HY 2020 Unit 6 Question 1

Unit 6 Question #1

What was the Tet Offensive? Describe, in detail, the effects the Offensive had on the scope and extent of the Vietnam War as a whole. Be sure to address the role and innovations that came with media coverage of the Offensive.

The Tet Offensive, officially called The General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than, was one of the biggest military battles of the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968, by powers of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People’s Army against the United States and, their allies, and the South Vietnamese Army. It was a battle of surprise assaults against military and civilian commands and control centers through South Vietnam. The enormous aggressive operation was not a military accomplishment for the communists, but rather the ability to scare numerous Americans because of its size and power, and by persuading the organization of President Lyndon B. Johnson, that the Vietnam War would end in a short amount of time. By conducting this large operation and scaring the troops with their cast numbers and strategy, the North thought that they would have the upper hand in the War and count this as a success. The North Vietnamese had attacked more than 100 towns, villages and capitals and American safe zones with more than 80,000 troops on 30 January 1968. This was considered the largest military operation that was conducted by either side up to this point in the Vietnam War. In composed assaults the whole way across South Vietnam, socialist strengths dispatch their biggest hostile of the Vietnam War against South Vietnamese and U.S. troops. The most remarkable scene happened when a gathering of the National Liberation Front (NLF) commandos impacted through the wall surrounding the American international safe haven in Saigon. This led to the NLF to protect the consulate building and prevent any enemy troops from capturing the building. A vast amount of enemy assaults on the consulate were pushed back and stopped because of the NLF commandos’ strengths in guerilla warfare and the loss of the Viet Cong’s numbers. Throughout the nation, numerous attacks occurs consistently for a matter of 4 plus weeks. The battle to recover the city of Hue from socialist troops was the most damaging. The United States and South Vietnamese troops lost around 3000 troops and their comrades lost around 40,000 troops. While the communists did not succeed militarily, the effect of the Tet Offensive on general assessment in the United States was huge. The American people, who had been told a couple of months prior that the war was in our favor and that the United States troops may be pulling back and being sent home, were shocked to see that our government office was a place of hostile battles and deaths. This was not what the American people were originally thinking. Negotiations to end the war was sought out by the Unites States after the American public lost their will to support the war. War is an ugly beast. You sometimes think it is going one way, when in reality can go a whole other direction in the mere seconds. I know this from personal experience. The tides of war can change to either side having the upper hand.