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The Viet Cong recognised that they had good conditions to win this war because of the weakness of the enemy troops. They finally decided to launch a major communist offensive to bring the war to an end for their advance. The general offensive would begin on 30 January 1968, the beginning of the three day Vietnamese lunar new year holiday, which is simply known as Tet. In the past years both sides had suspended most of their operations during that period and General Giap was sure to surprise the other troop. About one hundred thousand soldiers would carry out the famous Tet Offensive. Under Giap\'s plan may places in South Vietnam were to be attacked including the ROV headquarters in Saigon, the US embassy, radio stations, airfields and other sensitive points. But the most important place to be attacked was the old imperial capital Hue. Due to its great symbolical importance to all Vietnamese the capture would have a profound psychological effect.
Allied intelligence detected hints that preparations for such an offensive were running, but in the meantime Giap had prepared a second military action to distract American troops from the areas in South Vietnam. Just past midnight on 21 January 1968 the battle of Khe Sanh commenced as the Viet Cong launched heavy attacks on an US Marines base. The blast swept away tents, small buildings, radio antennas and other equipment. The battle lasted for some days until the VC gave up to concentrate on the Tet Offensive. Giap had to delay its beginning until 31 January when his troops launched this operation with full force. Within the first two days the communists attacked more than forty province capitals. The American forces had been baiting for a long time to engage the VC fighting in an open battle rather than a guerrilla war where they could not see the enemies. The Americans immediately counterattacked with massive firepower. They shelled heavy populated cities and could harm the Viet Cong. But in these operations many civilians were also killed. The Tet Offensive marked the crucial turning point in the whole Vietnam War. Approximately 32000 Viet Cong were killed in opposite to only 1000 American causalities. In three weeks more than 130000 civilians had to die and two million became refugees. Many cities were just eradicated by the Air Force in order to \"save\" them. The VC could hold the cities for only some days except Hue (25 days). The surviving escaped into the jungle. The well prepared Tet offensive had turned into a real disaster for them.
Although this victory was a great success the Vietnam War public tolerance became less and less while billion of dollars were burnt somewhere in a war in Asia, nobody except the government was interested in. But there were also different opinions in the Congress and so President Johnson told the public in a TV speech that he wanted to seek a negotiated peace with North Vietnam. The military actions should be totally stopped except those in the DMZ, which were vital for the ROV. After three days Hanoi agreed to receive American delegations to talk about peace. The war seemed to come to an end.
It took week to gather both sides in the same room because they all refused to talk with each other due to disparities but after some month the whole thing was aborted. American soldiers were still fighting against the troops of North Vietnam, who launched other attacks after the Tet disaster.
In the election year 1968 the United States were torn by several conflicts for example the assassination Martin Luther King JR. or riots organised by the still suppressed blacks. At these demonstrations hundreds of people were killed and thousands heavily injured. More than fifty thousand federal troops were installed to take control over the rioting. The Republican Richard M. Nixon won the elections (43,7 % of the votes). And when he took office in January 1969 he was dedicated to bring the war in Vietnam to an end as soon as possible without a further dividing of the nation.
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