Decisive 20th Century Battles

Vietnam 1968: The Tet Offensive

Without question one of the low points in US history, the Vietnam War was a long, drawn out affair that would ultimately end in failure and global humiliation for the most powerful nation on Earth.

The Tet Offensive was a three-phase military campaign launched between 30th January and 23rd September 1968 by the combined communist forces of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam - the Viet Cong - and the People's Army of Vietnam.

Unprecedented in the history of the Vietnam War in terms of scale, the Offensive was countrywide as more than 80,000 communist troops attacked over 100 towns and cities, including the national capital of Saigon.

The purpose of such a massive and well-organised campaign was to strike military and civilian command centres throughout the Southern Vietnam and to ignite an uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government. The communists from the north hoped that the war would be ended in a single blow.

In places such as the imperial city of Hue, horrific close combat slaughter dragged on continually for nearly a month as US Marines had to flush out the Viet Cong in a painstaking operation building by building, room by room. The North Vietnamese army also attempted to drive off the US forces during a three-month siege at the American base at Khe Sanh.

Despite being ultimately a military disaster for the communist forces, The Tet Offensive bolstered their confidence in being able to launch a nationwide assault and it was arguably the turning point of the conflict in terms of America’s commitment to the Vietnam War.