Tet! The Turning Point of the Vietnam War

Dr Donna Jackson

Dept of History & Archaeology

The Wounded Generation: America After Vietnam (A D Horne)

• Vietnam…. It divided our families and generations, roiled our campuses, ended careers, broke long friendships, sent marchers into our streets and brought down a president.”

NV Motivations for Tet

• Concern over losses• Belief that South Vietnamese

would support revolution• Negotiate from strength• Election year in US

The Strategy

1. A series of diversionary attacks in remote areas.

2. Co-ordinated VC assaults on major towns/cities

3. Agreement to negotiations – but on VC terms

Phase 1

• Attacks at Con Thien, Loc Ninh, Song Be

• Khe Sanh• Preparations for

further attacks• Agreement to

negotiate

January 30, 1968

• VC struck 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 major cities; 50 hamlets

• Saigon: occupied grounds of US Embassy; attacked Tan Son Nhut Airport, presidential palace, HQ of South Vietnam's general staff.

• Hue: 7,500 VC/DRV troops took Citadel (seat of the Emperors of the Kingdom of Annam)

Military Results

• North Vietnam

– A military defeat

– A political and psychological victory

• South Vietnam

– A costly victory

Impact on the Media

• Walter Cronkite, “What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning the war!”

• David Douglas Duncan, Hue: “The mind reels at the carnage, cost and ruthlessness of it all.”

• Of the liberation of Ben Tre: “we had to destroy the city to save it.”

Impact on Public Opinion

• Approval of Johnson's conduct of war dropped:

– 1967: 40%

– During Tet: 26%

• Protest movement energised

Avoiding the Draft

• James Fallows, “What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy”, Washingon Monthly, 1975

• Starved himself to 8 stone 8 lbs

• Claimed to have been suicidal

• “I was overcome with a wave of relief”

• “We now knew who would be killed”

Group Acts of Protest

• October 21, 1967: Washington, c.100,000• October 15, 1969: Vietnam moratorium, over 2 million • November 15, 1969: Student Mobilisation:

– San Francisco, 150,000– Washington, up to 500,000

Protests from Veterans

• Vietnam Veterans Against the War

• Mutiny and insubordination• ‘Fragging’

Impact on Politics

• Increasing Congressional oversight

• Johnson challenged for Democratic nomination

The Impact on the President

March 31:

LBJ televised address:• Limits on bombing• Calls for peace talks• Averell Harriman named as LBJ’s rep

at talks• Refuses re-election

Peace with Honour?: The Nixon Years

• Combat deaths– US: 27,000– South Vietnam: 107,000– North Vietnam: at least 500,000

• Unknown civilian deaths• Devastating bombing raids• Inflation/unrest in US• Poisoned political atmosphere• US international credibity damaged

The New York Times, May, 1973

• "We lost the war in the Mississippi valley, not the Mekong valley. Successive American governments were never able to muster\the necessary mass support at home.”