Tet+Offensive

=The Tet Offensive= toc

The Tet Offensive was a country wide surprise attack on American and South Vietnamese in Vietnam. It began on January 30, 1968 and lasted until September 23. Although it was a complete failure and the Communist forces suffered massive casualties, it still shocked the American public, nobody believed that the Viet Cong would be able to launch such a massive attack. Despite the clear Communist defeat, Americans were beginning to protest the war, the government was quickly losing support.

The Beginning of the offensive
The first wave of Viet Cong attacks began shortly after midnight on January 30, 1968. The 84000 Viet Cong troops that participated in the attacks were supported by thousands reinforcing troops and North Vietnamese soldiers. They attacked over 155 villages, towns, outposts, and cities. They launched hundreds of rocket and artillery attacks on major targets across the border. Most of he Allied troops were taken by complete suprise, but none of them defected or retreated from the communists.

Phase I
There were 3 phases to the attack. Phase one consisted of drawing the Allied forces out of the heavily populated cities and lowlands, then launching attacks on the cities. The Viet Cong did this by launching numerous attacks on Allied border outposts. All of these attacks were completely diversionary and were never mean to accomplish anything other that drawing the Allies out. They succeeded in this, and most of the Allied forces were drawn out to the borders, and away from the cities. Even though the Allies were unprepared, most of the Viet Cong soldiers had retreated before daylight.

Phase 2
Phase two consisted of more massive attacks on villages and cities. It was much smaller though, with only 119 targets bieng attacked. Phase II was not nearly as effective as phase I. The Allies knew of thier plan, so they had lost the element of surprise. This attack was a complete failure. Although they severely weakened the stability of the South Vietnamese capitol, they had failed to take it or do anything really significant.

Phase 3
Phase three consisted of more attacks on cities and villages. Unlike the previous attacks, no Viet Cong forces participated in this one, phase 3 was handled completely by North Vietnamese soldiers. the main assault was preceded by attacks on the border towns of Tay Ninh, An Loc, and Loc Ninh. Once again, these were only meant to lure the Allies out of the cities. One of the cities that they targeted was Saigon, a major city. The attack was, once again, an epic failure.

=Why it failed=

There are many reasons that the Tet Offensive failed, one of the most significant reasons was that it was far too complicated. It was incredibly difficult to coordinate the tousands of soldiers taking part in the assaults. Another reason that it failed was that the soldiers were attacking everywhere instead of concentrating on a few objectives, It was very easy to defeat them when they were divided. Perhaps the biggest reasons that it failed was that they had underestimated our ability to react and mobilize against any attacks against us.