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On January 30, 1968 (the day of the Vietnamese lunar new year named Tet), nineteen NLF sappers forced their way into the U.S. embassy where they held their position for six hours until they were finally overwhelmed and all killed or severely wounded. At the same time some 80,000 NLF guerrillas assaulted the major South Vietnamese cities and towns including an airport, the presidential palace and the headquarters of South Vietnam's general staff in Saigon. The Tet Offensive referred to Hanoi's decision in mid-1967 to employ a different strategy in view of its enormous casualty rate, the restriction of guerrilla warfare owing to the influx of refugees into the cities and the devastation dealt out through the air war. The new strategy conducted by General Giap consisted of diversionary attacks in remote areas to lure American troops away from the population centres which afterwards would be the objective of guerrilla assaults. The surprise attacks were preceded by the siege of a base of marine infantrymen at Khe Sanh by two North Vietnamese divisions on January 21. To avoid a repetition of Dien Bien Phu Westmoreland concentrated about 50,000 troops to defend the garrison and B-52s carried out the most densely applied bombardments in history. Despite preoccupation with Khe Sanh and Tet traditionally being observed a time of cease-fire the ARVN in conjunction with American forces was able to hold off the initial attacks (with the exception of Hue which was held for several weeks). The NLF was all over heavily decimated, in all it sustained 33,000 casualties. Moreover, the Tet campaign created one million new refugees. From 1968 on, the majority of the insurgents in South Vietnam were actually North Vietnamese soldiers who had infiltrated into the south.
The plan of the North Vietnamese and the NLF to arouse a general uprising had failed and thus the offensive represented a military defeat for them but it had an enormous impact on public opinion in America. From many people's and politicians' point of view the war was going to lead to an open-ended commitment. The Tet attacks and following requests for additional 200,000 troops contradicted the previous optimistic pronouncements. Consequently the reporting of the media shifted to a more critical position. Already by 1967, at a time when Americans were questioning their value and institutions, Vietnam turned out to be the most divisive war ever, disuniting the people between the extremes of "hawks" and "doves". Criticism ranged from reproaches for inefficiency to immorality of the war and the ones in Washington that were pulling the strings. The use of weapons such as cluster bombs, herbicides and napalm, the killing of an estimated 1,000 non-combatants per week, the fact that the U.S. was supporting a corrupt and authoritarian government in South Vietnam, the apparent irrelevancy of Vietnam to the security of the U.S. and the increasing financial burden raised anti-war sentiment. It expressed itself in peace marches, demonstrations and thousands of draftees trying to evade the draft by fleeing to Canada or applying other methods. After permanent unsuccessfulness Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara themselves appeared to be disillusioned. Nevertheless the President was unwilling to abandon his original goals and to accept defeat. In Vietnam, tensions grew between American and South Vietnamese troops because of differences of culture and mutual incomprehension. In March of 1968, an American company under the command of Lieutenant William Calley committed the massacre of My Lai by murdering the small hamlet's 500 inhabitants, including women and children.
On March 31 Johnson announced in a televised address that the bombing north of the 20th parallel would be stopped and that he would not seek re-election for another term as president. By that Johnson initiated a process of de-escalation on both sides. The United States and the DRV agreed to begin preliminary peace talks in Paris, and in October Johnson ordered a total bombing halt. Already before, General Creighton Abrams had replaced Westmoreland in commanding the U.S. ground forces in South Vietnam.
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