During the Tet Offensive, the NLF and North Vietnamese attacked the American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
Explanation:
The Tet Offensive was a three-phase attack launched by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong against the American and South Vietnamese forces on January 30, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Â
In 1967 there seemed to be a stalemate in the Southeast Asian war. As a result of the massive US intervention, the forces of North Vietnam had been contained. Supported by their superiority in armor, airplanes, helicopters, and sophisticated weapon systems, American strategists believed that the conflict would be resolved in their favor at some point.
In turn, the North Vietnamese political and military leadership argued that the weak point of the U.S. was its internal front, that is, public opinion. In order to break the deadlock, a meeting was called in Hanoi in July 1967 to set up a strategy to resume the conflict in North Vietnam. The result of this meeting became clear the following year, when, surprisingly, American forces were confronted by the joint action of Viet Cong guerrillas and the Army of North Vietnam.
The offensive should be as wide as possible. At the military level, the South Vietnamese Army (ESV) was expected to collapse when Americans saw their casualties rise sharply in combat, while simultaneously increasing US anti-war opposition.
Shifting ENV forces to the south, and being supported in their offensive by the vietcongs, all provinces would be involved in the combats, including all the cities of South Vietnam, beginning with the capital, Saigon. The final blow would be a general uprising that would demolish the ESV and its North American allies. Â
The attacks were scheduled for late January and included preparations for a series of attacks aimed at removing South Vietnamese garrisons from their bases in medium and large urban centers. Two weeks before the attack, the ENV launched two divisions against Khe Sahn's base, which was sieged for about 11 weeks.
The attack was launched on January 30, and in Saigon alone, there were more than 4,000 Viet Cong, mixed with the urban population. In this, one of the main targets was the US embassy and the landing field of Tan Son Nhut. At the embassy, a group of 15 guerrillas infiltrated after exploding a wall and took six hours to be neutralized.
Except for the fighting in Hue and in Khe Sahn, the fighting ended in about a week, and then began a balance of the offensive. For the governments of South Vietnam and the US, it had been a political victory for the population not to join the attackers - demonstrating the isolation of the Viet Cong. In the military camp, the ESV resistance was also a victory, opening the prospect of a "Vietnamization" of the conflict, with the US withdrawal from the front line of the conflict, which would begin in January 1973.
For the North Vietnamese leadership, the loss of about 79,117 casualties was not dramatic, for most of them belonged to Viet Cong. And if the military outcome was frustrating for them, the impact on American public opinion was enormous, undermining their determination to stay in the conflict. The US government's "political collapse" was so violent that it led General Giap, who had already reconsidered the withdrawal of his forces, to a new and more aggressive planning of his war operations. In addition to the North Vietnamese casualties, we must add the fatal losses of the 7,721 civilians, 1,100 Americans and approximately 2,900 South Vietnamese soldiers. At this point in the conflict was the significant number of 1,500,000 internal refugees under the coordination of the government of South Vietnam.
