How did the Tet offensive add to the "so-called" credibility gap?
1 Answer
It emphasised the credibility gap between what the American public were being told about the war, and what imagery they saw on their televisions.
Explanation:
Tet was launched at the end of January 1968 at the start of the Chinese New Year. The communists switched their offensive from the countryside to the cities a high risk strategy. After several weeks of bitter fighting the communists had been defeated with very heavy losses.
However Tet was as much a psychological as physical assault. Images on millions of American televisions such as the Vietcong being inside the US embassy in Saigon, the destruction of Hue, the summary execution of a teenager by a South Vietnamese police chief, and pictures of the victims of napalm told a very different story. It accelerated the swing in US public opinion against the war.
