Tet Offensive 40th Anniversary Remembrance Month
WHEREAS, in early 1968 there were Alaska men and women serving in the Armed Forces of the United States, in uniform or as civilian employees within the military environment, during a time of armed conflict in Southeast Asia.
WHEREAS, these citizens of Alaska in Land, Air, and Sea forces who with countrymen, Republic of Vietnam forces, and international allies, all stood fast together and did what was right when the enemy launched a massive surprise assault early in 1968 against the populace and the legitimate government of the Republic of Vietnam.
WHEREAS, the fighting raged for long months at fixed installations and outside the perimeter wire from the delta to the DMZ, in bambooed hamlet, ancient city, along forested tracks and rice paddy dikes, in red clay valleys, up sheer hills, under triple canopy, in the air, on brown rivers, and out on blue water close to white sand beaches, and to twisted canals in massive swamps growing from the mighty Mekong.
WHEREAS, our forces properly and completely held at every point around the compass, in spite of heavy direct and indirect fire; first, stopping, defeating, and then pursuing the enemy in their many thousands from Hue, Dong Ha, and Khe Sanh, among others, in the north, and in the central highlands around Pleiku, Nha Trang, Cam Rahn, Dalat, Tay Ninh, Cholon, the ends of the runways at Tan Son Nhut and Bien Hoa, the joyless streets of the capital city, down through the Rat Song to the southernmost tip of an embattled land.
WHEREAS, because it was so far from U.S. shores, families and friends in Alaska homesteads, people overseas, as well as citizens all across our land, heard fragmentary reporting of the great Tet battles, without context: and other than direct communication with those who were there, the American people at large have often been saturated with faulty accounts coming from the self-serving of media and academia. It is time for the bottomline truth of Tet 1968 to be told: the enemy’s battle was lost, and freedom – at least for a time – was sustained.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the State of Alaska, do hereby proclaim February 2008 as:
Tet Offensive 40th Anniversary Remembrance Month
in Alaska, and encourage all Alaskans to remember the courage brought forth in support and defense of freedom and render long overdue honor and respect to those who were there, drew fire, and sacrificed so much and tell them WELCOME HOME.
Dated: January 10, 2008
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