Free Republic

Air University Review, November-December 1978 The Press and the TET Offensive a flawed institution under stress Captain Donald M. Bishop The Tet offensive of 1968 must surely be regarded as one of history's chameleon campaigns. When the North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops assaulted targets throughout the Republic of Vietnam at the end of January 1968, they expected to trigger an uprising of the South Vietnamese people against their government. Despite some spectacular early successes, the attacks failed. The South Vietnamese did not embrace the cause; thousands of sappers, assault troops, and cadres met their deaths before overwhelming allied counterattacks; and...

The left spun the Viet Cong defeat in Tet as a Viet Cong victory -- and lost us a war on the periphery. Now it is all happening again -- Tet II. They portray our emerging victory in Iraq as a defeat -- and risk the West’s very survival in the war on Islamic terror.