Tet Offensive
1968 Vietnam assault
The Tet Offensive was a major military campaign launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces during the Vietnam War in January 1968, timed to coincide with the Tet lunar new year holiday.
Though a tactical defeat for the attackers, it shocked American audiences who had been assured the war was nearly won, becoming a turning point that eroded public support for the conflict: After the Tet Offensive, opinion shifted against the war.
Vietnamese communist guerrilla force
- North VietnamFormerly divided nation's communist half
- South VietnamFormer U.S.-backed Asian state
- guerrillaIrregular armed fighter
- communistsCollective ownership advocates
Ho Chi Minh · Hanoi · cadres · Westmoreland · allies · insurgents · regulars · militia
Former Vietnamese capital
- LBJThirty-sixth president's initials
- JanuaryYear's opening month
- escalationProgressive increase in intensity
- media coverageReporting by news outlets
Walter Cronkite · antiwar · draft resistance · credibility gap · public opinion · television · protest · home front
Exchange of gunfire
- ambushSurprise strike from concealment
- siegeEncirclement forcing surrender
- assaultViolent offensive act
- attackAggressive act against another
battle · urban warfare · street fighting · sapper · infiltration · surprise attack · coordinated · simultaneous
Decisive moment of change
- watershedDrainage area boundary
- pivotalVitally important, deciding
- decisiveQuick to conclude
- catalystAgent enabling change
shift · credibility gap · disillusionment · reassessment · de-escalation · Vietnamization · stalemate
Viet Cong
Vietnamese communist guerrilla force
- North VietnamFormerly divided nation's communist half
- South VietnamFormer U.S.-backed Asian state
- guerrillaIrregular armed fighter
communists · Ho Chi Minh · Hanoi · cadres · Westmoreland · allies · insurgents · regulars · militia
Saigon
Former Vietnamese capital
- LBJThirty-sixth president's initials
- JanuaryYear's opening month
- escalationProgressive increase in intensity
media coverage · Walter Cronkite · antiwar · draft resistance · credibility gap · public opinion · television · protest · home front · disillusionment
firefight
Exchange of gunfire
- ambushSurprise strike from concealment
- siegeEncirclement forcing surrender
- assaultViolent offensive act
attack · battle · urban warfare · street fighting · sapper · infiltration · surprise attack · coordinated · simultaneous · counterattack
turning point
Decisive moment of change
catalyst · shift · credibility gap · disillusionment · reassessment · de-escalation · Vietnamization · stalemate
- VietnamVietnam, Saigon, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang
- American BattlesGettysburg, Antietam, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Lexington
- Vietnam WarVietnam War, Vietnam, My Lai Massacre, Viet Cong, Ho Chi Minh Trail
- 1968MLK assassination, RFK assassination, Prague Spring, Apollo 8, Kennedy assassination
- LBJ EraLBJ, Great Society, Vietnam War, War on Poverty, Civil Rights Act
- military operationsattack, marines, Desert Storm, NATO operations, raid
Tet Offensivestrategic withdrawal
Calculated military retreat
retreat · fortification · holding action · tactical retreat · evacuation
offensive, offend, offended, offending, reoffend, unoffended, reoffending, reoffended