Tet Offensive

Tet Offensive (1968), a major turning point in the Vietnam War.In the summer of 1967, North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) devised a major offensive to break an increasingly costly military stalemate. In late 1967, the North Vietnamese attacked remote outposts in South Vietnam, luring U.S. forces from the cities. During the Tet (lunar new year) holiday of early 1968, the NLF then attacked thirty‐six of forty‐four provincial capitals, five of South Vietnam's major cities, sixty‐four district capitals, and fifty hamlets. In Saigon, they briefly penetrated the U.S. Embassy compound and assaulted the presidential palace. In Hue, they seized the ancient Citadel, the seat of the emperors of Vietnam.

Although caught by surprise, the United States and South Vietnam responded quickly. Within several days, they cleared Saigon. The result was the same elsewhere, except in Hue where it took nearly a month of massive firepower and savage fighting to secure the city.

The impact of Tet remains difficult to assess. The North Vietnamese and NLF did not force the collapse of South Vietnam, as they had hoped. Their battle deaths have been estimated as high as forty thousand. The NLF bore the brunt of the fighting. Its main force units were decimated and would never recover.

But if Tet was a victory for the United States and South Vietnam, it was a very costly and at best a hollow one. South Vietnamese forces had to be withdrawn from the countryside, weakening the government presence there. The massive destruction in the cities brought enormous new problems for an already embattled government. American and South Vietnamese losses were also high. In the first two weeks of the fighting, 1,100 Americans and 2,300 South Vietnamese were killed. There were an estimated 12,500 civilian deaths, and as many as 1 million new refugees. In Hue, 2,800 civilians were massacred and buried in mass graves by NLF “liberators.” As with so much of the war, enormous destruction produced no clear winner or loser.

Perhaps the major impact was in the United States. The military insisted that it had the upper hand, but President Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers were shocked by the suddenness and magnitude of the offensive. Among the public, Tet brought a mood of gloom, making clear that at best the United States faced a long and costly war. Popular approval of Johnson's handling of the war plummeted, and the Democratic senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy challenged his reelection.

Tet forced major changes in U.S. policy. Rejecting military appeals for thousands of additional troops, and thus ending the process of piecemeal escalation, Johnson initiated a limited cutback of the bombing of North Vietnam, agreed to negotiations, and withdrew from the presidential race.

Tet probably ensured an eventual U.S. withdrawal, but it did not end the war. Negotiations began in Paris in May 1968, but neither side would make the concessions necessary for a settlement, and each sought to apply maximum military pressure. Tet merely hardened the deadlock, and it would take four more years of fighting while negotiating before it would be broken.
See also Antiwar Movements; Military, The; Nixon, Richard M.; Sixties, The.

Bibliography

Don Oberdorfer , Tet, 1971.
Ronald H. Spector , After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam, 1993.

George C. Herring