The Tet Offensive
Forty years ago today, some 80,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops began attacks all over Vietnam, which collectively became known as the Tet Offensive. It was the largest military operation to date by either side in the war, and it is widely blamed for finally turning the majority of the American public against the Vietnam War. Tet led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara on Feb. 28, 1968, Sen. Eugene McCarthy's strong second-place showing in the March 13 New Hampshire primary, and the subsequent decision by President Lyndon B. Johnson on March 31 both to end the bombing of North Vietnam and not to seek another term in office.
America suffered 6,328 troops killed in action, 20,663 wounded, and 1,185 missing during the Tet Offensive, which had three phases and continued until Sept. 23, 1968. In the week of Feb. 18, 543 were killed and 2,547 wounded, the all-time high for the war. My hometown of Holland, Michigan, had five draftees killed in action; I don't know how many were wounded. David Buursma, who I didn't know, was the first, on Feb. 9, and Scott Freestone, whose sister Nola was in my 9th grade class, was the second on Feb. 15. His death was announced in homeroom. David Arizmendez died on May 29, Robert Westrate on June 7, and Terry Meyer, whose cousin was my good friend Randy Meyer, on Aug. 13. He was buried in Graafschap Cemetery up the road from my house, and I heard the salute fired.
The communists suffered an estimated 75,000 to 80,000 killed, nearly their entire attacking force, although the exact number will never be known. It was, in fact, a crushing military defeat for the North, but a political victory. The American public had been led by Johnson and McNamara to believe there was "light was at the end of the tunnel," i.e., victory was near, and became disillusioned after seeing the enemy could still mount a major offensive and inflict large losses on the U.S. Army. You can imagine how the public reacted when the Defense Department announced a new draft call of 48,000 young men on Feb. 23, 1968.
The American press, especially CBS News, is often blamed for the communist political victory, but journalists get far too much blame/credit. Anyone with half a brain could see what was happening. When Viet Cong suicide squads could invade the U.S. embassy in Saigon, the logical assumption was that something was terribly wrong.
I've been wondering if something similar will happen in Iraq this year, during another Presidential election. Iraq isn't the same kind of war; for one thing, it has no jungles in which enemy forces can conceal their movements. So perhaps we will escape a repeat of Tet. 1968 was a horrible year--I haven't even touched on the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, or the anti-war turmoil in the streets of Chicago. Let's hope 2008 isn't a repeat.