What was the impact of the 1968 Tet Offensive?

Question

What was the impact of the 1968 Tet Offensive?

Answer 1

      I was into my second year in 'Nam, in the North with the Hmong. The fifth, I believe, North Vietnamese regulars had got around us, a small contingent of Rangers, without knowing it, they come down during a peace offering for their religion and holiday so, we were at rest also, thinking for once we can relax.

      We were hit at night on all fronts, many men kia or wounded.

Answer 2

It showed America that the war was unwinable and the world that a small band of insugents could hold a major superpower hostage as long as it wanted to. When Walter Chronkite got on the CBS Evening News and said we're fighting a war we can't win, a lot of people on the fence jumped at the chance to protest against it.  That led to Lyndon Johnson's speech on March 30, 1968 when he announced he "would not seek and would not accept the nomination" of the democratic party.  That's when Bobby Kennedy put his hat in the ring, which led to his assassination in June of that year. Nixon's election that year can be directly attributed to the Kennedy assassination and the riots that occurred on TV every night for a week during the Democratic National Convention. Nixon's election meant the US would continue fighting in Vietnam for the next 6 years.  Kennedy probably would have ended our involvement in a year or two.  That led to an additional 30,000 US troops being killed in action.  That led to the anithero mentality of US citizens towards the soldiers when they returned from Vietnam.  That led to a lot of those soldiers becoming drug addicts and homeless.  It simply never ends.

Answer 3

"Tet was the threshold in the war's development, a major turning point guaranteeing that the Revolution would not be defeated.

After Tet the Americans now knew the DRV could protract the war indefinitely, that they could not rely on the RVNAF, and that all of the strategies it had or could attempt were failing.

Tet caused the media to become more skeptical of official reports on the war, but they never became critical of the politics that led to the intervention in the first place.

For the United States, Tet was along postponed confrontation with reality; it had been hypnotized until then by its own illusions, desires,and needs."

Answer 4

We won the battle and lost the war.  The Viet Cong, was hurt, and near exhaustion.  Still, the feelings, because of the battle deaths on America's side, sent support into a tailspin.  The North Vietnamese and the cong used that to regroup.