The Tet Offensive is generally seen as one of the most important single events in the war. It affected the course of the war by badly degrading the will of the American people to fight that war. In 1968, the US had been involved in the war for over a decade.
Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Though U.S.
Tet Offensive shakes Cold War confidence. In coordinated attacks all across South Vietnam, communist forces launch their largest offensive of the Vietnam War against South Vietnamese and U.S. troops. Dozens of cities, towns, and military bases–including the U.S. embassy in Saigon–were attacked.
On the North Vietnamese side, an estimated 5,000 soldiers were killed, most of them hit by American air and artillery strikes. Despite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure to inspire widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for the North Vietnamese.
Then, in a strange move, Nixon responded to the Tet Offensive by signing off on a mission to discover the enemy HQ, yet recalled the troops before they could mount an assault, the Kokomoperspective.com reports. American assaults against Vietnamese civilians made the failure to attack their military even more offensive.
The Tet Offensive changed public perception of the Vietnam War. Although a costly loss for communist forces from North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, the series of attacks led South Vietnamese and United States citizens to question the outcome of the war.
What was the impact of the Tet Offensive on the American war effort in Vietnam? It led to a massive decrease in popular support for the war in Vietnam.
Despite the fact the Tet Offensive was quashed relatively quickly, it had a large effect in that it turned the public much more against the conflict. It also split the democratic party and the government into war and pro-war factions.
Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.