Before Tet large majorities of people started to gradually oppose the war, even at the peak of the war there was never more than 10% of the population of the us in favour of immediate withdrawal many people thought the war was useless. students in particular were starting to arrange protests and many organisations were formed such as the american civil rights movement who was led by the inspirational martin luther king, lectures and the great Muhammad Ali were also among the protesters. one demonstration held in new york had 200,000 protestors. the media also influenced the support for us involvement. the hatred being shown was aimed at Lyndon B Johnson. This reflected onto the war demoralizing the american troops boosting the morale of the vc and provided the vc with will and determination to win and defeat the US.
The vc were planning a massive scale attack against the US, The Tet offensive. general giap thought this could be a big turning point of the war. this would be the biggest and different style of attack to date from the vc. Giap needed more time to plan this but realistically he had minimal time, giap managed to put in 8 months of planning. the vc troops were commanded to keep a low profile while the plan was put into place. giap used his network of spies to feed him with the latest movements and details of the US to provide him and his troop the upper hand.
The course of the planning was at its final stages, vc troops were still very quiet and had to move almost stealth like to get into position, giap continued to be one step ahead as he and his troops were going to have a ceasefire, the vc now knew they would definitely catch the US troops off guard the many had thought it was a sign that america was winning the war and the war soon to be over, but they were very wrong. the tet offensive was going to make a big impact and change many peoples perspectives about the war. the 30th of january 1968 marked an important event in the vietnamese calendar, little did the americans know the tet would start.
Tet had changed the vc’s strategies causing them to use large scale attacks on hundreds of towns across the south including the broadcast tower and the US embassy. many us troops were caught out as continuous attacks occurred on many cities drawing the americans attention to them, forcing the americans to switch focus. the vc had been trained for these attacks but US forces had regained most of the south, apart from some of the rural areas. The tet didn't quite go to script as giaps objective of getting the people of s.vietnam to create an uprising with his men against the south and the us backfired and resulted in the people of vietnam branding this reckless. back in the US support continued to decrease as many people still disagreed with america's involvement in the war.
As tet progressed it was proving the tet was the wrong option. over 10,000 casualties were caused by tet mainly on the vc’s behalf compared to america’s small losses. the us troops were getting frustrated which led to the use of drugs. the morale of the us troops had been damaged as many assumed the war was close to the end. The troops had realised the vietcong was still very strong. overall the tet was a military failure for the vc, many vc troops had died and the s.vietnamese did not agree with the ruthless attacks on the cities. the south was particularly angry with the massacre of the 5000 civilians in hue.the tet made an impact in the way both sides changed their strategies and the great success of lowering morale of american troops. president Johnson also thought the Tet was a political failure as well as many other americans
After tet it ended the trust of both sides and they were eager to have peace talks. in order to do this america started to gradually decrease the bombing of the north. the aftermath of the tet also showed giap he couldn't continue using direct attacks as used during tet because he had lost a significant amount of troops which made the vc very weak and were now relying on the NVA to keep them in the war. Giap decided he had no choice but to switch back to the very effective guerilla tactics. after tet the vc had lost many soldiers with increases of 70% compared before the tet
before tet, diplomacy between the us and the vc had been minimal with the only possible way of the war coming to an end was for america to back down and give the vc a communist vietnam but america was not prepared to do that and responded with brutal tactics.
After tet there was a big change in diplomacy with 25% of americans wanting to finish the war this was an increase of 15% compared to before tet. president Johnson realised the impact of tet so he decided to turn down westmoreland's request for more troops. johnson decided not to stand for election meaning the much favoured richard nixon would be elected. Nixon openly opposed the war and had promised to bring an end to the war in vietnam, he started off with reducing the bombing of the north and in 1973 he and henry kissinger did just that when the paris peace talks took place after negotiations broke down in 1968 due to the tet offensive.
in conclusion the tet played a big part in vietnam. it was the main turning point in the war. from vietnam's perspective it was a psychological success, it made more americans oppose the war and it also made america think about their tactics such as the search and destroy and the use of chemical warfare. the tet made americans use educated attacks which were a lot more effective and from a americans view it was a military success for all the wrong reasons. the outcome of the tet showed its significance on the fighting and the the spirit of giap’s men
