ABSTRACT
According to Robert Elegant, the United States won a major military victory during the Tet Offensive and had virtually won the war; yet, the war was ultimately lost because of “skewed reporting” that was “superficial and biased” and depicted the urban battles during Tet as American defeats. Despite several large battles associated with the various phases of Tet Mau Than, during 1968, the American Vietnam War was characterized by hundreds of battalion-sized operations and thousands of actions involving companies and platoons. The deadliest week of the war for the Americans came during Phase One of Tet Mau Than, specifically February 11–17, 1968, during which time 543 US soldiers were killed in action and another 2,547 were wounded. For comparison—during the entirety of the war in Iraq, lasting from March 19, 2003 through November 14, 2011, 4,486 US soldiers were killed and 31, 928 were wounded.
