The Tet Offensive In The Vietnam War

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The Tet Offensive, took place from the spring of 1967 to the early beginning of 1968. It was launched at that time by the Viet Cong and had caused a significant escalation in the intensity of the Vietnamese War. There are many different viewpoints relating to the Tet Offensive about its aims and origins, which is mainly due to the absence of official documents that support these aims. Although the Tet Offensive was one of the significant tactical successes for the United States and the South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese, it caused loss of many lives and brought a massive political loss during the war as it had intensified the protest movement which initiated a turning point against the US involvement in the Vietnam War. The Tet…show more content…
The US had provided political, economic and military support to the government of South Vietnam, while the North Vietnamese forces had gained strength from the support of the President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The communist forces had attacked cities throughout South Vietnam and American military bases, but the South Vietnamese and Americans forces had resisted the attack. Many historians regard the Tet offensive a victory for the communist forces and the North Vietnamese and a political defeat for the United States. Some historians classify the war as unwinnable. They suggest that the US was fighting in the wrong place from the beginning as they never had understood the Vietnamese as a nation or their country. But this concept is hence challenged by other historians, as orthodox historians generally accept that the US intervention was morally justifiable in the struggle against the communists. The author of the textbook Whitewashing War, Leahey published in 2010 by Teachers college Press in New York evaluates other famous history textbooks that describe Tet and present the argument that it was a successful tactical success for the US and South Vietnam. Three American history textbooks, The American Nation, The American Vision, and Pathways…show more content…
The number of deaths can be extremely high and these figures are given by an author who blames the US for the massive loss and it is the same way for other historians who support the US and give high numbers of soldiers deaths simply because they have their own perspective and either support the high number of deaths that had occurred to US soldiers or Vietnamese civilians and forces. In the source written by Richard Falk (1988), he states that the number of losses during the Tet offensive were definitely heavy, although estimates of Communist casualties may have been inflated Western experts accept these figures for the period’. 3895 US soldiers killed, 214 Australian, New Zealand, South Korean, and Thais killed, 4954 Republic of Vietnam killed, and 58,373 forces of the NLF/DRV (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) killed and 14,300 Vietnamese civilians killed. However in the source titled ‘The Tet Offensive: turning point of the Vietnam War’ by Anderson published in 2006 show higher death figures in both the Americans and the Vietnamese. 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers were killed according to American estimates and 30,000 killed after President Johnson had announced that he would begin negotiations for peace on 31st of March.

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