How did the Tet Offensive affect the american polotics, society, and the course of vietnam?

Question

for a CBA in world history

Answer 1

Very briefly, it showed that the US media had been lying about alleged US successes in Vietnam, since the TV at the time showed that the US Embassy in Saigon itself had been attacked and its personnel injured, some severely, while the military claimed victory.

Poor Lyndon Johnson, who ALWAYS opposed that fool JFK's intervention in Vietnam, being left to sort out the mess. He died a sad and very disillusioned man.

Answer 2

As much as people love to blather on about how the American people were being lied to about Vietnam, it simply wasn't the case regarding the Tet Offensive.

Yes, the media and the military and the government were all saying that they were winning the war. And yes, the strength of the Tet Offensive proved them all wrong. But not because they were lying, instead because they were all mistaken. There is a big difference between misleading people and being surprised.

The North Vietnamese army had been showing itself on the battlefield less and less, leading the US to believe their war effort was winding down. But instead they had been stockpiling and building up for a large offensive. These things happen in war, you don't always, if ever, know what your enemy is up to.

Since the American people were already so disillusioned with the war and the government, the Tet Offensive was just lumped in with the lies and seen as proof positive that the war was not winnable. It added significant momentum to the anti-war movement.

It is important to note that despite the surprise the North Vietnamese achieved, they really gained nothing. The US Army for all it's flaws in those days still beat them back fairly handily.

Answer 3

The Tet Offensive was a watershed and wakeup call. All Ameriacan reports suggested that the supply lines for the Viet Cong were being cut off and that Seigon was stable, next thing you know the VC were at the gates of the American Embassy.

Imagine what would happen to the Bush Administration if Bagdad went completely out of control right in the face of the so-called Serge and terrorist could be seen storming diplomatic headquarters! The Americans finally did stablize Seigon, and the VC did suffer the heavier losses, but Americans began to realize that South Viet Nam came at a price the people were not willing to pay.

LBJ under the misguidence of Westmoreland instituted a ploicy of Bombing Hanoi under the the belief that he could bully Ho Chi Mein to the negotiation table, a typical Amerian misread of Clausewitz's notion of negotiating from a position of strenght.

It failed the acheive the desired effect and became the cat call. Hey, Hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today. With that the man who otherwise was well on his way to becomming the landmark domestic president of all times fell from grace and declined re-election!

Answer 4

The Tet Offensive was the turning point of Vietnam, when the majority of the American people realized what the military had known even 3 years earlier, that the Vietnam War could not be won. In 1964, Barry Goldwater ran against the Vietnam War while LBJ supported it, but LBJ lied that Goldwater wanted War in Vietnam and Race Riots, which were the legacy of LBJ's incompetent presidency (LBJ was much like the moron currently in the White House).

After the Tet Offensive, the Hippie movement begun. 1968 saw American society collapsing (the Soviet Communists used the Hippies, most of whom were Communists themselves, as propaganda, but it would backfire on them because their people saw that Americans had all the things they wanted). RFK (who had flip-flopped on the war, much like Hillary Clinton today) and Martin Luther King were both shot. The country started demanding an end to Vietnam (just like 70% of the country wants out of Iraq today). Richard Nixon (the Rudy Giuliani of that era) was elected president because he lied that he had a secret plan to end the War (he actually had a secret plan to stay the course). Riots occurred on college campuses, which had become far more crowded thanks to the GI Bill, Civil Rights Act, and the ability to avoid the Draft during the Vietnam War. College faculties were taken over by the far-left.

Despite the huge influence of the Hippies, they have never actually controlled the White House because many of them moved to Canada, moving previously conservative Canada to the left of America.

The whole mess in Vietnam should have been avoided from the start and things were worsened because of the same "Stay the Course" nonsense that Bush is spewing these days. LBJ and Nixon used the exact same crap to prolong the War.

Vietnam was prolonged because the anti-war Congressmen didn't have the guts to cut off funding and end the War immediately. Last week, the anti-war Congressmen failed to stop the Iraq War because 59 Democrats joined the warmongering Republicans in voting down a bill to pull out the troops immediately. Then they turned around and passed the same funding bill that had been vetoed because it had a "timetable."

The Congress today hasn't learned its lessons from Vietnam.

Answer 5

What it showed, contrary to the previous answer is that the Military was and had been lying to the American public for more than 4 years. The extent to which the military went to keep losses in Vietnam from becoming known to the public was astounding, up to and including having members of the media murdered for attempting to get out photos and news reports to the public.

And don't believe that Lyndon Johnson was "poor little innocent" president. Lyndon Johnson repeatedly lied to and supported the lies of the military to the american people. The Gulf Of Tonkin was wholly Lyndon Johnson's invention.

If you want real history look up Senator Wayne Morse opposition to the war. He was a hawk until he found out the lies that Johnson had been telling. The voters in Oregon admired the truth that Sen. Morse told them and re-elected him as a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent.

The truth is out there for all to see and read about.
thank you for trying to find out the truth about Vietnam. It was the single most shameful episode in American political and military life up until the invasion of a foreign sovereign nation by the United States; into Iraq simply because Bush 2 wanted to "avenge" the lack of Bush 1's leadership and to murder Saddam Hussein. (who, if the citizens of Iraq wanted him murdered, why didn't they have the balls to do it themselves!) but that is another story.