Question

How did the Tet Offensive damage American morale?

Answer 1

Hint: A significant escalation and one of the main military operations of the Vietnam War was the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive, an assault carried out during the Vietnam War by North Vietnamese forces, began in the early hours of 31 January 1968. The offensive takes its name from the New Year holiday in Vietnam, during which the attacks occurred.

Complete answer: When the Tet offensive was launched. They were telling the American public they were winning the fight. The battle, however, was opposed by more and more Americans. In turning the American public against the war, Tet was to prove fundamental. Thus started the Tet Offensive, in which, in the first 24 hours alone, thousands of communist-backed Viet Cong fighters carried out a series of massive assaults on large towns, provincial hamlets and regional capitals throughout U.S.-backed South Vietnam. They launched fierce attacks on strategic targets, in addition to the bloody fighting in the Embassy courtyard. More waves of the offensive followed in subsequent days. The administration had become alarmed by criticism, both inside and outside the government, and by reports of decreasing public support for its Vietnam policies during the second half of 1967. The number of Americans who felt that the U.S. had made a mistake by sending troops to Vietnam rose from 25% to 45%, according to public opinion surveys. Despite the warnings, as the North Vietnamese offensive started in the early morning hours, this pattern was fuelled not by a conviction that the battle was not worthwhile, but by mounting casualty figures, rising taxes, and the feeling that there was no end to the fighting.

Note: It was bigger and more effective than U.S. intelligence had predicted. U.S. and South Vietnamese officials reported that a resounding military defeat had been sustained by the communists, and this was the case.