Tet offensive

American  

noun

1. an offensive by Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces against South Vietnamese and U.S. positions in South Vietnam, beginning on Jan. 31, 1968, the start of Tet.

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Tet offensive Cultural  

1. A series of major attacks by communist forces in the Vietnam War. Early in 1968, Vietnamese communist troops seized and briefly held some major cities at the time of the lunar new year, or Tet. The Tet offensive, a turning point in the war, damaged the hopes of United States officials that the combined forces of the United States and South Vietnam could win.

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Example Sentences

Sheehan wrote a story saying that the U.S. had drastically underestimated the enemy’s strength before the Tet offensive, in January 1968, which produced a U.S. death toll of more than 1,000.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 16, 2023

Assessments can, of course, be mistaken — Pearl Harbor, Chinese intervention in the Korean War, the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, etc.

From Washington Post • Aug. 19, 2022

He was also blown away by “The Tank” - a 4-foot-wide blowup of Olson’s famous photograph of wounded Marines getting emergency treatment on top of a tank during the Tet offensive in February 1968.

From Washington Times • Jun. 4, 2019

In the intense months following the Tet offensive, Thomas served as a combat infantryman and, after three years, volunteered for one more.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 12, 2018

This year brings a raft of big 50th anniversaries, like the Tet offensive, the Columbia student demonstrations, the assassinations of King and of Robert Kennedy.

From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2018