The Importance of the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

"Fifty years on, what should we make of Tet? What perspective can we can gain from studying one of the most consequential moments of the entire American war in Vietnam? While most critics, especially military officers, tended to paint the Tet offensive as a military victory turned political defeat, it seems more useful to consider this chapter of the war as a strategic tutorial on flawed assumptions among American and North Vietnamese leaders and commanders. At its core, the 1968 Tet offensive, from all sides, remains a profound case study on misplaced expectations about how war unfolds and what it promises."

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This article was originally published in War on the Rocks in January 2018.

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War on the Rocks

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