America WON the Tet Offensive, Then Lost the War

In 1968, America crushed the enemy's biggest offensive of the war, and that victory helped lose the whole thing.

For years, US leaders told the public the war was almost won. The enemy was beaten, they said, and the end was in sight.

Then, during the Tet holiday truce in January 1968, communist forces launched a massive surprise attack on more than a hundred cities and towns at once. They even stormed the US Embassy grounds in Saigon. On the battlefield, it was a disaster for them. The Viet Cong were shattered, taking staggering losses, and failed to spark the uprising they expected.

But Americans watched it unfold on the evening news. If the enemy could attack everywhere at once, how could the war be nearly over? Trust in the government collapsed. That spring, a shaken President Johnson announced he would not run again.

The North lost the battle, and won something far bigger: the American public.

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