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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Did Fake News Lose the Vietnam War?

Journalists wrongly portrayed the Tet Offensive as a U.S. defeat and never corrected the record.

Adjunct Fellow
A female Viet Cong fighter wields an antitank weapon, 1968. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Caption
A female Viet Cong fighter wields an antitank weapon, 1968. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Seemingly out of nowhere, a shock wave hit South Vietnam on Jan. 30, 1968. In a coordinated assault unprecedented in ferocity and scale, more than 100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers stormed out of their sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia. They went on to attack more than 100 towns and cities across South Vietnam.

The following 77 days changed the course of the Vietnam War. The American people were bombarded with a nightly stream of devastating television and daily print reporting. Yet what they saw was so at odds with the reality on the ground that many Vietnam veterans believe truth itself was under attack.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal "here":.