The Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive In Vietnam

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The war was a very costly fight and in the 60s, we had almost 500,000 men in Vietnam at the time (history.com). The war began when America thought that communism was spreading throughout Asia. The cold war was going on, and America did not want to take any chance of communism spreading. The war was not only was the longest fought by America, but it also gave a glimpse to the American people. It was the first war ever where they had footage of the battlefield and the war was often documented on television. The war began when the Americans began giving money to France to eliminate communist threats in europe and asia. They then sent over soldiers to protect Indochina from these threats. During this, president Eisenhower was sending money over to South …show more content…

This plan was to Bomb North korea and increase the number of ground troops. This is when the all out war started in Vietnam. After Johnson tried making amends with the leaders of Vietnam, nothing happened and almost 700,000 men were in the country. Johnson and the leaders of the United States army came up with a plan. This plan is considered by many historians to be the turning point in the war. It is called the Tet Offensive. The army would strike every large city in Vietnam on their holiday, called Tet. Although it was only a month of fighting, North Vietnam showed the Americas how big an advantage they had by being in there own land and the war was not close to ending. Nixon got elected however and tried to make amends another time. It seemed to work, but people thought the US was cheating it. After Nixon bombed Cambodia, Anti war movements began to show up all around the country and some even became violent. When historians look back, they say the media played a big part in why these rallies were taking place. Americans were very passionate about war after World War 2, but after they saw what could really happen to soldiers, they started to change their mind and