Why Is The Tet Offensive Important

Tet" is the celebration of the Lunar New Year (15 Feb) and is the most important day in the Vietnamese calendar. It had also been the day of informal truce between the North and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive marked as an important turnover in the War, and was the beginning of a slow, painful American withdrawal from the region. The result of this Offensive put America in jeopardy back at home both politically and socially, affecting the outcome of the rest of the War.
Firstly, the Tet Offensive showed a change of presidency in America, and an increase in the discredit for the military officials and their continuous participation in this “unjust war” by the public. President Lyndon Baines Johnson ignored all requests of an immediate U.S withdrawal from the Vietnam War and after having being caught by surprise by the Tet Offensive, he came under fire from all sides on his Vietnam policy of escalation. General Westmoreland requested 200 000 more troops to continue putting pressure on the communists, but was quickly met with a national uproar shortly afterwards, forcing Johnson to recall Westmoreland back to Washington. In the aftermath of the Offensive, in the same
The US government had reassured the public that the war was in the process of being won, leading up to the Tet Offensive. They also promised the public that the enemy were to fall apart, but the Tet Offensive showed otherwise. The precision of the coordination Of the Offensive showed that they were not going to fall anytime soon. As said by General William Westmoreland, “I was aware of the potency of public opinion- and I worried about it,” after having seen the Tet offensive in action. The continuous deceit and mistrust between the U.S government and society quickly lead to the dramatic decrease in public support for the war and the government's involvement in