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The Tet Offensive In The Vietnam War

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The Tet offensive, which took place on the 31st of January 1968, had huge significance on the political landscape of America, and public opinion on the war in Vietnam. After the Tet offensive, public support for the war plummeted, and with ever increasing support in the anti-war movement and protests, the war in Vietnam was no longer justifiable to the American public. As a result of this president Johnson stepped down from running for re-election, leaving an anti-war democrat running against an anti-war republican. This meant that Nixon was elected, which arguably ended the Vietnam War, due to his change in tactics. This knock on effect started with the Tet offensive, makes Tet one of the most significant events in the whole conflict. Having said this, in terms of military significance Tet was not …show more content…

This is because the USA were still unable to make a substantial breakthrough, and the Viet Cong could not overthrow the American forces. Despite the Viet Cong suffering heavy loses and the North Vietnamese Army taking over, there was no change in terms of tactical advantages or disadvantages for either side. Overall the Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war, as it led to a change in public opinion, which triggered the end of the war. Due to these factors the Tet offensive was an extremely significant event. The military significance of Tet to American tactics was not very large at all, but it was a turning point in terms of the credibility and attitude of the military. Before Tet the general attitude of the American army was a positive one. In 1967 the Morning record, an American news-paper ran a news article titled “War’s end in view, Westmoreland says.” The military were convinced that an American victory was not far off. However it was obvious that after this

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Enemies body counts were used as a means to measure progress of the war. These numbers were at time greatly inflated in hope of increasing the wars popularity and to downplay the high number of US casualties. As Westmoreland continues to exaggerate the progress of the war, the North carried out one of their most ambitious and shocking attacks yet, the Tet Offensive. Tet Offensive not only caught the military by surprise, it stunned the President, Congress, and the American people. Americans support for war decreased dramatically after the battle.

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The Tet Offensive was an effort to provoke rebellion amongst the South Vietnamese people and encourage the United States to scale back its support, ultimately leading to the Saigon to accept a communist government. The Southern Vietnamese and American troops were able to successfully defend themselves against the North Vietnamese attacks, however the medias portrayal of the gruesome events led to a downward spiral of the Americans public support. For the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, the Tet Offensive was a public relations victory, causing the American people to take a very different outlook on the

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