 Saigon was struck again during this phase , but the attacks were less sustained and once again easily repulsed . As far as MACV was concerned , the August offensive " was a dismal failure . " In five weeks of fighting and after the loss of 20 @,@ 000 troops , not a single objective had been attained during this " final and decisive phase . " Yet , as historian Ronald Spector has pointed out " the communist failures were not final or decisive either . " During the same period 700 U.S. troops were killed in action . 
