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The Turning Point
The Tet Offensive was the greatest military operation in the Vietnam war. The great casualties on both sides shook public approval of the war. The North Vietnam’s Vietnam People's Army attacked many cities, districts and control centers in Southern Vietnam. After the initial shock the Southern forces and American forces fought to regain their cities; great casualties on both sides. The Hue Massacre being one of the most prominent (“The 1968 Tet Offensive In Vietnam and the seizure of Hue”).
The Northern Vietnamese forces attacked on the Vietnamese new year of “Tet”; a traditional time of truce- breaking the cease-fire established for the holiday. They hid their movements in the crowds travelling for the holidays. Their ultimate goal was to force American troops to negotiate or withdraw.
AP Essential Facts:
85, 000 troops launched launched an attack on the South Vietnamese
North Vietnamese Government pretended to have people in coffins and carry them to places, when they were weapons instead of corpuses.
The North Vietnamese government attached five major South Vietnamese cities, dozens of military installation, and 100 of town and villages.
Southern Vietnamese and American forces resisted and 6,000 of their troops were killed.
The northern forces did occupy the American embassy of Hue, but were driven out in 8 hours.
A good amount of percentage of death occurred from the Tet Offensive; having 58, 148 deaths in the war.
This event was a great turning point in the Vietnam War because it marked of the beginning the America’s withdraw from the war. Tet Offensive ruined the public approval of the war, as well the ideal that America was unbeatable.
The media played a big role in swaying public opinion. The population started to decrease; families were losing their family members during this time period rapidly. In the article, “Tet Offensive” by Britannica School has statistics about the population. Just about one month later, “By February 1968, the U.S. death toll in Vietnam had risen to more than 500 per week, and as the casualty numbers rose, U.S. public support declined. Much of the American public viewed the Tet Offensive as a sign of the undying North Vietnamese aggression and will.” The population of humans were decreasing greatly because of the Tet Offensive especially with the Vietnam War still happening during that time period.
Pictures and videos showed the public the destruction of the war, “The images on television were just as bad. The coverage shifted from smoke and helicopters to soldiers fighting to recapture ground in a brutal war” (CBS. news). The images that were being shown to the United States had bad consequences to both Vietnam and the United States.
The military was fighting in air and on ground which made it most likely harder to protect themselves. From the article, “How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government” by Julian E. Zelizer, talks about the impacts of the Tet Offensive; many of the images, “...on television were just as bad. The coverage shifted from smoke and helicopters to soldiers fighting to recapture ground in a brutal war.” The images that were being shown to the United States caused serious consequences to the countries.
The Tet Offensive was widely ridiculed throughout America due to the hippie movement spreading across the country because they did not support the Vietnam War and wanted peace after the wars that went on, like World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.
The public had grown in opposition to the war that seemed to drag on, especially after televised events of the Tet Offensive. With the government previously whitewashing the truth about Vietnam, the media exposed the truth which caused a division of Americans into "hawks" and "doves" in which the doves led anti-war demonstrations.
The people that are living in Vietnam are still highly affected by the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive was highly traumatizing, which resulted in people not being about to talk about, even if it has been 50 years later the people are unable to let go the daunting experience of the Tet Offensive/Vietnam War, especially the ones who had were influenced to a great extent.
It still haunts people today thinking of what had happened to them. Even in article, “Revisiting Vietnam 50 Years After the Tet Offensive” by Nguyen Qui Duc, states how the official of the foreign ministry, “...took the producer and reporter out to my garden, where she threatened to shut down the production if the subject was broached again, or even if we returned to the general topic of 1968.” Which mean what the interviewer was asking was getting too personal into the topic of the Tet Offensive.
Many soldiers struggled with dealing with their experience during the war and happened the Tet Offensive. The soldiers had often tried to find ways to escape these daily horrors by indulging in alcohol, marijuana, and even heroin. There were incidents of murder of officers by their own troops that had increased in the years that followed the Tet Offensive which were also known as "FRAGGING."
After 20 years of destruction, the war ended April 30, 1975. The article “The Evolution of U. S-Vietnam Ties”, describes the how,“Four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the relationship between the United States and Vietnam has changed remarkably. The two countries have forged strong trade linkages and defense cooperation.” America and Vietnam worked to strengthen their ties and form a mutually beneficial relationship with one another.
America assisted in the settling in disputes, such as the securing a Combodia peace plan, “This initiated a cease-fire and installed the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, the first UN peacekeeping operation to oversee the administration of a country and to organize and conduct a national election.” Many action such as this was made for the sake of rapprochement.
Steps to Reconciliation:
1. American Mia offices formed (1980’S)
2. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)- trade
3. Defense ties-Security Contracts
Work Cited
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Tet Offensive.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Feb. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Tet-Offensive.
Cavanaugh, ML. “How the U.S. 'Goliath' Can Win against Its 'David' Adversaries.” Los Angeles
Times, Los Angeles Times, 30 Jan. 2018, www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-cavanaugh-tet-strategy-used-today-20180130-story.html.
CBS News. “Remembering 1968: The Tet Offensive.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 28 Jan. 2018,
www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-1968-the-tet-offensive-photographer-john-olson/.
Cox, John Woodrow. “A Vietnam War Photographer Captured the Bloody Tet Offensive. Fifty
Years Later, He Bears Witness Again.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/28/a-vietnam-war-photographer-captured-the-bloody-tet-offensive-fifty-years-later-he-bears-witness-again/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ba1983b257f.
Davis, Caitlyn. “Muddying the Issues: Five Questionable Claims on U.S. Foreign
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Duc, Binh DangNguyen Qui. “Revisiting Vietnam 50 Years After the Tet Offensive.”
Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Jan. 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/revisiting-vietnam-50-years-after-tet-offensive-180967501/.
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“U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/tet.
Zelizer, Julian E. “How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government.” The
Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Jan. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/how-the-tet-offensive-undermined-american-faith-in-government/550010/.
Zengerle, Joseph. “What I Saw During the Tet Offensive.” The New York Times, The New York
Times, 6 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/opinion/vietnam-tet-offensive.html.