EDITOR’S NOTE — It was just after 2 a.m. on Jan. 31, 1968, when the crackle of celebratory fireworks in South Vietnam’s capital gave way to the pounding of machine guns, grenades and rockets. As the country celebrated Lunar New Year, communist forces launched a wave of surprise attacks that became known as the Tet Offensive and would change the course of the Vietnam War.
From Saigon to Hue to Nha Trang, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces attacked the major population centers that they had until then avoided. From the jungles and rice fields of the north, an estimated 80,000 fighters brought the war south with coordinated attacks on 39 of South Vietnam’s 44 provincial capitals, 64 district headquarters, nearly every allied airfield and Saigon.
In Saigon, fighting raged across the city, including an ambitious attack on the American Embassy.
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