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How Did The Tet Offensive Influence The Vietnam War

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To what extent did the Tet Offensive influence the view of the Vietnam War in the United States? Keman Le

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The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was both a lengthy and costly war that spanned nearly 20 years, a conflict between the communist forces and government of North Vietnam, and the government of South Vietnam with the United States as their main ally. Both the North and South sides of Vietnam had the goal of a unified Vietnam, though the ideals of both were what separated the two. North Vietnam, under the command of Ho Chi Minh, hoped to follow a similar communist system to that of other countries such as the Republic of China, and the Soviet Union. On the other hand, South Vietnam, …show more content…

As technology began to develop, televisions, video cameras, and audio recorders would begin to spread due to decreasing costs, in turn increasing the spread of the details regarding the Vietnam War across America. With this rise in technology prevalence in the lives of people, also came the challenge for the government to attempt to censor what was put on media was extremely difficult, and as a result of a lack of proper control, uncensored footage and pictures of the war would be presented to the public. The brutality and harsh reality of the war, being seen directly, as opposed to simply hearing of it, would change the view of the war as a whole. Due to the widespread influence that the media had, and the fact that "there were so many media members in country … the chances of keeping anything secret or off limits was virtually impossible." Presenting the Tet Offensive, much of the negatives of the war were revealed, where much focus was on the mistakes and failures of the United States, as opposed to the victories and factors that they had succeeded in, such as the military victory for the Tet Offensive. False information and images shown would create a further negative belief about the war, such as an image of the Viet Cong overrunning five floors of the U.S. embassy, when in reality, they had not infiltrated the building itself. A New York Times newspaper article, published the following day after the beginning of the Tet Offensive, portrayed three military men with rifles seeking for protection near the US embassy, in addition to two American soldiers that had been slain. The media, being extremely influential, portrayed the events of the Tet Offensive as being horrific, terrible, a particular event that appeared to be public of the United States that they should not be involved with.

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