ABSTRACT
The Tet Offensive, in Vietnamese commonly called Tet Mau Than (Tet, year of the Monkey), was the largest and most important military campaign of the American Vietnam War, and it also changed the course of that war. Tet constituted a major turning point in the Vietnam War. In the wake of Tet, Americans realized that the United States had involved itself in a stalemated war in Southeast Asia. The Saigon component of Tet Mau Than amounted to a major tactical defeat for the Communists. The opening act of Tet Mau Than occurred at Khe Sanh, located in a remote corner of the Quang Tri province, 60 miles northwest of Hue. The scope, scale, and intensity of the Tet-68 Offensive shocked most Americans, who had been told by President Johnson, General Westmoreland, and Ambassador Bunker that the VietCong were about finished.
