The remains of 48 North Vietnamese soldiers killed during the 1968 Tet offensive have been found in a mass grave where they were buried by U.S. and South Vietnamese troops, officials said Thursday.
The 48 were killed on March 4, 1968, while attacking a southern military post at Eaktua, 10 miles southeast of the Dac Lac provincial capital of Buon Ma Thuot, said Phung Nien Son. Son is director of the province's Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Welfare.He said local residents identified the site last week in response to a recent public appeal by provincial officials for information about Vietnamese missing in action. The locals said the bodies were buried by South Vietnamese and American troops.
More than 300,000 communist fighters are listed as missing from the war, compared with 1,621 Americans still missing in Vietnam.
The remains have been moved to a nearby cemetery, where a joint memorial will be erected, said Vo Ban, director of the provincial People's Committee.
The U.S. government estimated at the time that 50,000 communist troops were killed during their surprise Tet offensive.