How Effective Was the Tet offensive in Making the Us Withdraw from Vietnam?

“How effective was the Tet offensive in making the US withdraw from Vietnam?”

Vietnam is arguably one of the United states biggest military blunders of all time and it caused a seismic wave across the globe, effecting not only the troops but the citizens back home in the states. The failure in Vietnam was amplified by media and news as this was the first ever televised war which meant leaders and reasons were scrutinised more than ever before. This scrutiny opens a lot of questions to what was the actual failure of the war was and who was to blame. The blame is spread across the board when it comes to Vietnam and we can see that there are multiple reasons why failure occurred including, overall military campaign, problems back home and unpopularity with the Vietnamese population.  Another one of these major failures was the Tet offensive where all of Americas main military and political strong points came under a surprise attack from the Viet Cong on the Vietnamese new year’s festival. Many people blame this offensive as the main reason for the US’s withdrawal and that it was a huge military failure that pushed America over the edge.

The Tet offensive took place January 31st 1968, where 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers attacked multiple American bases all over the country. The damage it caused was catastrophic to both sides and although the Communists took on more losses the damage the loss had on the Americans endangered the whole structural integrity of their system and raised many questions. The communist north, which compared to the American south, were underequipped in regards to arms, technology, money and quality of soldiers. So, with all these significant advantages the US had why had the communist could launch a major offensive which caught the Americans completely off guard without any prior knowledge. Additionally, the US had the CIA at their disposal along with multiple other intelligence agencies who had failed to gather any information and didn’t even have the slightest clue of an attack. All these combined came to a head and may well of pushed America over the edge in deciding to leave, simply due to the fact that if they were pumping all this money and development into the war why were things like the Tet offensive being allowed to happen. Furthermore, the Tet offensive outlined the weak military mindset and tactics of the Americans and this surprise attack set off a chain of reactions both back a home with the media and citizens but also in Vietnam,