Click2History - Vietnam - Chapter 8

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>VIETNAM</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 8 - THE TET OFFENSIVE<br> 1966-67</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">If Americans could point to a single event that <a href="http://web.syr.edu/~kjhall/ETS192/lw/lw.htm" target="_blank"><b>turned</b></a> the country <a href="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/vietnam/sea1968.htm" target="_blank"><b>against</b></a> the war in Vietnam it would, undoubtedly, be the <a href="http://www.splorg.org/vietnam/capturedoc.html" target="_blank"><b>Tet Offensive</b></a>. With television transmitting the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/11/" target="_blank"><b>sights</b></a> and <a href="http://www.manchu.org/sounds/attack.ram" target="_blank"><b>sounds</b></a> of war into American living rooms, anyone who looked saw an escalating, damaging conflict. (The link takes you to an actual battle during Tet. You will need Real Audio.)</p> <p>Worse, people saw pictures that enraged them - like the infamous <a href="http://ohioteach.history.ohio-state.edu/images/image1.jpg" target="_blank"><b>execution</b></a> of a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon. They wanted to know: Is this what our boys are dying to protect?</p> <p>What really happened at <a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/images/vietnam.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Hue</b></a>? According to a Vietnamese <a href="http://www.vietquoc.com/0002vq.htm" target="_blank"><b>account</b></a>, a massacre of South Vietnamese people by the North after both sides had agreed to a New Year’s break in the <a href="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/modern_flight/mf44.htm" target="_blank"><b>bombing</b></a> and fighting. But it wasn’t just the citizens of Hue who died. It is estimated that at least 4,000 Americans died in the battle to free Hue.</p><blockquote><ul> <li>A Marine <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2956a.gif" target="_blank"><b>carries</b></a> an injured Vietnamese woman to the hospital during the battle for Hue.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2938a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Resting</b></a> on his tank during the Battle for Hue, a Marine takes a break.</li><br><br> <li>Two <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2944a.gif" target="_blank"><b>battle-weary</b></a> Marines stop fighting for awhile.</li><br><br> <li>For Marines, "<a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2958a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Home</b></a> is where you dig it."</li><br><br> <li>Hue city officials, responsible for identifying victims of the Tet Offensive, <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2902a.gif" target="_blank"><b>arrange</b></a> coffins before the funeral services.</li><br><br> <li>A Hue woman, whose husband had been missing for a year, <a href="http://www.lifemag.com/Life/burrows/c7.html" target="_blank"><b>grieves</b></a> over his remains. He had been buried in a mass grave.</li><br><br> <li>Churches sometimes providing <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2935a.gif" target="_blank"><b>safety</b></a> for fighting Marines.</li><br><br> <li>Not much was left of <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/31/36-3044a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Cholon</b></a>, a suburb of Saigon, when the fighting stopped.</li><br><br> <li>"Field Ordnance! <a href="http://www.manchu.org/sounds/fo-airst.ram" target="_blank"><b>Incoming</b></a>!"</li><br><br> <li>"Would appreciate it if you could <a href="http://www.manchu.org/sounds/contact.ram" target="_blank"><b>shoot it</b></a> now!"</li><br><br> <li>"We’ve got MiGs under...<a href="http://www.manchu.org/sounds/dogfight2.ram" target="_blank"><b>Come on back</b></a> around!"</li><br><br> <li>A Viet Cong base camp in <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/29/36-2869a.gif" target="_blank"><b>flames</b></a>.</li><br></blockquote></ul> <p>Nothing was the same <a href="http://www.vietquoc.com/tet68rev.htm" target="_blank"><b>after Tet</b></a>. As more U.S. men received draft notices, the voices of American protest grew louder. The <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/29/28/29-2707a.gif" target="_blank"><b>President</b></a> (who had once <a href="http://www.hpol.org/lbj/vietnam/" target="_blank"><b>opposed</b></a> American involvement in Vietnam) decided he <a href="http://www.historychannel.com/cgi-bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_148.html" target="_blank"><b>would not</b></a> run for another term of office. (You need Real Audio to hear him make the announcement: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.")</p> <p>Perhaps Tet had also <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/29/28/29-2712a.gif" target="_blank"><b>defeated</b></a> LBJ.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="vietnam_war_ch7.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="vietnam_war_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="vietnam_war_ch9.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>