Significance Of The Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive a surprise attack and military movement of the Viet Cong also referred to as the Nation Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese army on the United States and its Allies. The attack was to set of and encourage a revolution in the southern vietnamese people, it targeted the military command centers and major cities in Southern Vietnam. The idea of the attack was to finish the war and destroy the government of Vietnam all in one quick and subtle movement. General Vo Nguyen Giap now recognized as one of the best generals through the 20th century knew that the Vietnam War was becoming increasingly more unpopular state side and he realized that if the american people were not backing the war then the
The would attack during the ceasefire that the sides had previously agreed upon. All troops in the south of Vietnam fighting for Democracy would be caught completely off guard. The only person that suspected was General Frederick Weyand who convinced General Westmoreland the head of the american troops to hold back a few battalions to defend the Saigon area, which was where Weyand was stationed and in command, and put them on high alert for he had read the vague signs that pointed to the Tet
On January 31, 1968 the Northern Vietnamese break the ceasefire that they had set up with the Southern portion. Almost simultaneously upwards of one hundred cities were were broken into in the small hours of the morning. The americans being undermanned and and caught completely by surprise were unsuccessful in defending many of the cities, so they were taken by the Northern Vietnamese. Some of the major cities were attacked in this process like the city of Hue and the Capital of Southern Vietnam Saigon. Other places that the Northerners attacked was the US Air Base at Bien Hoa “crippled over twenty aircraft” during the attack the the men defending the base, fighting hard, had major loss “at a cost of nearly 170 casualties.” Many other acts like this occurred all across the country, but some of the cities that the Northern Vietnamese attacked were defened well. Some of the cities were taken back by either the Army of the Republic of Vietnam or Americans or a combination of the two by slowly forcing the troops out of the city.
Some of the bloodiest and most famous battles of the Vietnam war were created from Giaps ambitious Tet Offensive. One of those battles was at Saigon and although this was the main objective of the offensive the North Vietnamese troops did not capture and control the whole city but only parts of it. The Vietnamese moved to position in the early morning around 3:15 and the troops