Coinciding with the Vietnamese New Year (Tet) in 1968 – a militarily quiet time in years past – the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army launched a wave of attacks on more than 100 cities, towns and hamlets in South Vietnam. This, the Tet Offensive, caught both the US and South Vietnamese military by complete surprise. Most of the attacks were quickly contained – Hue and Khe Sanh being two notable exceptions – so on the battlefield it was a North Vietnamese failure. Back home in the US though, the fact that an all but defeated enemy could coordinate such a broad and coordinated military offensive raised serious doubts about the direction of the Vietnam War. So began 1968 – a year of incredible American turmoil.
In less than a month Walter Cronkite arguably the most trusted newsman in America, questioned US policy in Vietnam and declared the Vietnam War a stalemate. A month later President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election - His goal to end the war before he left office. Martin Luther King was assassinated the following week; Robert Kennedy two months later. The rift in the country between pro-war Hawks and anti-war Doves further divided the country culminating in the violence at the 1968 Democratic Convention in August in Chicago. The war seemed to have come home. Did the Tet Offensive the cause of all this? Of course not. But to ignore it as an important factor in shaping these events is to deny historical reality.
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