Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a significant military campaign during the Vietnam War, initiated by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces on January 31, 1968, coinciding with the Tet holiday, which marks the lunar new year. The offensive involved surprise attacks on over 30 provincial capitals and numerous towns throughout South Vietnam, including a notable assault on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Despite heavy fighting and substantial losses on both sides, the offensive ultimately demonstrated the capability of North Vietnamese forces to launch coordinated strikes against major U.S. positions, challenging the prevailing belief among Americans that the war was nearing a successful conclusion.
The offensive led to a stark shift in public opinion in the United States, revealing that the conflict was far from over and prompting increased antiwar sentiment. Although the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong suffered significant casualties and failed to hold any territories, the psychological impact of the offensive severely undermined U.S. morale and support for the war effort. In the aftermath, President Lyndon B. Johnson made pivotal decisions that shifted U.S. strategy, including a halt to bombing in North Vietnam and a gradual reduction of American military involvement. The Tet Offensive is often considered a turning point in the Vietnam War, influencing both military tactics and American domestic politics while setting the stage for future peace negotiations.
Tet Offensive
Date: January 30-March 31, 1968
A surprise attack by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces on provincial capitals, district towns, villages, and U.S. bases. It proved to be a turning point in the Vietnam War when it increased opposition to continued involvement in the conflict.
Origins and History
By 1968, U.S. military forces in Vietnam had increased to more than half a million. The role of the U.S. soldier had progressed from adviser to principal combatant, and strategies such as continuous bombing of North Vietnam and search-and-destroy operations had failed to bring the war to a conclusion. The death toll continued to rise, reaching fifteen thousand Americans dead by the end of 1967, and opposition to the war effort grew at home.
The Offensive
Planning for the Tet Offensive began in the middle of 1967 in Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Although the precise goals of the offensive remain uncertain, North Vietnamese military leaders apparently believed that the time had arrived for a large-scale effort that would encourage massive popular uprisings in favor of the North and lead to a final victory over the Americans and South Vietnamese.
The three-day Tet holiday, a celebration of the lunar new year, began on the night of January 30. Despite the announcement of a cease-fire by the Viet Cong, U.S. officials had received intelligence indicating that an enemy initiative was likely. Nonetheless, they were unprepared for what was to come.
Among the Vietnamese entering Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital, in the days before Tet were hundreds of Viet Cong. After midnight, early in the morning of January 31, they retrieved previously hidden weapons and moved toward their targets, which included the United States Embassy. At 3:00 a.m., an antitank rocket opened a hole in the outer wall of the embassy compound, initiating an attack that would not end until shortly before noon. Heavy fighting occurred throughout Saigon, including in Cholon, the Chinese section of the city. The Viet Cong methodically executed individuals believed to be loyal to the South Vietnamese government, and hundreds of residents died in the crossfire between American and South Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong.
Throughout South Vietnam, eighty-four thousand North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops attacked thirty-six of the forty-four provincial capitals and scores of towns and villages as well as American installations. Next to Saigon, the most significant target was Hue in northeastern South Vietnam, an ancient capital city of great beauty and historical significance. Six thousand North Vietnamese regulars marched into the city on January 30, accompanied by commissars carrying dossiers of people marked for execution. As U.S. Marines approached Hue to liberate the city, North Vietnamese rounded up and killed sometimes burying alive government officials, teachers, military officers, priests, and men of military age.
Fighting between Marines, aided by South Vietnamese, and the North Vietnamese raged for twenty-four days. The effort to recapture Hue finally proved successful but at a huge cost. The death count reached 142 U.S. Marines and 384 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 2,800 South Vietnamese citizens had been executed by the invading forces. Between 5,000 and 8,000 North Vietnamese were killed. At the conclusion of the battle, whole sections of Hue lay in ruins. More than half of the homes had been leveled, and large numbers of historical treasures were destroyed.
In the final analysis, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were unable to hold any areas that they attacked. They suffered huge losses, and much of the Viet Cong infrastructure was destroyed. The popular uprising that planners had expected never occurred, and soldiers, demoralized by the heavy losses, defected from the north in greater numbers.
Impact
Although the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese suffered a major military defeat, they ultimately won a psychological victory in the Tet Offensive. Previously, a large majority of Americans had supported the Vietnam War, believing, as their political and military leaders stated, that they could see the “light at the end of the tunnel.” The impact of the Tet Offensive, however, demonstrated that the war was far from over and the enemy was capable of penetrating even the most supposedly secure of positions, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Clearly, a much greater commitment would be required to bring the communists to their knees.
The American public appeared disinclined to make that commitment, and President Lyndon B. Johnson was unwilling to ask it of them. General Earle Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, returned from a visit to Vietnam in late February, 1968, to announce that General William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam, needed more than 200,000 additional troops to fight the war successfully, a figure that would increase the troop level in Vietnam to more than 730,000. To meet this request, Johnson would have been forced to order a general call-up of reserves.
Meanwhile, antiwar sentiment continued to rise within the United States. A Harris poll in late March reported that U.S. support for the Vietnam War had dropped from 74 percent to 54 percent, and that 60 percent of respondents considered the Tet Offensive a defeat for U.S. objectives. In the presidential campaign, Johnson faced strong challenges to his renomination from Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy.
In a televised speech on March 31, Johnson announced to the nation that he had decided to halt unilaterally the bombing of North Vietnam except just above the demilitarized zone, while sending an additional 13,500 troops to Vietnam. He added, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” Johnson had decided against the extensive buildup requested by his generals and necessary for a military solution to the war. In coming to this decision, he had set the United States on a new path, one that would lead to peace talks in May, a gradual reduction in the U.S. war effort, a passing of the military torch to the South Vietnamese, and, ultimately, victory for North Vietnam.
Additional Information
Don Oberdorfer offers a landmark account of the Tet Offensive in Tet! The Turning Point of the Vietnam War (1984). George Donelson Moss’s Vietnam: An American Ordeal (1990) also describes the offensive, and Peter Braestrup’s Big Story (1977) looks at reporting the event. Westmoreland’s A Soldier Reports (1976) tells the story from the viewpoint of the general in charge of U.S. forces in Vietnam.