The Tet Offensive and Protests
What is the Tet Offensive? |
During the Buddhist holiday of Tet, more than 80,000 Viet Comp. troops poured over from from the forest and their tunnels into key metropolitan centers in South Vietnam. The holiday itself was meant to be a day of peace but instead, the Viet Comp. took advantage of it. They attacked places such as an American Embassy in Saigon as well as an American built army base in Danang.
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The Doves and the Hawks |
When America started bombing Vietnam with Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965, a small percentage of 15% of the American public opposed the war effort. However, only about 28% of the American public labeled themselves as "doves", or the people who promoted peace before the Tet offensive. Afterwards, the doves outnumbered the hawks (or offensively driven war generals) by 41-42% which is the great majority. However, Johnson kept promising the public that the end of the war was near which became a blatant lie after the Tet offensive.
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U.S. Troops |
As the war continued on, the American public started to get less and less hopeful for a quick victory, but as the hope declined, the morals of the U.S. troops in Vietnam declined. Eventually, the troops turned to drugs and alcohol to make the horrors they experienced more bearable. Some even resorted to fragging which involved the murdering of U.S. officers by their own troops. By the time General Westmoreland requested 200,000 troops, Johnson declined, some of the reasons having to do with the public disapproval of the war itself. The Viet Comp. felt the loss of hope from the U.S. side and they knew that the longer the war went on, the larger the anti-war campaigns would grow, giving them an advantage. However, the war went on for another five years, decreasing the number of hawks to nearly zero.
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