<Tr> <Td> US Forces Ambushes Moving VC / NVA Units </Td> <Td> 8.9% </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Chance Engagement, Neither Side Planned </Td> <Td> 7.1% </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> In late 1967 the PAVN lured American forces into the hinterlands at Đắk Tô and at the Marine Khe Sanh combat base in Quảng Trị Province where the United States had engaged, in a series of battles known as The Hill Fights . Part of this would form a diversionary strategy that was meant to draw US forces towards the Central Highlands . Preparation for the General Offensive, General Uprising, known as Tet Mau Than, or the Tet Offensive was prepared, with the intention by Văn Tiến Dũng for forces to launch "direct attacks on the American and puppet nerve centers--Saigon, Hue, Danang, all the cities, towns and main bases ..." Hanoi sought to placate critics of the ongoing stalemate and had sought a decisive victory . They had reasoned this could be achieved through sparking a general uprising within the towns and cities and mass - defections among ARVN units, who were on holiday leave, during the period truce . Over 100 cities were attacked by over 85,000 enemy troops including assaults on key military installations, headquarters, and government buildings and offices, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon . </P> <P> U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were initially shocked by the scale, intensity and deliberative planning of the urban offensive, as infiltration of personnel and weapons into the cities were done in intense covertness, and the offensive constituted an intelligence failure on the scale of Pearl Harbor . Most cities were recaptured within weeks except the former capital city of Huế in which NVA and Viet Cong troops captured most of the city and citadel except the headquarters of the 1st Division and held on in the fighting for 26 days . During that time, they had executed approximately 2,800 unarmed Huế civilians and foreigners they considered to be enemies . In the following Battle of Huế American forces employed massive firepower that left 80 percent of the city in ruins . Further north, at Quảng Trị City, the ARVN Airborne Division, the 1st Division and a regiment of the US 1st Cavalry Division had managed to hold out and overcome an assault intended to capture the city . In Saigon, Viet Cong / NVA fighters had captured areas in and around the city, attacking key installations and the neighbourhood of Cholon before members of the ARVN Rangers dislodged them after three weeks . During one battle, Peter Arnett, had reported an infantry commander saying of Bến Tre (laid to rubble by U.S. attacks) that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it ." </P>

Why did the united states support france instead of vietnam after world war 2