Why was the Tet Offensive a turning point?

Why was the Tet Offensive the turning point of the Vietnam conflict?

• Answer:

  The public back in the states perceived that the war was going bad and could not be won. They were of course wrong in one way and right in another. Wrong in the sense that the men fighting the VC and NVA were winning the battles, but America had too many restrictions or rules of engagement that prevented a military victory. They were right in the sense that this was exactly what the North Vietnamese wanted the American public to perceive by this offensive (that took military intelligence by surprise). The sad thing is the loss of American lives and South Vietnamese lives in a long drawn out war that could have been prevented years before. That would require you to be a good student of the history.