A note on dates
The Tet Offensive took place in 1968, not 1967, but it is impossible to understand the Vietnam story of 1967 without it, because it was the event that exposed the gap between what Americans had been told and what they saw. It began in the last days of January 1968. Tet is the Vietnamese lunar new year, which fell on 30 January that year.
The plan
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong leaders planned a general offensive for the winter and spring of 1968. The aims were ambitious. They hoped to strike the cities and towns of the south simultaneously, to trigger an uprising among the population against the government in Saigon, to destroy or demoralise South Vietnamese forces, and to shake the American commitment. The border battles of late 1967, which are described in the account of the battle of Dak To, and the siege of Khe Sanh from 21 January 1968 are often interpreted as part of the preparation, drawing American attention to the frontier regions.
Tet is traditionally a time of truce and family visits. Both sides had announced a ceasefire for the holiday, and many South Vietnamese soldiers were on leave, which helped to surprise the defenders. Some attacks went off a day early in parts of the country, on the night of 29 to 30 January, and gave a partial warning. The main wave followed in the early hours of 31 January.
The attacks
The assaults hit more than a hundred cities and towns. According to commonly cited figures, they included most of the provincial capitals and several major cities, and they involved tens of thousands of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese fighters. The attackers often used local guerrillas guided by agents who knew the layout of their targets.
In Saigon, a small group of sappers breached the wall of the United States Embassy compound on the first night. They were unable to enter the main building and the compound was recaptured after hours of fighting, but the event, shown on television and in newspapers, had an impact far beyond its military importance. Other attacks struck the presidential palace, the radio station and Tan Son Nhut air base. Fighting in parts of the capital and its Chinese district of Cholon went on for days.
The longest battle was at Hue, the old imperial capital. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces captured much of the city, including the Citadel, and held it for around a month. American Marines and South Vietnamese troops fought street by street, in conditions that recalled urban fighting in earlier wars, and both the Citadel and much of the city were heavily damaged. The Citadel was retaken in late February. In the course of the occupation and in its aftermath, large numbers of civilians were killed. Mass graves were discovered, and the toll is commonly given as several thousand, though the exact number and the balance between executions and deaths from the fighting are still debated.
The outcome on the ground
In military terms the offensive failed. Allied forces recovered most of the lost ground within days or weeks, and Hue within about a month. The expected popular uprising did not occur. The Viet Cong, who had borne much of the fighting, suffered losses so heavy that historians generally agree their organisation in the south was gravely weakened, and in later years more of the fighting was done by North Vietnamese regulars. Estimates of the numbers lost vary widely and are uncertain. American and South Vietnamese casualties were also substantial, and many civilians died or became refugees, with large areas of cities destroyed.
The shock at home
The military outcome was not what Americans took away. After the progress reports of the previous November, discussed in the account of General Westmoreland’s visit, the scenes of fighting in Saigon and Hue seemed to many viewers to contradict claims that the enemy was nearly beaten. On 1 February, a photograph by Eddie Adams of a South Vietnamese police chief shooting a captured Viet Cong suspect in a Saigon street appeared worldwide and became one of the most discussed images of the war.
In late February, after a visit to Vietnam, the television anchor Walter Cronkite said in a broadcast that the war appeared to be heading toward a stalemate. The comment was influential, partly because Cronkite was so widely trusted. Accounts of Johnson’s reaction vary, and the often-repeated remark attributed to him about losing Cronkite should be treated with caution.
The military asked for a large increase in troops, reportedly over 200,000, to take advantage of the enemy’s losses and guard against further attacks. The request prompted a rethink inside the administration. Support in Congress and among the public was already weaker than it had been, and the cost of the war at a time of economic strain, discussed in the survey of the Vietnam War in 1967, made it harder to justify.
Consequences
The effects came quickly. In the New Hampshire Democratic primary on 12 March 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against the war, won a large share of the vote against President Johnson, which was widely read as a rebuke even though Johnson still finished first. Robert Kennedy entered the race days later. On 31 March, Johnson announced a partial halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, offered talks, and said that he would not seek re-election, an event covered in the account of Johnson’s withdrawal.
Talks between the United States and North Vietnam began in Paris in May 1968. The war would last for years more. Clark Clifford, the new Defense Secretary, and others had begun to argue for limiting the commitment. General William Westmoreland was moved to a new position in mid-1968.
Interpreting Tet
Historians often describe Tet as a military defeat and a political victory for the communists, though the formulation oversimplifies. It was also a surprise for American intelligence, even if the broad possibility of a large offensive had been foreseen. Above all, it showed the distance between official reassurances and the reality of a long war, and it marked a turning point in how many Americans viewed the conflict.