Tet Offensive

[Noah]

Hey guys,

Can someone give me more info on this event? I read it on Wiki but I'm not sure whether the info on there is reliable!

My teacher told me it was a Vietcong success because the Vietcong massacred the Americans but the article says otherwise..

And Operation Rolling Thunder too...It only need to be short 4 or 5 sentences for each but if you want to post more then it's welcome.

xx

[Red October]

the tet offensize was a political victory in that it showed americans the viet cong could pull off a massive assault like that. it scared the shit out of everyone. however, it was a huge military defeat. the viet cong was unable to hold any of the cities they captured and took massive casualties. the tet offensive actually lessened the VC's offensive capabilities because once they had exposed themselves and began fighting out in the open, overwhelming US firepower massacred them. but it was a major factor in public opinion turning against the war.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Red October gave a good sumarry of it

my GCSE history essay question for one of the papers was on the tet offensive and I dont actually remember much...

But as RO1922 said, while the Vietcong took very heavy losses it was a huge political victory for them. The capturing of the US embassy in Saigon (?) really hit home with the American public... I think all of this was televised as well, correct me if I'm wrong. It sort of gave out the impression of the VC being much more powerful than they were.

[bolshevik butcher]

Yeh, i'm no expert but red october seems to be accurate. The tet offensive was militarily disasterous, huge losses for what turned out to be little gain. However it was a fantastic propaganda victory for them that speeded up their victory due to the American withdrawl that partly resulted from it.

[Lenin's Law]

Yes, everyone here is correct: militarily Vietnam lost the battle, as let's be honest, they militarily lost the war: some 38,000 or so Americans died compared to 2-4 million Vietnamese, it's hard to think of a more lopsided confrontation.

BUT, a relatively isolated third world country could never really militarily defeat a giant superpower like the US, so they focused on outlasting the Americans, (and winning political victories which could be used to demoralize the American people and their soldiers) and that they did, albiet for a terrible price.

[Janus]

Also, just to add, the Vietcong never really recovered from the Tet Offensive and it began the days of greater Northern domination of the war; something which of course was in the North's favor.

[DISTURBEDrbl911]

In response to the question on Operation Rolling Thunder, it was an American bombing campaign that lasted about 3.5 years. Although the operation had no specific goal or target, it was mainly to convince the South and the North that the North could not win. The bombing was primarily targeting supply lines or men and supplies coming from North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos into South Vietnam. The bombing in Cambodia and Laos was technically illegal and the US denies doing so. However I have read in several books including autobiographies from people in the Vietnam Conflict, it came from a Lt. saying that he was in a position only a mile or so from the boarder and that his mortar team was hitting over the boarder, not to mention the US warplanes flying over head and bombing deeper into the boardering nations. Thats Operation Rolling Thunder.

[Anarcho]

The posters above are absolutely correct... The US Gov't was assuring the American people that the war was almost won, that the troops would be coming home anytime.

The Giap launched the Tet offensive, thereby proving the administration wrong. It was a brilliant campaign, with absolutely no exit plan or follow through.... in the end, the situation was exactly as it was before the Offensive, but with a lot of dead VC, less dead US advisors, and a VC command structure that was in shambles.

However, the Tet offensive, by showing the people that the Administration was wrong, gave strength of the anti-war movement.