The Tet Offensive Prevention Essay

Submitted By nelson3451
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The Tet Offensive delivered one of the first major signs to the United States general public that the U.S. government was fighting a meaningless war. In the early months of 1968, on the Vietnamese lunar New Year a surprise group of Vietnamese communists from North Vietnam launched a surprise attack. At the time the Viet Cong led away from Saigon with false tip off as to the point of attack, the majority of American soldiers hurried back faster than the NLF had thought. Their estimated 84,000 troops had stormed Saigon and for a brief time a small group help the American embassy. The first casualties suffered in this event where the leaders of the Viet Cong. Without the leaders, the North Vietnamese soldiers were lost and confused. The Americans were not defeated as far as a military stand point, however this attack is ranked very high amongst others as the start of the demise of the United States and the ending of the Vietnam War.
Despite the offensive side of the North Vietnamese troops and the loses they encountered, nothing had changed on their side of the war. It is claimed that it, “merely changed the nature of the stalemate,” and that the Tet offensive was confirming opposition to the war among the United States general public.
The North Vietnamese soldiers were able to take and withhold the inner core of the American power in Saigon, to having the media display the image of the Vietcong on the roof waving the flag of the opposing army is a demoralizing factor to the American public and their viewing. President Lyndon B. Johnson and White House Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, previously had told the United States on several occasions that the military forces in Vietnam had things well under control. This negative kind of image and media brought about the anti war movement from several groups in the United States. They believed the war was a quagmire and need to be abandoned. That we were there for no real cause, and the thought of global communism was a poor excuse for the thousands of soldiers slaughtered through the duration of the Vietnam War. This lack of support from the United States gave a large psychological boost for North Vietnam. Several cases in history countries, nations, and empires try and justify their actions of war anyway they can, whether they are valid or not. While many other issues were taking place in the United States at the time, such as the civil rights movement, the displaying of valid information to the United States of the Vietnam War was almost obsolete.
Several cases, articles, and historical figures agree that the negative domestic political
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