South On The Day Of The Tet example essay topic

Even though the United States won most of the battles up until 1968, nothing could have prepared them for what was to happen on January 30-31, 1968. Prior to the "Tet", otherwise known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, some small battles along Rt. 9 nearby Khe Sahn, had been taking place. The Tet is the same as our new years day, but instead of celebrating number years, they celebrate years of different animals, such as, 1968 was the year of the monkey. After two weeks of silence, American scouts discovered North Vietnamese camps with over eighty " thousand Communist troops. The Americans did nothing to prepare for a battle in which was almost impossible not to be known about. On the eve of the Tet, Communist forces began an assault on Khe Sahn, and many other northern cities in South Vietnam.

They attacked even as far south as the US Embassy, and the Capitol City of Saigon. The Tet Offensive was undoubtedly a military victory for the south even though they sustained heavy losses, but because of video coverage, the US Military lost most if not all support from its homeland. Many in the US military just did not see a point in fighting the rest of the war without any support from the people they were fighting for. When the American citizens did not support the war, it was the turning point, and everything fell apart for the US in Vietnam from there on out.

From the start of the Vietnam War, the French were out because of the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Then in December of 1960, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, organizes the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, the Vietcong. Ho commits the NL to the overthrow of the non-Communist government in South Vietnam, the ousting of U.S. advisers and the unification of Vietnam. In 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated as well as South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

In 1964 Lyndon Johnson calls for War on Poverty and greater efforts on civil rights in his First State of the Union. In August Johnson orders immediate retaliation for the attack on U.S. destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, allegedly by the North Vietnamese. Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the President power to take "all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States, and to prevent further aggression". In October Khrushchev is ousted, and is replaced by Brezhnev and Kosygin. Finally in November Johnson is elected President.

(Forrest, Vietnam Timeline) The Tet or known as the Chinese lunar New Year has been celebrated for hundreds of years. The Tet usually brings happiness, hope, and peace, but now only brings back fearful memories of 1968 bloodshed. This is still a day of joy and happiness, but on the side many Vietnamese still can recall the day when God forgot about Vietnam. The year of the monkey was something that this war could have lived without. (Olson 181) Because North Vietnam uses a different calendar than China, Japan, Korea, and South Vietnam, they celebrated the Tet one-day earlier than the others.

The North wanted to attack the South on the day of the Tet, but succeeded in attacking on the eve, so they were not as effective as they had hoped to be. Plus they attacked Saigon 24 hours after the first attacks on Khe Sahn, and Quang Tri. This gave American, and South Vietnamese forces time to mobilize in most of the southern cities before the North Vietnamese were able to reach any of the towns. (Rice 38) The impact of that moment was the beginning of the end of American involvement in Vietnam, but like the slow rise and retreat of an Asian typhoon the extrication from the ruins would last longer than the storm, the casualties still mounting as the fury lingered. And those who had believed the storm could be weathered would soon be gone: Defense Secretary McNamara, General Westmoreland and President Johnson himself. The paradox was that they were right.

Militarily, Tet was a clear-cut American victory; psychologically, it was the decisive reversal. The storm defenses were sound, but no alert had been given: rather, an all clear. In a war that had produced too many surprises, none stunned harder than Tet, especially the symbolic assault on the Embassy, which had so often declared that the worst was over. (Forrest) A book written in 1981 quoted King Quang Trung's tactic of surprise. He let the troops celebrate the 1789 Tet festival one-day ahead so that he could launch the attacks on the first three days of the lunar New Year while the Chinese troops were still feasting and not ready to organize their defense.

(Rice 28) Vietcong guerrilla fighters violated the temporary truce they had pledged to observe around the lunar new year celebrations, and surged into more than one hundred towns and cities, including Saigon. (Maclear 208) Shifting the war for the first time from its rural base into the new arena of South Vietnam's supposedly impregnable urban areas, it was a campaign of "enormous breadth, speed and scope". It shook US imperialism to its roots and had a dramatic and lasting effect on US public opinion. (Maclear 210) It was a campaign that had been in preparation since a study carried out by General Giap in September 1967 had concluded that the war had reached a 'stalemate's itu ation and that something needed to be done.

Out of this report arose the plans for the Tet offensive. Vietcong leaders had carried out a vigorous propaganda campaign in order to prepare their forces. Ho Chi Minh urged the troops on to 'ever greater feats of battle' in 1968. (Forrest) Giap had set the campaign's minimum and maximum objectives. As a minimum the Tet outbreak would force the halting of the aerial bombardment of North Vietnam and force the Americans into negotiations. As a maximum the offensive could drive the Americans out of Vietnam all together opening up the path to liberation and unification.

(Olson 212) Although not meeting its major objectives the Tet offensive did have a lasting effect on the course of the war. It was a turning point. According to US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, 'Henceforth, no matter how effective our action, the prevalent strategy could no longer achieve its objectives within a period or within force levels politically acceptable to the American people. ' (Maclear 218) Vietcong soldiers stormed the highland towns of Banmethout, Ko ntum and Pleiku, they then simultaneously invaded thirteen of the sixteen provincial capitals of the heavily populated Mekong Delta. (Maclear 228) In an attack that took the Americans off guard a small group of commandos seized the US embassy in Saigon. The embassy was an ultra modern building in the heart of Saigon and with the Stars and Stripes flying above it represented the very embodiment of US imperialism.

(Forrest) Through contacts and spies the Vietcong had managed to store arms, ammunition and explosives in a secret location in preparation for the attack. Then on the night of January 30-31 at three in the morning nineteen Vietcong commandos literally arrived by taxi, then quickly blew their way through the wall and into the compound, automatic weapons blazing. Within five minutes, and four dead marines, they were in control. (Forrest) The attack stunned US President Lyndon Johnson and proved to be a catalyst in the attitudes of the American people towards the war. For the first time in a major war, television played a crucial role. Splashed across the screens of fifty million Americans.

'Dead bodies lay amid the rubble and rattle of automatic gunfire as dazed American soldiers and civilians ran back and forth, trying to flush out the assailants. Americans at home saw the carnage wrought by the offensive. ' (Stanley Karnow) Attacks were also launched at the headquarters of both, the US and South Vietnamese armies, as well as the massive US army base at Bien hoa, north of Saigon airport. The fourteen commandos who had attacked the main Saigon radio station were trapped inside for eighteen hours before blowing up the entire building with themselves inside. (Rice 65) The dimension and sweep of the offensive amazed US army generals, prompting one to comment that tracking the assault pattern on a map resembled a 'pinball machine, lighting up with each raid. ' (Maclear 205) US public opinion was probably most affected by the infamous incident a My lai, where American soldiers massacred one hundred peasants, women and children among them.

(Brittania) Myron Harrington, commander of the US marines that eventually retook the city observed on first entering, 'My first impression was of desolation, utter desolation. There were burnt out tanks and up-turned automobiles still smoldering. Bodies lay everywhere, most of them civilians. The smoke and stench blended, like in some kind of horror movie - except that it lacked weird music. You felt that something could happen at any minute, that they would jump out and start shooting from every side. Right away I realized we weren't going to a little picnic.

' (Karnow) By early March there had been enormous casualties on both sides. The US and South Vietnamese had lost 6,000 men while the North Vietnamese lost a staggering 50,000 and in the process had seen the destruction of their organization's command structure in the south. (Karnow) General Westmoreland, supreme commander of US forces, perceived incorrectly that the Tet offensive paralleled the Battle of the Bulge in World War II where the Germans staged a desperate bid to go for broke before meeting a rapid and inevitable defeat. (Maclear 230) However as General Giap pointed out after the war, 'For us, you know, there is o such thing as a single strategy.

Ours is always a synthesis, simultaneously military, political and diplomatic - which is why quite clearly, the Tet offensive had multiple objectives. ' (Rice 101) One of the major objectives had been to drive a wedge between the Americans and the South Vietnamese. The embassy attack was aimed at showing up the vulnerability of the American forces. The Vietcong had hoped that their liberation of towns and cities would lead to an uprising against the Americans, they believed that the South's weary soldiers, dislocated peasantry, fractious youth and widely discontented layers of South Vietnamese society were ready to join the struggle. However this only occurred on a sporadic basis. (Maclear 222) One of the most awesome battles in the offensive took place in Khe Sahn.

Khe Sahn was a 'rolling region as lovely as Tuscany,' but it was also the home of a small US army base. Westmoreland believed that Giap's troops were converging on Khe Sahn as part of the policy to seize control of the northern provinces. He also likened it to the 1954 battle of Dienbienphu, when the North Vietnamese attacked the French in a bid to enhance their bargaining power at the then Geneva peace conference. (Maclear 231) The analogy with Dienbienphu was preposterous; the US was in a far stronger position than the French were in 1954. In 'Operation Niagara' the Americans had unleashed their B 52 bombers aerial firepower, the greatest in military history.

The Vietcong suffered huge losses, as many as 10,000 dead, while only 500 US marines were killed. (Maclear 234) Westmoreland and most of the US high command were convinced that the Vietcong were desperately trying to re-enact Dienbienphu. But it was actually a brilliant piece of strategy to draw the Americans away from the big population centers and leave them open to assault. (Forrest) Not only did Khe Sahn catch the Americans off guard, but also by the rapidity and surprise of the whole offensive itself.

Years later a West Point textbook describe the US intelligence failure to see what was happening on a par with Pearl Harbor. A 1968 CIA report concluded: 'The intensity, coordination and timing of the attacks were not fully anticipated,' adding 'another major unexpected point' was the ability of the Vietcong to hit so many targets simultaneously. (Forrest) Tet was the final nail in the coffin for the administration of Lyndon Johnson. In 1963, when he came to power in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his approval rating was over 80%. But by 1967 it was down to 40%. 'But then came Tet, and his ratings plummeted, as if Vietnam were a burning fuse that had suddenly ignited an explosion of dissent.

' (Stanley Karnow) By the beginning of March his popularity dropped towards 30%. More dramatically, endorsement for his handling of the war stood at only 26%. His credibility was gone. (Olson 216) Then came the humiliation of the New Hampshire Democratic primary, where he polled only 300 votes more than Eugene McCarthy, an unknown standing on an anti-war ticket. This was unprecedented for an incumbent President, who would usually go for re-election unhindered. The result electrified the nation and intensified the anti-war protest.

(Rice 22) On March 31st, Johnson announced 'I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President. ' He also announced that air strikes would be confined to below the 12th parallel and authorized the opening of negotiations with the North Vietnamese. However, troop levels remained at about 500,000 and the war would drag on for another five years. More American soldiers would die after the Tet than before, and the United States itself would be 'torn apart by the worst internal upheavals in a century.

' (Maclear 223) Tet, was the major turning in the Vietnam War. Before the Tet, the American people were in favor of the war. There were only a few anti-war walks, but for the most part, everyone was pro war. The United States has been winning nine out of ten battles up until 1968. On January 30, 1968 the United States would be torn apart.

Instead of peaceful anti-war walks, there was rioting. Almost all favor was against the war. After the Tet the United States lost almost double the amount of men lost prior to the Tet. If the Tet had not occurred the United States might have had a chance, Because the people were pro war, and President Johnson could keep sending massive amounts of supplies. The entire outcome of the war was decided not on the battlefield but back home in the United States of America.