The Tet Offensive essays

The Tet Offensive essays There are few points in the Vietnam War where monumental changes were made. One of these points was during Tet Offensive. The past must be analyzed to understand how the Tet Offensive changed the war. The Communist party in North Vietnam realized that they needed to exploit the weaknesses of South Vietnam and their American allies. The North wanted to create a rift between the American soldiers and the ARVN troops. They also wanted the American public to think that America was loosing the war. To accomplish these tasks they planned the Tet Offensive. The Tet offensive was an attack focused mostly in the province of Khe Sanh. It has been estimated that in that area alone 25,000 NVA troops attacked. Luckily though, American intelligence had expected a major attack in this area. However the NVA only had success in Hue and Saigon. Hue stayed in NVA control until the end of February, .during which time the NVA and NLF had enough time to massacre 2,500 people with another 3,500 people who have been suspected to be killed. In Saigon 5 battalions of NLF infiltrated the city and kept the fighting in Saigon to last a week. This week long struggle for the city destroyed blocks of Saigon and left the United States with the black images of the embassy being taken. Many of these events have been made out to be a major failure. However this was a military success. 35,000 North troops died from that battle while only 1,100 American troops and 2,700 ARVN were killed. This could be the first major event of defeatist media. They made this battle seem to be the horrible massacre of American troops where the North were going to crush the South. This also made the moral of the American troops head steadily downward. This was the beginning of the end of US involvement in Vietnam. The words of Ho Chi Minh echo through this incident. When he said You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire...