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__ The Tet Offensive of 1968 __  __ By: Brenda Conteh __  The Tet Offensive were small scaled stratigic military attacks that took place in 6 of 7 cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals and 64 of 245 district capitals in South Vietnam on January 31, 1968 during the Vietnam War. These attacks that took place during the Tet Offensive were initiated by the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong troops, against U.S. troops and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Gen. Giap who was the leader of the PAVN and Viet Cong troops, planned this for months and months and they kept everything so secretive and strategic that the Tet Offensive is still revered as one of the best military plans and is reviewed in __The Art Of War__ by Sun Tzu. Gen. Giap began his plans by attacking small military camps and villages close to the U.S military base Khe Sanh that was the main focus of the U.S. because they could not loose this base. In doing these small-scaled attacks around this military base, Gen. Giap was able to distract the U.S. troops away from his main focus closer to Sai Gon and the empirical village of Hue. Gen. Giap also was able to gather intelligence on the U.S. troops, by recruiting taxi drivers, prostitutes and other people that provided service to the troops and by doing this he was able to gather information on when and were U.S. troops were strongest and what camps were more guarded. He was also able to convince the U.S. troops to believe that they intended on observing the Lunar New Year, so a seize fire was called for both sides. Gen. Giap was also able to transport all needed ammunition and supplies for this attack by having the Viet Cong and his troops traveling by underground tunnels that were built centuries before but through out the years they had been modified to serve them during the Vietnam War. The attacks took place along South Vietnam in 6 of 7 cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals and 64 of 245 district capital the battle that took place in the village of Hue was the longest during the Tet Offensive. Once the attacks began the U.S. troops were taken by surprise and took them a while to get all their needed intelligence to react and begin to fight accordingly. The first thing the U.S. troops had to do was call back troops that had been sent on leave since a size fire had been called, but due to the sharp intuitiveness of one of the U.S. troop commander Lt. Gen. Weyand the Tet Offensive wasn’t able to be as successful. He was able to notice key things such as the high levels of small attacks that were taking place that seemed to not have any motive at all and the attacks were all in areas that they [Viet Cong and Gen. Giap] were not ever interested in before. Lt. Gen. Weyand also noticed that radio communications were at an all time high, so he was able to notify Gen. Westmoreland who was in charge of the U.S. troops and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam his concerns so this led to more U.S. troops being able to stay with smaller bases and villages. The battle in Hue lasted the longest during the Tet Offensive and was the bloodiest battle that lasted from the first initial attacks of the Tet Offensive on 31 January 1968 to 25 February 1968 once the U.S. troops; their allies and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam were able to regain control of Hue. All other battles that took place during the Tet Offensive were over within a few days. Once the fighting was over the battle of Hue was the one that was most costly for both sides, with an estimated 2,810 bodies were found that were said to be assassinated by the communists [Viet Cong and PAVN] while they were in Hue and there were thousands more that were missing. U.S. Army troops had 74 dead and 507 wounded, U.S. Marines 142 dead and 857 wounded and the ARVN had 384 dead and 1,830 wounded. The PAVN and Viet Cong had over 5,000 dead 89 captured and many were wounded. Over half of the city was destroyed and left 116,000 civilians were then homeless.  Gen. Giap was able to achieve only one of his main goals in initiating the Tet Offensive, and that was having the American People lose support for the War in Vietnam. When the images of the Tet Offensive made front page news and flashed across the Television screens of the American people, they were shocked because until then they thought the war was not only coming to an end but that the U.S. was winning. Due to this, anti-war protesters took the streets of Washington D.C. with full intention to end the war and have U.S. troops withdraw from Vietnam. The American people were able to place so much focus on the war and the devastating looses that they protested President Johnson being able to send thousands of more soldiers to Vietnam and the protest was also able to diminish Johnson’s campaign for reelection. The Tet Offensive then began peace talks that took place within the first 3 months following these attacks and the U.S. troops and their allies were then able to withdraw from Vietnam as quietly as possible and with no acknowledgement of any side coming out as the victor.  The Vietnam War was by definition a major war in U.S. military history and it not only effected the military troops that were in Vietnam at the time but it also played a major role in the lives of the American people in country in the U.S. The Tet Offensive played a major role and is often referred to as the turning point of the Vietnam War and by right it should be, because if the Tet Offensive had not taken place the American people would have continued to support the Vietnam War and it’s efforts and there would not have been peace talks that finally led to the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. There was no clear way to officially win the Vietnam War, because the Viet Cong were relentless and by all means willing to die in multiplies for their cause and a prolonged war just seemed to not only beat down the American people but it did the same to the troops. The good point of this war was we were able to learn from it to better our military strategy.

__ Leaders of The Tet Offensive of 1968 __ __ General Vo Nguyen Giap __ Military leader of the North Vietnam Communist Troops who were also known as the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong Troops who were South Vietnamese, but supported the North Vietnam Comunist ideals. He was born on August 25 1911 in the village of An Xa in Quang Binh and attended the National Academy ran by the French in the city of Hue. He was expelled 2 years later for organizing a student strike. He then later attended the University of Hanoi were he studied political science and history and earned a bachlor's degree. After graduation he became a school teacher and journalist for years until Ho Chi Minh established the Vietnam Communist party and Giap became a part of. He was a strong supporter of the communist ways and had been organizing revolutionary movments even while he was a school teacher. He joined the military when the PAVN began their fight against the japaanese and he was able to climb the ranks rather quickly and became a key advisor to Ho Chi Minh until his death, so rightfully Gen. Giap was placed in charge of the Tet Offensive that they had been planning for a year before Ho Chi Minh's death. He was a very determined and ferce commander and he has been quoted to say during the Tet Offensive; "I am willing to lose 10 Viet Cong for 2 American soldiers that are killed."

__ General William Westmoreland __ General William Westmoreland was the leader of the U.S. troops in South Vietnam and also was in command of the South Vietnamese troops in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), who were the South Vietnamese that allied with the U.S. military in order to keep communist ideals from spreading down to South Vietnam from the North. General Westmoreland was born on March 26 1914 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina and he attended West Point in 1936 where he achieved the highest rank of first captain. He then joined the Army after he graduated from West Point and some of his command positions besides the one he held in Vietnam during the war, he was also an artillery battalion commander in World War II and in the Korean War he was the commander of the 187th Airborne Infantry. He died on July 18 2005. He quoted as saying this of the Vietnam, “Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.” This was his thought on how much the American people were able to see in their newspapers and televisions which eventually led to the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Vietnam after the urging of the American people after seeing the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.

__ Tet Offensive of 1968 Maps __ __Maps of areas that were attacked in South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968__



__ SOURCES __ 1. Spencer, Tucker C., ed. //Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history//. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 1998.

 2. Spencer, Tucker C., ed. //Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history//. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 1998.

 3. Spencer, Tucker C., ed. //Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history//. Vol. 3. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 1998.

 4. Rosenberg, Jennifer. "1968-Tet Offensive." About.com. Accessed October 7, 2011. [].

 5. __Maps from Google images;__ __[] and__ __.__