During the Vietnam War, on January 30, 1968, communist North Vietnamese troops, with assistance from the Viet Cong, began a series of attacks against southern forces and the United States, known as the famous “Tet Offensive”. The name “Tet Offensive” comes from the most important holiday in the Vietnamese calendar. It is a celebration of the Lunar New Year. General Vo Nguyen Giap, together with the northern forces, decided to attack on this day because it is supposed to be a “period of truce” between the north and the south. The ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) was on its lowest alert level that day. (Dunn, 2005) The offensive consisted of three phases. The first phase took place on January 31st and lasted until March 28th. During this phase, North Vietnamese forces wanted to lure Allied forces out of cities and densely populated plains and then launch attacks against those cities. (Staff, 2014) This was a big surprise. The second phase, also called “mini-tet”, took place on May 5th and lasted until June 15th. This phase consisted of massive attacks on villages and towns with the aim of hitting 119 targets. (Staff, 2014) This phase was a complete failure. The last and final phase of the offensive ran from August 17 to September 23. This attack consisted of multiple attacks on villages and towns and was handled only by North Vietnamese soldiers, without help from the Viet Cong, ending in another failure. (Staff, 2014) The Tet Offensive was a highly publicized attack with the daily media coverage it received. It was also considered one of the turning points of the Vietnam War. After failed attacks by Northern forces, the Viet Cong were ruined as a military force. (Dunn, 2005)Vo Nguyen Giap uses...... middle of paper......board that an attack was coming, but if we had had more information in the North, then perhaps we would have been better prepared. The offensive seemed to indicate to most observers that the three years of “large-unit warfare” that followed the deployment of U.S. forces in 1965 had produced only a steady stream of casualties on all sides. (Wirtz, 1991) Some of the lessons learned from the Tet Offensive include: “If the enemy has quantity and quality, do not attack,” “superior firepower almost always trumps ideological commitment,” “Guerrillas rarely win battles programmed against well-armed regulars with access to unlimited supplies of ammunition” and “do not assume that civilians will embrace a revolution forced upon them at gunpoint.” (Dudley, 2001) The Tet Offensive quelled the crusading spirit that characterized America's postwar rush to intervene in Third World conflicts. (Wirtz, 1991)