In coordinated attacks all across South Vietnam, communist forces launch their largest offensive of the Vietnam War against South Vietnamese and U.S. troops.*
Dozens of cities, towns, and military bases--including the U.S. embassy in Saigon--were attacked. The massive offensive was not a military success for the communists, but its size and intensity shook the confidence of many Americans who were led to believe, by the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, that the war would shortly be coming to a successful close.*
On January 30, 1968-during the Tet holiday cease-fire in South Vietnam-an estimated 80,000 troops of the North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front attacked cities and military establishments throughout South Vietnam. The most spectacular episode occurred when a group of NLF commandos blasted through the wall surrounding the American embassy in Saigon and unsuccessfully attempted to seize the embassy building.* Most of the attacks were turned back, with the communist forces suffering heavy losses.
Battles continued to rage throughout the country for weeks--the fight to reclaim the city of Hue from communist troops was particularly destructive. American and South Vietnamese forces lost over 3,000 men during the offensive. Estimates for communist losses ran as high as 40,000.
While the communists did not succeed militarily, the impact of the Tet Offensive on public opinion in the United States was significant. The American people, who had been told a few months earlier that the war was successful and that U.S. troops might soon be allowed withdraw, were stunned to see fighting taking place on the grounds of the U.S. embassy.*
Despite assurances from the Johnson administration that all was well, the Tet Offensive led many Americans to begin seriously questioning such statements, and to wonder whether American military might could truly prevail over the communist threat on foreign shores. In the 1950s, Americans had almost unconditionally supported a vigorous American response to communism; the reaction to the Tet Offensive seemed to reflect the growing skepticism of the 1960s, when Americans felt increasingly doubtful about the efficacy of such Cold War tactics. In the wake of the Tet Offensive, support for the U.S. effort in Vietnam began steadily to decline, and public opinion turned sharply against President Johnson, who decided not to run for re-election.*
Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tet-offensive-shakes-cold-war-confidence
Question: How significant is the Tet Offensive in the overall narrative of the Vietnam War?
WRITTEN DOCUMENTS
Annotation: Walter Cronkite’s
assessment of the Vietnam War - offered in a special
televised report in February 1968–that the U.S. war effort in Vietnam was
“mired in stalemate.” Cronkite’s characterization supposedly represented a moment of such
stunning clarity and insight that it forced President Lyndon Johnson to realize
his war policy was a shambles. After Cronkite’s broadcast, President Lyndon Johnson is reported
to have said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” Several weeks
later, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.
Combat CasualtiesAnnotation: This chart shows the number of deaths recorded each year of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The chart is noteworthy because it displays the large number of U.S. soldiers who died after the Tet Offensive, the vast majority of whom became casualties after the Tet Offensive.
Memorandum for the President from Henry Kissinger
Annotation: This is a memo written by then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to President Nixon on March 4, 1969, a full year after the Tet Offensive. Kissinger passes along a second memo written by Melvin Laird that suggests “countermeasures” to be taken to thwart North Vietnamese actions. The memo defends the “high level of effort” being used against the enemy.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Annotation: This has become for many the iconic vision of the confusion and failure
of the U.S. adventure in Vietnam. It depicts the Chief of the South
Vietnamese national police force, General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, summarily
executing a suspected Viet Cong insurgent on the streets of Saigon
during the Tet offensive. Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for this
shot. Such seemingly gratuitous violence, splashed across the American
media during the month of the Tet Offensive, convinced many American
leaders, including President Johnson, that the war was a dangerous lost
cause. Such beliefs contributed to the argument that Tet was the
beginning of the end of U.S. involvement, despite the fact that the war
lasted five more grueling and bloody years for American soldiers.
VIDEO
Video footage and commentary of the Tet Offensive
