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On the Vietnamese New Year, Tet, North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers catch the U.S. military off guard when they attack key cities and regions in South Vietnam including Saigon, its capital. Although American troops recapture the territories within days and it is not an enduring military success for Vietnamese Revolutionary Forces, the Tet Offensive did succeed in definitively rupturing the fragile optimism regarding the war’s progress held by public opinion and the military-political establishment in the United States. |
| Color photograph of U.S. soldier in "the bush" in Vietnam. 1968. Courtesy of M. Breen. |
| General William Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. military operations in Vietnam, can no longer put a positive spin on the U.S. military prospects in Vietnam. |  |
| Color photograph of Gen. Westmoreland in Vietnam. 1960s. Courtesy of J. Surak. |
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After an initial surge in support of the U.S. war effort during and immediately after the Tet Offensive, Gallup polls taken between February and March 1968 reported a drop in "hawks", or supporters of the war, from 60% to 41%, and a corresponding leap in "doves" from 24% to 42%. For the first time, a sizable percentage of Americans, as well as elements of the mass media, have begun to conclude that the war is unwinnable. |
| b/w photograph of peaceful protestors, 1968. NYU Archives Photo Collection. |