The Vietnam War that made 1968 a Unique Year Essay

The Vietnam War that made 1968 a Unique Year - Essay Example Relevant information about the war is also recorded by Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich, in the book, The International. This essay borrows most of the information from the two authors plus others and shows what they had in common. This will clearly bring out the full information regarding this horrific war in the rest of this essay. Vietnam War contributed to 1968 being a unique year in world history. It was on January 31, 1968, when the Tet Offensive was launched by the North Vietnamese together with Viet Cong forces which caused mass destruction and heavy losses to the U.S. and the South Vietnamese (Ehrenreich & John, 121). This was the lunar New Year holiday which was called Tet when attacks were made in the South Vietnam, out of which more than 100 towns were fiercely attacked. North Vietnam which is actually a communist society was in fight with their allies South Vietnam, a communist society and which obtained a back-up from the US army troops to fight the North Vietnamese (Kurlansky, 106). It was General Vo Nguyen Giap who came up with the plan of carrying out offensive attacks to South Vietnamese. The fight was so fierce and despite the fact that the U.S and the South Vietnamese were able to hold off the attacks made by the communists, they lost the battle to the North Vietnam (Ehrenreich & John, 122). However, North Vietnam suffered many casualties but victoriously pushe d out America from the region and this was regarded as the first phase of the battle which became to be the most famous. Thus, Vietnam War contributed to 1968 being a unique year in world history.