The Tet Offensive: A Concise History (review)

James Willbanks is a Vietnam combat veteran, director of the Department of History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and an emerging authority on various aspects of the Vietnam War. He calls this study a "guide" which seeks to examine the Tet Offensive of 1968 and explore the various interpretations of this controversial event. Readers expecting a particularly new thesis or evaluation of Tet will not find it here. The work is intended, rather, to provide a useful overview for further study to aid educators, students, and interested readers in reaching an understanding of this most decisive action of the war. Willbanks points out that the events of the Tet Offensive demonstrate a vital aspect of contemporary wars—military operations are but one factor of the struggle and may not even be the most important in determining the war's outcome. He also reasserts the obvious view that Tet, despite its military context, had serious political implications and that it was in the political arena that the offensive had its greatest impact.

The guide is divided into six major parts. Part I provides a brief narrative of events leading to the attack, the offensive itself, the siege of Khe Sanh, and an assessment of the results. Part II examines several of the more contentious issues and interpretations of the main themes and questions that arose from the offensive and its aftermath. This part contains the book's most interesting and valuable insights. It consists of a series of historiographical essays on the following subjects: Motivations and Objectives of the Tet Offensive; Military Intelligence and Surprise at Tet; What Happened at Hue; Why Khe Sanh; Tet and the Media; Tet and American Military Strategy. In these essays, Willbanks does not take a strong stand or put forth especially new ideas, but presents various viewpoints of historians and participants and lets the weight of those opinions guide the reader to general conclusions based upon the strength of the various points of view.

The remaining parts are devoted to a chronology of action; a short encyclopedia of key people, places, and events; a collection of excerpts from historical documents pertaining to the offensive; and an annotated listing of resources for study.

Although Willbanks refrains, for the most part, from putting forth his personal beliefs regarding the most controversial aspects of Tet, he does reveal some of his thinking in the historiographical essays. Regarding the siege of Khe Sanh, he sides with the view that Khe Sanh was more than a diversion and that Vo Nguyen Giap did, indeed, aspire to capture the base. He states that, if Khe Sanh was a communist diversion, military history "provides few examples of one more expensive." He contends that Giap paid too costly a price for concentrating heavy forces there simply as a diversion and asks why Giap would have "continued the attack long after the diversion had been accomplished and the Tet Offensive launched?" Additionally, although his essay on Tet and the media is quite even handed, he maintains that biased and erroneous reporting deserve part of the blame for the disastrous perception of Tet among sectors of American public opinion. He also states that "journalists in Saigon looked for signs of defeat everywhere, and when they looked hard enough they seemed to find to them."

Willbanks's book attains the goals he set out to achieve. His scholarship is thorough, and the writing clear. Although no dramatic new findings are presented, he admirably accomplishes his aim of presenting an excellent starting point in the further study of the Tet Offensive. This is an excellent work worthy of inclusion in collections of studies on the Vietnam War.