An Anniversary: The 1968 Tet Offensive

The divisions brought on by the Vietnam War linger today. After losing 58,318 killed and over 153,000 wounded from 1954 to 1975, the U.S. withdrew its forces from Vietnam. The deaths on the Vietnamese side were far more grievous: as many as 2.5 million Vietnamese on both sides of the conflict perished.

Perhaps the major milestone in the war was the Tet Offensive, launched by the North Vietnamese Army and their Viet Cong allies, which began 50 years ago today. The campaign was intended to trigger a general uprising among the people of South Vietnam, and involved some 80,000 NVA and Viet Cong troops attacking multiple towns and cities. The offensive created a shock wave in the U.S., and prompted more widespread questioning of the war's legitimacy and purpose. It was widely seen in the U.S. as a major setback, in that we could not protect South Vietnamese cities and towns from widespread attack. Ironically, the North Vietnamese initially considered the Tet Offensive a failure, having lost over 45,000 troops and not succeeding in launching a general uprising. Looking back at the human costs and the futility of war, both were right.