The Tet Offensive

Abstract

The country of Vietnam has endured hardship for almost 100 years. They have survived civil war, religious divisions that have separated the villages and tyrannical military leaders and government officials. During the century of French rule from 1860 until 1954, the French brutalized and took advantage of the Vietnamese also. Even though all of these incidents were present in Vietnam long before the US took and interest in the country, they are nonetheless a part of the history of the country and played a role in how both North and South Vietnam would handle occupation of their country by the US. Many of these events would be exacerbated by the Vietnam war and would become more evident after the Tet Offensive. After the Tet Offensive there was an almost audible hiss of air leaking out of the momentum of the US. The North sensed the US slipping and the South did as well. Even though the US won all of the major battles of Tet, many of the South Vietnamese and US soldiers would never regain the pre-1968 from of the Vietnam War. The Tet offensive was a turning point in the Vietnam War and a point in which the United States realized the war was unwinnable.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 24, 2005
Accession Number
AD1136908

Entities

People

  • Clarence Brooks
  • Cristain Mare
  • Darryl Herren
  • James Lockard

Organizations

  • United States Army Sergeants Major Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Armored Vehicles
  • Cargo Aircraft
  • Civil War
  • Communists
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Governments
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Small Arms
  • Societies
  • South Vietnam
  • Students
  • United States
  • Vietnam War
  • War
  • Warfare
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies