The U.S. commander, General Creighton W. Abrams, was convinced an offensive was likely but was also convinced that the attack would begin during or near the Tết holidays, at the beginning of the year. He notified Admiral Thomas Moorer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the North Vietnamese might attempt to "duplicate the effects of the 1968 offensive, perhaps by a limited operation aimed less at inflicting defeat on the battlefield than in influencing American public opinion." The consensus at MACV was that such an offensive would be launched against II Corps, in the Central Highlands. When the offensive did not occur, he and his headquarters were ridiculed in the American press for crying wolf. The moment of crisis seemed to have passed, and by the end of March, allied forces that had been standing by had returned to pacification efforts. U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker left for Nepal, and General Abrams went to Thailand to spend the Easter holiday with his family.