The Attack on the American Embassy during Tet, 1968: Factors That Turned a Tactical Victory into a Political Defeat

When the American Embassy in Saigon was attacked during the Tet Offensive, what could have made the response of the Military Police MP and Marine Security Guard MSG more effective and less negative to the media and the public The Tet Offensive has been widely acknowledged as the turning point of the Vietnam War. On 31 January 1968, during the Tet holiday, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked over 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. At the epicenter of this cataclysmic event was the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The medias role in portraying the outcome of the attack is still a subject of debate four decades later. The U.S. forces that successfully defended the Embassy were greatly outnumbered and were not organized or equipped as combat troops, but this was not mentioned in the media reports. This thesis examines the attack on the U.S. Embassy during the Tet Offensive of 1968, and what factors turned a tactical victory into a political defeat. The MSGs and MPs were effective at preventing the enemy from entering and holding the Chancery. They achieved a clear tactical victory, yet the action was portrayed as a political defeat. Two sets of factors contributed to this portrayal shifting public opinion toward the war and declining media-military relations, and actions taken by the State Department that directly affected the conduct of the action at the Embassy.