An image at the Tet Offensive and Uprising in the spring of 1968. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Themuseum of Ho Chi Minh City on February 2 opened a thematic exhibition on the occasionof the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive and Uprising in the springof 1968.
The event, which runs until June15, introduces to the public more than 200 images, documents and objectsclosely connected with events and historic figures in the campaign.
The exhibits are arranged inthree sections, starting with the preparation work for the Tet Offensive, thengoing with the development of the Offensive and concluding with thesignificance of the event.
Visitors can also find images ofthe support of international friends for Vietnam’s war for independence, suchas photos of demonstrations in the Soviet Union protesting the war that the USlaunched in Vietnam, and meetings in Cuba expressing solidarity with Vietnamesepeople.
The Tet Offensive began in theearly morning of January 31 in 1968 when liberation forces simultaneouslylaunched attacks on bases of US troops and the US-backed southern government incities such as Hue, Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Saigon, and hundreds of towns fromQuang Tri to Ca Mau.
The offensive helped destroyhuge amounts of facilities and logistics used by the US and the southernregime’s armies. The seven-month long campaign ended with tens of thousands ofenemy troops dead, 600 strategic hamlets destroyed and 100 communes liberatedwith a population of 1.6 million people.
People in rural areas also tookthis opportunity to rise up against the US-backed government’s administration.
Sai Gon-Gia Dinh (now HCM City), theheadquarters of the US-backed Southern regime, was a focus of the offensive.
The Tet Offensive marked a strategic turningpoint for the resistance war against the US and its allies. It caused the US a‘sudden shock’, disrupting their strategic plan, shaking the White House, thePentagon and all of the US and forced President Johnson to deescalate the warand agree to sign the historic Paris Peace Accord. The victory also helped leadto the liberation of southern Vietnam and national reunification in 1975.-VNA
VNA
