Vietnam Tet Offensive 1968
by Krysta CardinaleThe Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968 and did not end until June 8, 1969. It was a series of operative offenses during the Vietnam War, and is said to be one of the greatest campaigns in military history. It was a combination of strengths from the National Liberation’s Front’s People Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) and the North Vietnam’s People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the South Vietnam’s Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Army, and other allied forces. The Tet Offensive (1968) began successfully with occasional operations continued throughout 1969.
Before United States involvement, The Vietnam War was a revolutionary conflict. However, the U.S. changed the Offensive into small battles between army units on both sides. Beginning in the 1950’s, the North Vietnamese troops were sent down top the south. On March 8, 1965 over 3,000 U.S. forces landed in South Vietnam and joined 25,000 men already in place. Only 4 days later, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the addition of 75,000 plus U.S. troops being send to Vietnam in its effort against Communism. The combined forces of U.S. infantry, artillery and air-power created increasing losses for the Communist side.
The Vietnam Tet Offensive Strategy
The Tet Offensive planned was devised in 1967 after the death of North Vietnamese General Nguyen Chi Thanh. General Võ Nguyên Giáp was his replacement and the one behind the development of this new plan. Giáp supported the idea of using guerilla warfare tactics unlike the previous general. In the first phase of this plan the PAVN would attack the border areas of South Vietnam and close them from American observations. The second phase would be large attacks at the major cities in effort to collapse the government and push the civilians into revolt. With the collapse of the government the United States and the other allied troops would be forced to leave South Vietnam. After this would be phase three. This final phase would be assaults on the isolated foreign forces.
The actual Tet Offensive included attacks on major cities of South Vietnam and American bases. Two of the cities focused on were Saigon, Hue, and the U.S. base at Khe Sanh. The attack on Khe Sanh drew the North Vietnamese troops away from their assaults on the cities. They thought I was more important to protect their supply lines to the South at Khe Sanh.
Why was the United States Surprised by the Tet Offensive?
Right after the Tet Offensive started, the United States and allied forces did not really react. Prior to the offensive, the North Vietnam announced a week truce to observe a holiday from January 27th rough February 3rd. The South Vietnam decided to give its troops a leave of absence during this truce.
It took two weeks for the United States and South Vietnam to regain the captured cities from the Tet Offensive attacks. The only reason that this could have happened was due to the North Vietnamese abandoning their attacks on the cities to support the one going on at Khe Sanh against a U.S. firing base.
The Results
Before the 1968 strategy of the Tet Offensive the North Vietnam and the Viet Cong predicted a social revolution in South Vietnam to begin in the countryside and end in the urban cities. This strategy had developed operational methods of increasing and intensifying ground warfare. It also created the development of the Viet Cong’s capacity for operational warfare. The objective of this strategy was to push the population supporting the National Front for Liberation, thus isolating the urban cities and the foreign troops. This type of plan produced a lot of bloodshed with no decisive victory. Neither side was able to gain any real advantage over the other, and the only reaction of the rural public was to flee the country and head into the cities for safety.
Even though the Tet Offensive can be considered a crushing military defeat for the Communist forces of the North Vietnamese, it was definitely a political and psychological victory for them. The operational cost of the offensive was very high and the North Vietnam troops suffered great losses. However, the Tet Offensive is said to be a turning point of the war in Vietnam. Both the NLF and the PAVN won enormous mental and propaganda victories.
In the United States the polls showed the majority of its population supporting the war. However the support continued to drop and the public became increasingly against the war. The American President, Lyndon Johnson, felt his popularity deteriorate after the Tet Offensive, and even dropped out of his candidacy for re-election of a second term. It sharply contradicted the idea that Americans held of the war being already won. The Offensive is often seen as an illustration of the importance of media influence and propaganda.
