Background
The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a general uprising and major escalation of the Vietnam War. It was one of the largest campaigns launched by the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) targeting the Republic of Vietnam Army (ARVN) and the United States military forces.
Communist forces launched the Tet Offensive prematurely in the early morning hours of 31 January. It was a well-coordinated, country-wide assault involving more than 80,000 communist troops. They attacked more than 100 towns and cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district headquarters, and the capital in Saigon.
Communist leaders in the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi decided to launch the offensive in the belief that it would trigger a popular uprising leading to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. Although the initial attacks stunned the allies, causing them a temporary loss of control over several cities, American and South Vietnamese forces quickly regrouped beat back the attacks, and inflicted heavy casualties on NVA/VC forces. A popular uprising never occurred.
Earlier, on 15 December 1967, U.S. forces communicated their confidence in the South Vietnamese military forces by turning over to them the authority and responsibility for defending the capital city. From that day forward, U.S. forces present in Saigon would only be responsible for defending themselves and their facilities within the confines of the capital city.
On the night of 30 January 1968, four South Vietnamese police (Cảnh Sát) posts provided an outer line of defense for the United States Embassy. Two military policemen from the 716th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, guarded the vehicle entrance on Mac Dinh Chi Street. Two U.S. Marines of the Embassy’s Marine Security Guard stood post inside the Chancery Building: Sergeant Ronald W. Harper and Corporal George B. Zachuranic. Another Marine stood post on the roof of the Chancery Building; his name was Sergeant Rudy A. Soto.
The Fight
Shortly after midnight on 31 January, Viet Cong (VC) sappers from the C-10 Sapper Battalion gathered at a VC safehouse in the rear of a car repair facility at 59 Phan Thanh Gian Street to receive their weapons and receive their final briefing before their planned assault. Two of these men were employed by the U.S. Department of State. Their orders were to seize the embassy grounds, break into the chancery building, and seize hostages. The sappers were told that hundreds of anti-war and anti-government university students would converge on the embassy and stage a sit-down strike — thereby aiding the sappers in maintaining control of the Embassy.
Sappers approached the embassy in a truck with its lights off. Cảnh Sát sighted the vehicle, but rather than acting they took cover. As the vehicle off Mac Dinh Chi onto Thong Nhut the occupants opened fire on the military policemen guarding the vehicle gate. U.S. Army Specialist-4 Charles L. Daniel and Private First Class William E. Sebast returned fire, closed, and locked the steel gate, and radioed that they were under attack. Hearing the gunfire, Sergeant Ron Harper, who was at the rear of the Embassy, ran back through the rear door of the Chancery, across the lobby, past Corporal Zahuranic (who was in the process of calling for reinforcements), pulled a Vietnamese night watchman into the Embassy, and then closed and bolted the heavy teak doors to the Chancery.
The VC blew a hole in the perimeter wall at 0247 and gained access to the embassy compound. Daniel and Sebast killed the first two VC through the breach. Daniel radioed to his command that the VC were breaching the perimeter. While on the radio, a VC armed with an automatic rifle emerged from the rear parking lot and killed Daniel and Sebast. A second man carrying a rifle came around the building and the two men later determined to be the two employees of the State Department, joined the other VC on the front lawn.
On the Chancery roof, Sergeant Soto observed the VC coming through the wall and attempted to fire on them with his 12-gauge shotgun. The weapon jammed. He then emptied his .38 caliber revolver, but the fire was inaccurate from that distance. Inside the Embassy grounds, the VC opened fire on the Chancery Building with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Several RPGs penetrated the walls of the Chancery, wounding George Zahuranic and destroying two radios in the guard post. Soto tried unsuccessfully to contact the lobby guard post and assumed that the Marines were dead or otherwise incapacitated.[1]
The Commanding Officer of the 716th MP Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon D. Rowe, received the distress call from the Embassy and dispatched several jeep patrols to investigate what was happening. The first two vehicles took routes that passed through to the south of the rear vehicle gate, arriving at the base of an unfinished high-rise building — where the attacking VC had decided to shelter during the assault. The VC destroyed these vehicles, killing two MPs and wounding three. A third jeep reached the Embassy’s pedestrian gate without incident but was unaware of the situation. VC gunners cut down Army Sergeant Johnnie B. Thomas and Specialist Owen E. Mebust as they exited their vehicle to investigate.
In addition to the three Marine Security Guards, there were two Vietnamese and six American civilians inside the Chancery building at the time of the assault. The Americans armed themselves with .38 revolvers, Beretta pistols, and available M-12 shotguns — and then waited for the VC to enter the building.
Outside, the VC were unsure of their next move because MPs Daniel and Sebast had shot and killed the leaders of both sapper teams. Together, the sapper teams had more than forty pounds of C-4 explosives and could have blown their way into the Chancery, had they thought of it. Instead, they took up positions in or near the circular planters on the Embassy grounds and returned fire at the growing numbers of Americans shooting at them.
Five blocks away from the U.S. Embassy, at “Marine House,” Captain Robert J. O’Brien received word of the attack from Corporal Dennis L. Ryan at around 0250.[2] O’Brien mustered off-duty security guards, Sergeant Richard G. Frattarelli, Sergeant Patullo, Sergeant Raymond E. Reed, and Corporal Timothy P. Inemer, and headed for the Embassy. Arriving at the Embassy, Captain O’Brien and his men immediately engaged the VC inside the compound but were driven to seek cover by the superior firepower of the enemy. At around 0300, two civilian security officers (Mr. Crampsey and Mr. Furey) reinforced the Marine reaction force. Attempts to shoot off the locks of the gates were unsuccessful in the darkness.
Meanwhile, according to Captain O’Brien’s after-action report, his reaction force and the two civilian security officers began receiving fire from the Cảnh Sát station 200 yards further distant from the Embassy.[3] Cảnh Sát targeting U.S. Marines put the OIC out of communication with Marine House for about three and one-half hours until around 0630.
About 0300, Army MPs stopped O’Brien and Staff Sergeant Banks and their small team at the corner of Hai Ba Trung Street and Thong Nhut Boulevard near the Norodom Compound Gate. O’Brien and Banks decided to split their force leaving one group at Norodom. O’Brien led one group along the Embassy wall toward the main front entrance. Enemy automatic weapons and RPGs drove them back toward Norodom Compound. Remaining outside the compound, SSgt Banks integrated the Marines into existing firing positions. He placed some of his men on the Consular section roof from where they could bring fire to bear on the Viet Cong inside the Embassy grounds.
About 0350, a group of about six or seven MPs arrived at Norodom and joined in the firefight with the Marine Security Guard. At about this time, some of the Marine Security Guard had worked their way behind the Consular Buildings and found the rear gate by the maintenance shacks open. Both Marine Security Guards and MPs tried to get into the Embassy Compound through this gate but were prevented from doing so by enemy automatic weapons and RPG fire from inside the Embassy compound.
The Norodom gate is where Sgt Jimerson was hit by enemy fire while trying to get through the gate. The Viet Cong had this entrance covered from positions behind parked cars in the Embassy parking lot. Sgt Jimerson was quickly evacuated to the 17th Field Hospital. While this action was taking place other Marine Security Guards and MPs were exchanging fire with Viet Cong from the Norodom roof.
At around 0400, the VC fired several rockets at the Norodom roof, which injured Corporal Ryan, who was also evacuated to the hospital. Corporal James C. Marshall, Corporal Wilson, and two Army MPs remained on the roof and continued to fire at the VC. Marshall was hit with shrapnel from an RPG explosion but remained in place and continued to engage the enemy until killed by automatic weapons fire.
Sergeant Scheupfer, who remained at ground level, received a shrapnel wound to his hand. O’Brien and Crampsey climbed onto the rooftops of buildings along the rear wall of the Embassy Compound facing the Mission Coordinator’s House. From that position, O’Brien and Crampsey brought two or three VC under fire. Meanwhile, an aide to Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker contacted the head of the Saigon Police and demanded reinforcements. The officer commanding the first precinct (nearest the Embassy) blatantly refused to move his men in the darkness of the early morning.[4]
SSgt Banks notified GySgt Allen Morrison at the Marine House of the difficulty he was having in trying to gain entrance to the embassy. Morrison advised Banks to hold in place until daylight when reinforcements and resupplies could be moved up. This was a sound tactical decision. By this time, Banks had learned from Harper that no Viet Cong had gotten inside the building, but Corporal Zahuranic was wounded. Additional MPs began to arrive at the time and began taking up positions in the vacant lot across the street from the Embassy.
At 0420, General William Westmoreland, Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (COMUSMACV), ordered the 716th MP Battalion to clear the embassy as their first priority. Colonel Rowe, lacking armored vehicles or helicopters, moved reinforcements by truck and jeep to cordon off the Embassy. The tactical situation was confused and hampered by darkness and lack of communications between allied forces (Marines inside and outside of the Embassy, Marines with supporting Army MPs, Americans with Vietnamese police). In any event, it was easier to locate a herd of unicorns than it was any presence of Cảnh Sát around or near the U.S. Embassy over the next 18 hours.
At 0500, a helicopter carrying troops from the 101st Airborne Division attempted a landing on the roof of the Embassy, but enemy fire drove it off. An hour later, another helicopter landed on the roof of the Embassy, picked up Corporal Zahuranic, and dropped off three cases of M-16 ammunition. Since the Marines didn’t have M-16s, the resupply was a wasted effort.
At dawn, MPs were able to shoot the locks off the Embassy gate on Thong Nhut Boulevard and ram open the gates with a motor vehicle. Once the gate was open, Army MPs and Marine Security Guard reinforcements charged into the Embassy compound. The second team of MPs stormed the rear parking area. Within a few moments, all remaining VC were either killed or dying from gunshot wounds. At about this time, a helicopter carrying troops from the 101st Airborne landed on the roof and began the task of clearing the building.
After the U.S. Embassy buildings and grounds were declared secure, General Westmoreland and his security detail arrived by car to inspect the grounds. Ambassador Bunker directed that the Embassy reopen for business at mid-day.
(Continued next week)
Endnotes:
[1] Marine Security Guards were armed with either .38 caliber revolvers, 9mm pistols, or M-12 semi-automatic shotguns. Handguns (or side arms) are not accurate beyond 20 yards and shotguns are “close-in” weapons. While the Marines did return VC fire, their weapons were not suitable for a sustained firefight with men armed with AK-47 automatic rifles.
[2] Lieutenant Colonel Robert Joseph O’Brien (1931 – 2020) served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. He passed away on 23 January 2020, 52 years after the battle of the U.S. Embassy. He was survived by his wife Joanne and three grown children.
[3] O’Brien’s report may have been edited to avoid any allegation that Vietnamese police were in acting in accordance with Viet Cong sappers — but if two Embassy employees were involved with the sappers, it is not inconceivable that the police were also aiding the enemy.
[4] Out of a contingent of 300 National Policemen in Saigon, only 25 reported for duty during the Tet Offensive.
Fix Bayonets! 
So much going on here. I understood that famous photo of a Vietnamese policeman executing a Viet Cong on the city street was actually the VC who led the sapper raid. I have few details, but understood the sapper group moved in on motor scooters, which looks wrong, so maybe this fact is wrong, too. If true, it puts that execution in a little more perspective. He looked so young. But I am reminded of a Chinese friend who saw our family photos and commented how “big” and “older than his years” my average looking American stepson looked.
In the mid-90’s I hired an older woman who as a young woman loved adventure, and was working at the embassy – and was hunkered down in the embassy I think in communications – at the time this happened.
I wonder how many policemen stayed home during Tet for personal fear, threats, or animosity? All three of these play out in other stories told during both French and American military actions in Vietnam.
While I’m not surprised at the Marines’ weapons of choice for this duty – close-in defensive work – I AM surprised that somewhere there was not a store of offensive weapons if needed, something capable of firing the ubiquitous .223 round. I wonder if this changed protocols.
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