Tet Offensive: Turning point of the Vietnam War

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4000 Gls died in Tet Offensive. Only weeks earlier, the U.S. government told the American public the war was winding down.' Action the 20th anniversary of events in 1968 will be highlighted in special articles.

1968 was one of the most tumultouous years of the 20th century, with such events as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the "Prague Spring" of Czechoslovakia, the May-June upsurge in France, and the student protests in Mexico.

The first installment in this series is an acknowledgement of the 20th anniversary of the launching of the Tet offensive by the Vietnamese liberation fighters—an event that conclusively sealed the fate of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 1968, the U.S. military command in South Vietnam was awakened by a totally unexpected shock. In a move that was as bold as it was surprising, Vietnamese liberation forces launched coordinated attacks on over a hundred cities, provincial capitals, and military installations throughout the length and breadth of the country.

From the densely populated Mekong Delta to isolated U.S. outposts near the demilitarized zone, these audacious, synchronized assaults knocked the U.S. and South Vietnamese government forces back on their heels.

The U.S. High Command was completely bewildered. They believed that the brutal "search and destroy" operations conducted by U.S. forces during the preceding two years had decisively weakened the revolutionary forces. Consequently, they never knew what hit them.

Even the U.S. Embassy in Saigon came under attack, its grounds occupied by a handful of liberation fighters for over 24 hours before they were wiped out.

In the northern provincial capital of Hue, a city considered to be the cultural center of South Vietnam, liberation fighters were welcomed and assisted by the local population as government troops melted away in retreat. The flag of the National Liberation Front (NLF) waved over Hue for nearly a month before the liberation forces pulled out, but not without tenaciously contesting each block and house as U.S. forces counterattacked.

In the ensuing battles to retake lost territory, U.S. and South Vietnamese government forces spared no effort in terms of armaments and firepower. Virtually every city occupied by the NLF, including large parts of Saigon, was destroyed by the indiscriminate use of American firepower.

Over 14,000 civilians were killed and 200,000 people left homeless. The most damning epitaph that came out of the Tet offensive was the remark of an anonymous U.S. Army major during the battle to retake the town of Ban Tre: "We had to destroy the town in order to save it."

But in the end what was also totally destroyed by the Tet Offensive was the illusion peddled to the American people that the United States could militarily win the war. The Tet Offensive was the decisive turning point in the Vietnam War. It was a crushing political defeat for U.S. imperialism. It ensured eventual victory for the liberation forces.

"Light at the end of the tunnel"

Twenty years after this momentous battle, debate still rages among the apologists for the U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who was commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, blames faulty U.S. intelligence and the deceitfulness of the liberation forces for the total surprise of the attack. In truth, Westmoreland was a victim of his own deceitfulness.

All through the preceding year of 1967, Westmoreland told the American people the war in Vietnam was being won. At press conferences and interviews, he produced reams of documentation to prove that the John Olson Vietnamese liberation run.

Using the grisly statistics of "body counts," Westmoreland stated that he could see the "light at the end of the tunnel" with regard to an eventual American pull-out. What Westmoreland didn't realize was that the "light at the end of the tunnel" was, in fact, a freight train headed his way.

As a spokesperson for Democratic Party President Lyndon Johnson and a brassplated mouthpiece for the bipartisan effort to continue the war, Westmoreland's goal was simple. He had to convince an increasingly war-weary American public that the war was "winnable." Constantly looking back over their shoulders, the Democratic and Republican parties could feel the hot breath of a continually growing antiwar movement on their necks.

Antiwar movement strengthened

The Tet offensive had a devastating impact on American public opinion. On the eve of Tet a large plurality-even a slim majority—of the American people still supported the Vietnam War. But this relationship of forces never existed again after Tet.

Every night during February and March Union (IDATU). The rally was chaired by Ann Conway of People's Democracy, the Irish section of the Fourth International, whose home was hit in the November raids. The platform included numerous prominent 1968, millions of Americans watched as the evening TV news flashed bloody images of savage fighting in the streets of Saigon, Hue, and other cities that were supposed to be immune from attack. Over 4000 American GIs died and thousands more were wounded in the fighting.

The American people realized they had been deceived all along by President Johnson, Westmoreland, and the government in general. An "enemy" that was on the verge of defeat could never pull off the kind of country-wide offensive that the liberation forces did.

A crushed, demoralized, and isolated "enemy" could never have coordinated such audacious and sophisticated attacks—many of which were dependent on secrecy and infiltration into the cities—if they didn't already enjoy the support and collaboration of the vast majority of the Vietnamese workers and peasants.

As American casualties mounted in those first bloody months of 1968, it became clear that the Vietnamese liberation fighters weren't going to lie down and die. It was obvious they would make any sacrifice to win the right to self-determination and liberation from foreign domination.

Furthermore, the images of American firepower destroying whole cities and killing thousands of innocent civilians, convinced the majority of the American public that the U.S. government was conducting an unjust, immoral, and criminal war against the Vietnamese people. Many American working people asked themselves: Do I want my son or daughter to die in a war to protect somebody else's profits and privileges?

After the Tet offensive, newspaper polls gave unimpeachable evidence that the majority of the American people were now against the U.S. war in Vietnam. The antiwar movement grew by leaps and bounds. The movement's slogans of "Bring the Troops Home" and "U.S. Out Now!" galvanized increasing millions of Americans to demonstrate in the streets. It was the warmakers who were now in the minority.

Proof of this came on March 31, 1968, when President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection in the upcoming presidential election. He didn't want to face an organized, mobilized, and outraged American public wherever he campaigned. I political activists.

This meeting marked an important step forward in organizing a fightback against the ever-increasing level of repression.

Alexei Folger, Boston, Mass.