Tet 1968: An Inflection Point in America’s Vietnam Strategy
How the surprise offensive exposed the limits of U.S. ground strategy in achieving political war aims
MRR note: We are grateful for your support in the growth of MRR over the past 18 months and look forward to the road ahead, just as we did when we first stepped off. Along the way, we have accumulated a full magazine of posts, and we believe many of our earlier pieces deserve another look by our now much-expanded audience, as well as for the timeless strategic and leadership lessons each offers. With that in mind, on Thursdays we intend to re-issue selected past posts, in addition to our twice-weekly new content.
This week, we look back at the Vietnam War and the pivotal year of 1968. On the heels of the Tet Offensive, launched 58 years ago on January 30, the multi-pronged, simultaneous assault by North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong guerrilla forces caught U.S. and South Vietnamese forces by surprise, igniting intense combat over the weeks that followed. At the same time, it precipitated a rethinking of U.S. war strategy. The ripples from 1968 remain in the calculus of U.S. national security and defense decision-making in the decades since—from DESERT STORM, through Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom to the present day. We invite you to dive into 1968, the books that tell the story, and the explore the lessons that emerged.
