North Vietnamese communists launch the Tet Offensive. The assault contradicts the Johnson administration’s claims that the communist forces are weak and the U.S.-backed south is winning the war.
Tet Offensive, attacks staged by North Vietnamese forces beginning in the early hours of January 31, 1968, during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive consisted of simultaneous attacks by some 85,000 troops under the direction of the North Vietnamese government. The attacks were carried out against five major South Vietnamese cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam. The offensive derives its name from the Vietnamese New Year holiday, during which the attacks occurred.
By 1967 growing numbers of Americans were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the war. Some, especially students, intellectuals, academics, and clergymen, opposed the war on moral grounds, pointing out that large numbers of civilians in both the North and the South…
In July 1967 North Vietnam’s communist leaders decided to gamble upon a course of action that would ideally break the stalemate between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam. For the North Vietnamese government, the best result would be a galvanizing of discontent in the South that would, in turn, force the collapse of the government and army of South Vietnamese leader Nguyen Van Thieu. Alternatively, the offensive could convince the United States that it could not win the war; many Americans had reached that conclusion by the third day of the attacks.
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 role of the U.S. media in fostering and furthering this belief in North Vietnamese strength during that period has been a topic of study and argument. Whatever the impetus, the American public grew increasingly vehement in its opposition to the continued presence of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, and the gulf between the inevitably politically driven administration and what the military saw as the most effective means of fighting the war became even larger.
On March 10, 1968, The New York Times ran a story under the headline “Westmoreland Requests 206,000 More Men, Stirring Debate in Administration.” This request galvanized the public and convinced them that, rather than a Vietnamization of the conflict, America’s involvement was increasing at the cost of American lives in the face of an unfaltering and seemingly unbeatable enemy.
The Tet Offensive was a military failure for the Viet Cong, but, at the same time, it devastated the American public’s support for the war. From Vietnam Perspective (1985), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
The U.S. military, however, had grown more optimistic following the Tet Offensive. They saw in the successful rebuke of their enemies’ attacks an undeniable weakening of communist forces and strength. By departing from classical guerrilla tactics and assaulting southern cities, the North Vietnamese had unwittingly pitted themselves against their opponents’ greatest strengths. American organizational, material, and logistical superiority was quickly demonstrated in the early hours of the offensive, and the traditionally unreliable South Vietnamese infantry fought with surprising effectiveness. As a result, the communist forces had suffered heavy casualties: an estimated 50,000 Army of North Vietnam and Viet Cong troops killed, missing, or captured. U.S. commander Gen. William C. Westmoreland viewed the post-Tet situation as an opportunity for an American offensive that would further debilitate the enemy and deny any future resurgence. With the encouragement of Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Earle Wheeler, Westmoreland renewed an earlier request for more troops. His request was initially denied, however, as Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson did not desire any expansion of the ground war.
Increasingly vocal antagonism against any escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam put greater pressure on the Johnson administration and the U.S. Congress. In mid March 1968, 139 members of the House of Representatives sponsored a resolution asking for congressional review of U.S. policy in Vietnam. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was called before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and questioned for 11 hours. On March 22 Johnson approved only a small increase of troops. At the same time, he announced that Westmoreland would be recalled to the United States to become chief of staff of the army. Westmoreland was replaced by Gen. Creighton Abrams, who aggressively pursued the Vietnamization program and oversaw the reduction of the U.S. presence in Vietnam to fewer than 30,000 troops.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica