Vietnam - A Television History: Episode 7 - Tet 1968 (1983) 🪖✈️

⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Vietnam: A Television History (1983) is a 13-part documentary and television mini-series about the Vietnam War (1955–1975) from the perspective of the United States. It was produced for public television by WGBH-TV in Boston, Central Independent Television of the UK and Antenne-2 of France. It was originally broadcast on PBS between October 4 and December 20, 1983. Later, it was rebroadcast as part of the PBS series American Experience from May 26 to July 28, 1997. However, only 11 of the 13 original episodes were rebroadcast. Episodes 2 and 13 were dropped. This is the complete original version.

Vietnam: A Television History was the most successful documentary produced by PBS up to the time of initial broadcast. The origins of the series reach back to 1977 when filmmaker Richard Ellison and foreign correspondent Stanley Karnow discussed the project. The latter had been a journalist in Paris during the 1950s and a reporter in French Indochina since 1959. Karnow was Chief Correspondent in the series and his tie-in book, Vietnam: A History (1983), became a best-seller.

⁣Episode 7: The year 1968 was to be a new year for US efforts in Vietnam. Reports from the Embassy said that they were winning the ground war but American TV reports were showing a different picture altogether. The Tet offensive showed to what extent the Johnson Administration's status reports on the war differed from reality. There was a major attack on Khe San several days before Tet. The New Year's attack was the biggest offensive of the war, with Viet Cong (VC) and regulars from the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attacking nearly every province and district capital in Vietnam.

The attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon was the greatest shock with opposing troops managing to breach the security perimeter. Elsewhere in Saigon, VC and NVA troops gained control of the main Vietnamese language radio station. The battle for Hue, the ancient capital, lasted 24 days and the city was destroyed in the process, leaving 75% of the people homeless. While the Tet offensive did not meet the North's expectations, the US realized that after three years in control of the fighting in Vietnam, they found itself in a war that was deadlocked. When news leaked that the military had requested an additional 206,000 troops, street demonstrations sprung up across America. It also led to an increase in popularity for a peace candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy, who nearly defeated President Johnson in the New Hampshire primary. On March 31, 1968 President Johnson made a televised speech about peace in Vietnam and announced a halt to the bombing. He also announced he would not seek re-election.