlands and the attacks being conducted by our main force elements.

4. Timing: You must follow the schedule set by the High Command. Initially, you may start by using small-scale and medium-scale attacks, sapper attacks, raids against enemy warehouses and supply facilities to destroy a number of targets that have been prepared beforehand. These attacks should be combined with a number of deception operations. As for the important attacks, you must make adequate and very aggressive preparations that will ensure certain victory, and these actions may be launched on or about D-Day plus 3.

5. We agree that two plans are needed: one plan that must be carried out and the goals of which must be met, and another plan, an exploitation plan that will be used if an opportunity arises. During the course of the general offensive, you should strive to consolidate your forces and conduct really good, exemplary attacks using our main force and local force units. When carrying out the spring and summer plans, you also need to have a plan to step up your preparations of all types for a follow-up general offensive.

6. You must lay out clear guidelines regarding [Party] leadership and [military] command.

The Front Party Committee will provide overall leadership, and at specific times you should hold meetings of the Current Affairs Committee or have consultations with the Current Affairs Committee.

These are the guidelines for [military] command:

a) Command in the Nui Bong - Mo Tau - Phu Loc area will be the responsibility of the B5 Party Committee and the B5 Command Headquarters. They will command our main force units and at the same time will provide guidance and coordination for local forces (you are to hold discussions to work out the specific arrangements).

b) The military region will provide [Party] leadership and [military] command in the Route 1 and Route 2 sectors and throughout the rest of the military region. The Military Region Headquarters Command Group should not be dispersed to different locations. The Commander, the Political Commissar, and the headquarters staff should be concentrated in a single location. The best location for this headquarters is the spot that has been chosen south of 104-335-126-127 (Vietnamese Editor’s Note: This is in code and it refers to the “Chuc Mao” area).

Comrades Nam and Hoang Dan will brief you on the detailed instructions issued by the General Staff.

You comrades are to strictly carry out this directive and to forward to us reports on its implementation.

[signed]

Van [Vo Nguyen Giap]

^[1] This is in code and it refers to the “Chuc Mao-Son Na” area.