Tet offensive

Tet offensive 1968, a series of crucial battles in the Vietnam War . On Jan. 31, 1968, the first day of the celebration of the lunar new year, Vietnam's most important holiday, the Vietnamese Communists launched a major offensive throughout South Vietnam. It took weeks for U.S. and South Vietnamese troops to retake all of the captured cities, including the former imperial capital of Hue. Although the offensive was not militarily successful for the Vietnamese Communists, it was a political and psychological victory for them. It dramatically contradicted optimistic claims by the U.S. government that the war had already been won.

Bibliography: See J. J. Wirtz, Tet Offensive (1992).

Tet Offensive (1968) Campaign in the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launched attacks on numerous towns and cities of South Vietnam. Although of little strategic effect, the offensive discredited US military reports that victory over North Vietnam was imminent.

Tet Offensive the aggressive campaign by the North Vietnamese, beginning in January, 1968, the time of the local New Year celebrations, to attempt to win the Vietnam War. Beginning on January 29th there were coordinated attacks in cities throughout South Vietnam. The fighting continued over most of the first half of the year and was an important factor in the escalation of the war: Gen. William C. Westmoreland requested more than 200,000 more troops. Public opinion against the war in the United States also escalated, and President Lyndon B. Johnson began to see that the scope and duration of the war were beyond the control of the U.S. government.