1968, the year that shattered America.



Revisiting Vietnam 50 Years After the Tet Offensive | History | Smithsonian Magazine

Revisiting Vietnam 50 Years After the Tet Offensive

The battles of 1968 are long over. But the struggle to confront the truth goes on

A new dragon statue guards the Citadel in Hue, seized by northern forces during the 1968 Tet Offensive but then recaptured in some of the fiercest combat of the Vietnam War. (Binh Dang)

By Nguyen Qui Duc, photography by Binh Dang
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | SUBSCRIBE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018


Afew years ago, a French-German TV crew visited my home in Hanoi for an interview on how Vietnam had changed since the end of the war with America. We talked of postwar problems, the people’s achievements, the old and new generations of leaders, and the country’s aspirations. We also talked of history, of course.

At one point, our conversation veered toward the events surrounding the Tet Offensive, in January 1968. It took but a few seconds for the government media minder, an official of the foreign ministry, to stop us. Agitated, she told me to stay inside while she took the producer and reporter out to my garden, where she threatened to shut down the production if the subject was broached again, or even if we returned to the general topic of 1968.