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In January 1968, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong planned an attack on towns and cities in South Vietnam during the Tet holiday - an important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Before the Tet Offensive, they launched a series of distraction attacks in the countryside from October 1967 onwards, to tempt the US and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops out of the cities. In the meantime, the Viet Cong placed more of their troops in the cities, disguised as ordinary civilians.

Then, on 30 January 1968, the Viet Cong and the NVA launched their attack against a large number of urban targets. They had considerable short-term success and even broke into the US embassy in Saigon, occupying it for a short time. Some cities, such as Hue, were taken for almost a month. However, the US and ARVN troops launched a counter-attack and took back control of the urban areas from the communists.

Reaction in the USA

The USA defeated the communist attack during the Tet Offensive, but the US public did not see it as a straightforward victory. Instead, they began to think that the government’s version of events so far, claiming that the USA was winning the war, was not true. They were shocked that the US army had been forced to retreat in the Tet Offensive.

The US public also began to challenge the idea that the USA was supporting freedom and democracy in Vietnam. For example, one journalist took a photo of the execution of a suspected member of the Viet Cong by a South Vietnamese general.

Media coverage played a significant part in the growing opposition to the war in the USA. For a long time, the public saw US troops as a force for good in Vietnam. However, some US troops took part in or did not prevent atrocities. One example of such violence was was the My Lai Massacre, which was reported in the media.

Impact on Vietnam

The failure of the Tet Offensive came at a huge cost for the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), the Viet Cong and civilians in South Vietnam. Whereas the USA suffered just over 1,000 deaths, estimates of the numbers of Vietnamese deaths vary between 30,000 and 50,000 communist soldiers, and it is thought that around 12,500 civilians died. This had serious consequences for the Viet Cong, who relied more on the NVA after this. However, they were still able to continue their activities in the South.