Key Facts
- Launch date
- 30–31 January 1968
- PAVN/VC troops deployed
- 77,000
- Towns and cities struck
- More than 100
- Provincial capitals attacked
- 36 of 44
- Duration (intense combat)
- 21 weeks after initial attacks
Strategic Narrative Overview
The offensive began prematurely on 30 January 1968 in the I and II Corps zones, alerting allied forces. The main assault followed on 31 January, with 77,000 PAVN/VC troops striking over 100 towns and cities simultaneously. Fighting was especially fierce at Huế, where a month-long battle devastated the city and PAVN/VC forces carried out mass executions. Combat around Khe Sanh continued for two additional months. A follow-on 'Mini-Tet' offensive came in May, with a Phase III offensive in August.
01 / The Origins
By late 1967, North Vietnam's Politburo under Lê Duẩn concluded that a massive, coordinated assault on South Vietnamese urban centers could destabilize the Saigon government, trigger popular uprisings, and cause Army of the Republic of Vietnam defections. The offensive was timed to coincide with the Lunar New Year holiday (Tết), when most ARVN personnel were on leave, and was intended to force a decisive political and military turning point in the war.
03 / The Outcome
Allied forces regrouped and repelled the attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on PAVN/VC. No popular uprising materialized and no ARVN units defected. Despite the military defeat, the offensive profoundly damaged American public support for the war, shocked the Johnson administration, and prompted moves toward peace negotiations. Richard Nixon covertly encouraged South Vietnam to obstruct those negotiations ahead of the 1968 presidential election.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Lê Duẩn.
Side B
3 belligerents
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.