Battle INDOPACOM

The Tet Offensive of 1968 was perhaps the key incident in the War for Vietnam. But the debate surrounding the offensive continues: Was it a failed last-gasp effort by the defeated North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies? Or was it part of a larger plan that led to victory for the North Vietnamese and their allies?

In this account of one of the worst intelligence failures in American history, James J. Wirtz explains why U.S. forces were surprised by the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive in 1968. Wirtz reconstructs the turning point of the Vietnam War in unprecedented detail. Drawing upon Vietcong and recently declassified U.S. sources, he is able to trace the strategy and unfolding of the Tet campaign as well as the U.S. response.

Osprey's study of the 1968 Tet Offensive, whichnbsp;was the decisive battle for Vietnam (1955-1975). Masterminded by the brilliant North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, it was intended to trigger a general uprising in South Vietnam. However, the bloody fighting for Saigon, Hue and other cities actually resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the North. In this excellent assessment of the key battle of the Vietnam conflict, James Arnold details the plans and forces involved and explains how, despite the outcome of the battle, the American people and their leaders came to perceive the war for Vietnam as lost.

Willbanks divides his study into six sections, beginning with a historical overview of the events leading up to the offensive, the attack itself, and the consequent battles of Saigon, Hue, and Khe Sahn.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this photographic history of Tet - and of American involvement in the struggle against the forces of the Viet Cong and the regular North Vietnamese army - uses over 180 contemporary images, color and black and white, to show all sides of the conflict and to reassess a defining moment in the protracted and bitter campaign against communism in South-East Asia.

Vietnam, January, 1968. As the citizens of Hue are preparing to celebrate Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year, Nha Ca arrives in the city to attend her father's funeral. Without warning, war erupts all around them, drastically changing or cutting short their lives. After a month of fighting, their beautiful city lies in ruins and thousands of people are dead. Mourning Headband for Hue tells the story of what happened during the fierce North Vietnamese offensive and is an unvarnished and riveting account of war as experienced by ordinary people caught up in the violence.