To further enhance their political posture at the Paris talks, which opened on 13 May, the North Vietnamese opened the second phase of the General Offensive in late April. Duiker, p. 288. During the Battle of Huế, intense fighting lasted for a month, resulting in the destruction of the city. During the entire battle from 1 November 1967 to 14 April 1968, 730 U.S. personnel were killed and another 2,642 wounded. 1969 - U.S. troop strength reaches high at 536,100 servicemen, President Nixon makes peace offer, North Vietnamese forms Provisional Revolutionary Government. In addition, using this as the basis, they would achieve the immediate goals of the revolution, which were independence, democracy, peace, and neutrality in South Vietnam, and then move toward achieving peace and national unification. He had single-handedly shifted the nation's war strategy and restored himself to prominence as the Party's ideological conscience. The Tet Offensive Analysis 1202 Words 5 Pages The Tet Offensive, which was launched on 30 January 1958 by Northern Vietnamese communist forces against the U.S. supported South Vietnamese forces, had the tactical aim of spurring a communist revolt in South Vietnam. "[49], In October, the Politburo decided on the Tet holiday as the launch date and met again in December to reaffirm its decision and formalize it at the 14th Plenary session of the Party Central Committee in January 1968. [116]:464–7[117], At 03:40 on the foggy morning of 31 January, allied defensive positions north of the Perfume River in the city of Huế were mortared and rocketed and then attacked by two battalions of the PAVN 6th Regiment. 22–23) while William Duiker (p. 289) and Clark Clifford (p. 475) believed that it was so intended. [74][75] MACV intelligence was confused by the possible motives of the North Vietnamese in prompting such large-scale actions in remote regions where U.S. artillery and aerial firepower could be applied indiscriminately, which meant that tactically and strategically, these operations made no sense. [101] Elsewhere in the city or its outskirts, ten VC Local Force Battalions attacked the central police station and the Artillery Command and the Armored Command headquarters (both at Gò Vấp). [204] As a result of the heavy fighting, 1968 went on to become the deadliest year of the war for the US forces with 16,592 soldiers killed. Whatever the impetus, the American public grew increasingly vehement in its opposition to the continued presence of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, and the gulf between the inevitably politically driven administration and what the military saw as the most effective means of fighting the war became even larger. Perhaps more indicative of PAVN losses were the 41 PAVN prisoners taken and the recovery of 500 weapons, 132 of which were crew-served. General Phillip B. Davidson, the new MACV chief of intelligence, notified Westmoreland that "This is going to happen in the rest of the country tonight and tomorrow morning. By 09:20 the embassy and grounds were secured, with the loss of five U.S. [180] The plan for a popular uprising or people's war was abandoned for a greater combination of guerrilla and conventional warfare. Duiker, p. 296. Dougan and Weiss, p. 72. Contrary to Western belief, Hồ Chí Minh had been sidelined politically since 1963 and took little part in the day-to-day policy decisions of the Politburo or Secretariat. MACV estimated that 5,500 PAVN troops had been killed and considerably more wounded. That review absolved the CIA of operational negligence. 25. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tet-Offensive, Vets War A Memoir - History of Vietnam - Tet Offensive, The History Learning Site - The Tet Offensive, Office of the Historian - U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968. General Westmoreland is called "boastful" and Johnson is confused 'as the man in the moon.' Concurrently, a propaganda offensive to induce ARVN troops to desert and the South Vietnamese population to rise up against the government would be launched. It was this lack of communication that caused a rising disapproval rating for his conduct of the war. The offensive itself, an all-out effort by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces to overrun the major cities of South Vietnam, marked the turning point of the Vietnam War . The Lê Duẩn faction, which favoured quick, decisive offensives meant to paralyse South Vietnam-United States responses, was replaced by Giáp and Trường Chinh, who favoured a strategy of more protracted, drawn-out conventional warfare. During the Tet Offensive the South Vietnam based Viet Cong were essentially wiped out as a fighting force. This assignment will requireyou to utilize both direct and paraphrased quotations to support your arguments. [242] Abrams' new strategy was quickly demonstrated by the closure of the "strategic" Khe Sanh base and the ending of multi-division "search and destroy" operations. This redeployment may have been one of the most critical tactical decisions of the war. Other forces would block American and ARVN reinforcement routes, mainly Highway 1. Abrams' new "One War" policy centered the American effort on the takeover of the fighting by the South Vietnamese (through Vietnamization), the pacification of the countryside, and the destruction of communist logistics. [22], In May, MACV attempted to obtain a compromise from the CIA by maintaining that VC militias did not constitute a fighting force but were essentially low-level fifth columnists used for information collection. 1968 Tet offensive . In sudden attacks on urban areas throughout South Vietnam, North Vietnamese forces struck and briefly held portions of Saigon and 36 of the country’s 44 provincial capitals. The defense of the Capital Military District was primarily a South Vietnamese responsibility and it was initially defended by eight ARVN infantry battalions and the local police force. Laurence, John (2002), The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story, PublicAffairs Press. [21] In September, members of the MACV intelligence services and the CIA met to prepare a Special National Intelligence Estimate that would be used by the administration to gauge U.S. success in the conflict. They felt that a return to guerrilla tactics was more appropriate since the U.S. could not be defeated conventionally. William, Thomas Allison. With their officers killed in the initial attack and their attempt to gain access to the building having failed, the sappers simply occupied the chancery grounds until they were all killed or captured by U.S. reinforcements that were landed on the roof of the building six hours later. With the exception of the overrunning of the U.S. Special Forces camp at Lang Vei, however, there was never a major ground assault on the base and the battle became largely a duel between American and North Vietnamese artillerists, combined with massive air strikes conducted by U.S. aircraft. [50] This move cemented the position of the militants as Hanoi's strategy: the rejection of negotiations, the abandonment of protracted warfare, and the focus on the offensive in the towns and cities of South Vietnam. Tet Offensive Article Analysis Question Sheet . Only 775 out of 2,018 in one section survived; another lost all but 640 out of 1,430. [184] 630,000 new refugees had been generated, joining the nearly 800,000 others already displaced by the war. Significantly, during this series of actions only North Vietnamese forces participated and targets were military in nature, with less concise attacks against city-targets. [72] The intense shelling (100–150 rounds per day) prompted Westmoreland to launch Operation Neutralize, an intense aerial bombardment campaign of 4,000 sorties into and just north of the DMZ. [67] On 20 December, Westmoreland cabled Washington that he expected the PAVN/VC "to undertake an intensified countrywide effort, perhaps a maximum effort, over a relatively short period of time. His only real political rival was Vice President Kỳ, the former Air Force commander, who had been outmaneuvered by Thiệu in the presidential election of 1967. During their occupation, the PAVN/VC executed thousands of people in the Massacre at Huế. [19] Subsequently, the U.S. sought negotiations to end the war. Although Saigon was the focal point of the offensive, the PAVN/VC did not seek a total takeover of the city. Selective Service System announced a new draft call for 48,000 men, the second highest of the war. Nguyen, p. 30. "[68], Despite all the warning signs, however, the allies were still surprised by the scale and scope of the offensive. 1247, CIA: Intelligence Warning of the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam; An Interim Study, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam 1960-68, Part 2, Library of Congress Country Studies: Vietnam & The Tet Offensive, MILESTONES: 1961-1968, U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968, Bibliography: The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Khe Sanh, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tet_Offensive&oldid=990990055, Attacks on diplomatic missions of the United States, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968, Battles of the Vietnam War involving Australia, Battles of the Vietnam War involving New Zealand, Battles of the Vietnam War involving Thailand, Military history of the United States during the Vietnam War, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles containing Vietnamese-language text, Articles that include images for deletion from December 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Depletion of Viet Cong leading to the use of greater North Vietnamese manpower. 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