This document was written by former US Secretary of Defence Clifford Clark
in 1969. The events he describes took place in 1968.
The Tet Offensive took place in January 1968. Tet was a major holiday in
Vietnam. The attack mainly took the form of Viet Cong fighters making their
way into important towns and taking over key buildings and areas. Some of
them even made it into the US headquarters in Saigon.
In some ways the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the Viet Cong. The people
did not rise up to support them and they lost around 100,000 fighters. However,
after three years of American forces involvement in Vietnam the US public
was shocked to see the Viet Cong take the fight to their heartland.
Clark's document shows how the US responded to the Offensive. It also tells
us a lot about the difficulty of fighting the Viet Cong.
