Tet Offensive
- Date
- 30 January 1968
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Southeast Asia (Vietnam)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 30 to 31 January 1968, during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, North Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong launched a coordinated surprise assault on more than 100 cities, towns, and military installations across South Vietnam, including a raid on the US embassy in Saigon and a prolonged battle for Hue.
Militarily the offensive was costly for the communist forces, who suffered heavy losses and failed to spark the general uprising they had hoped for. Politically and psychologically, however, it was a decisive turning point: the scale of the attacks contradicted official US claims that victory was near, shocked the American public, and eroded support for the war. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced on 31 March 1968 that he would not seek re-election and moved toward negotiations. The offensive shifted US strategy from seeking outright victory to seeking a negotiated exit, accelerating the eventual American withdrawal from Vietnam.
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Empires active in 30 January 1968
- Soviet Union1922 CE to 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE to 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE to 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE to 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE to 1974 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE to 1975 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Fall of Saigon and reunification of Vietnam30 April 1975 (reunified 1976)
- Gulf of Tonkin incident and American escalation in VietnamAugust 1964 to March 1965
- Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Accords1954
- First Indochina War and the fall of Dien Bien Phu1946 to 1954
- Cuban Missile Crisis16 to 28 October 1962
- Khmer Rouge Seize Cambodia and Declare Year Zero1975
Essential reading
- Apollo 11 Moon landing20 July 1969 (mission 16 to 24 July 1969)
- Soweto Uprising Galvanises Anti-Apartheid Struggle1976
- Containerisation begins: SS Ideal X first container voyage26 April 1956
- Castle Bravo Test and the Nuclearisation of the Pacific1 March 1954
Further reading
The wider story
A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads
Authoritative yet readable history of the whole region, mainland and maritime.
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