 On 28 January , eleven Viet Cong cadres were captured in the city of Qui Nhơn while in possession of two pre @-@ recorded audio tapes whose message appealed to the populace in " already occupied Saigon , Huế , and Da Nang . " The following afternoon , General Cao Văn Viên , chief of the Vietnamese Joint General Staff , ordered his four corps commanders to place their troops on alert . Yet , there was still a lack of a sense of urgency on the part of the allies . If Westmoreland had a grasp of the potential for danger , he did not communicate it very well to others . On the evening of 30 January , 200 U.S. officers — all of whom served on the MACV intelligence staff — attended a pool party at their quarters in Saigon . According to James Meecham , an analyst at the Combined Intelligence Center who attended the party : " I had no conception Tet was coming , absolutely zero ... Of the 200 @-@ odd officers present , not one I talked to knew Tet was coming , without exception . " 
