Vietnam War Turning Points

1.

Why was the Tet Offensive a turning

point? Explain your answer.

The Tet Offensive was the turning point of the Vietnam War because it basically made the US lose all of it's support of the war back home. The Tet Offensive cost many lives, and the increasing death toll made the American people doubtful of the war. After the Tet Offensive, although it was considered a failure for the Viet Cong, the American people turned ultimately against the war, and the US couldn't fight much more with the complete lack of support from the people.

2.

Are Sources 51 and 52 making the

same point about the My Lai Massacre?

Sources 51 and 52 both stated that their purpose was not to kill innocent people, and neither of them had counted on doing so, but Lieutenant Calley in source 52 argues that he the US had to do so to fight communism. Ronald Ridenhour in source 51 does not try to back the massacre or give any argument in its favor. He was totally against it, and it was considered a Nazi thing to do. Calley didn't approve of the Mai Lai massacre, but he saw it a necessary part of fighting the Viet Cong.

3. Why do you think it took 12 months for

anyone to do anything about the

massacre?

I think it took 12 months for anyone to do anything about the massacre because the US military played it like a success. They pretended that there were Viet Cong killed in the massacre, and that it was a successful search-and-destroy mission. Nobody did anything about the massacre because no one knew it was a massacre, they thought it was a mission that went well and eliminated some of the enemy. It wasn't revealed that just about all of the people murdered were innocent civilians.

4. Why was the massacre so shocking to

the American public?

The massacre was so shocking to the American public because it was a completely un-American thing to do in war. As source 51 said, it was a "Nazi" thing to do, and the US had tried so hard to fight the Nazis because of the evil things they did. Yet they massacred innocent people, which was something along the lines of Hitler and the Nazis.