By: History.com Editors
1968
Published: November 16, 2009
Last Updated: January 24, 2025
Allied troops who had recaptured the imperial capital of Hue from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive discover the first mass graves in Hue.
It was discovered that communist troops who had held the city for 25 days had massacred about 2,800 civilians whom they had identified as sympathizers with the government in Saigon. One authority estimated that communists might have killed as many as 5,700 people in Hue.
North Vietnam's surprise attack on the South during the holiday of Tet altered the entire course of the Vietnam War. Morale among U.S. and South Vietnamese troops was crushed, and Americans back home increasingly wondered why their soldiers were there in the first place.
The Tet Offensive had begun at dawn on the first day of the Tet holiday truce (January 30), when Viet Cong forces, supported by large numbers of North Vietnamese troops, launched the largest and best coordinated offensive of the war. During the attack, they drove into the center of South Vietnam’s seven largest cities and attacked 30 provincial capitals ranging from the Delta to the DMZ.
Among the cities taken during the first four days of the offensive were Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quang Tri; in the north, all five provincial capitals were overrun. At the same time, enemy forces shelled numerous allied airfields and bases. By February 10, the offensive was largely crushed, but resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.
Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on February 26th
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all deepened U.S. involvement in the decades-long conflict.
After 10 days of bruising battle, U.S. forces took the hill, only to abandon it days later. Sniper fire was so intense, one soldier called it 'a human meat grinder.'
Nearly 12,000 helicopters saw action in the Vietnam War and were critical for combat, scouting, rescue missions and more.
A weekend of escalating tensions exploded into 13 seconds of gunfire—and four dead in Ohio.
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