The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam, or Viet Cong, and the People’s Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army, fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow. The initial attacks stunned allied forces, but most were quickly contained and beaten back, inflicting massive casualties on communist forces. Of the 80,000 enemy fighters who participated in the Tet Offensive, as many as 50,000 were killed.
Context: Although Tet was undeniably a military defeat for Communist forces, they emerged with a decisive psychological victory. The American public, who had been led to believe that the enemy was on the verge of defeat, alleged a “credibility gap” on the part of President Johnson and his military advisors. Support for the war effort, already waning, collapsed.