 Whether by accident or design , the first wave of attacks began shortly after midnight on 30 January as all five provincial capitals in II Corps and Da Nang , in I Corps , were attacked . Nha Trang , headquarters of the U.S. I Field Force , was the first to be hit , followed shortly by Ban Mê Thuột , Kon Tum , Hội An , Tuy Hòa , Da Nang , Qui Nhơn , and Pleiku . During all of these operations , the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese followed a similar pattern : mortar or rocket attacks were closely followed by massed ground assaults conducted by battalion @-@ strength elements of the Viet Cong , sometimes supported by North Vietnamese regulars . These forces would join with local cadres who served as guides to lead the regulars to the most senior South Vietnamese headquarters and the radio station . The operations , however , were not well coordinated at the local level . By daylight , almost all communist forces had been driven from their objectives . General Phillip B. Davidson , the new MACV chief of intelligence , notified Westmoreland that " This is going to happen in the rest of the country tonight and tomorrow morning . " All U.S. forces were placed on maximum alert and similar orders were issued to all ARVN units . The allies , however , still responded without any real sense of urgency . Orders cancelling leaves either came too late or were disregarded . 
