#MAN OF WAR VIETNAM HAPPY TET DAY SERIES#

As the sounds of exploding grenades and rockets vibrated through the darkness, I bundled my wife Nina and my young children, Elsa and Andrew, and our maid into the bathroom, which I hoped was safer than the rest of our small apartment, and I covered them with mattresses from the beds. Red tracer bullets zipped through the sky and firefights were erupting near the centers of power in South VietnamвЂ™s capital, the presidential palace and the American embassy. I opened my bedroom window and watched as war came to Saigon from the jungles and paddy fields and peasant villages where it had lingered for years. A weapon that lethal had not been discharged in Saigon since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem four years earlier. IвЂ™d heard that sound before in the battlefield, the roar of a heavy-caliber machine gun, and it seemed to be shooting up Pasteur Street just three room-lengths away. Amid the cacophony I noticed a loud, methodical rat-tat-tat that shook our apartment shutters as though someone was banging on them with a hammer. It was Saigon, January 31, 1968, the first day of the year of the traditional lunar calendar, Tet Nguyen Dan, and the most important Vietnamese festival.

The blast of strings of exploding firecrackers jerked me awake as Vietnamese neighbors continued their celebrations into the early hours of the morning. In the following excerpt from his new book WeвЂ™re Taking Fire, he recalls that war-shaping day. As it all went down, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Peter Arnett had a firsthand view. 30 and 31, 1968, would go on to qualify as one of TIMEвЂ™s 80 Days That Changed the World.

#MAN OF WAR VIETNAM HAPPY TET DAY SERIES#

The coordinated series of attacks by North Vietnamese forces, timed with the Vietnamese New Year celebration, was technically a win for the South and its American allies - but for Americans watching back home, it looked like such a disaster that the national understanding of the war effort changed. Among the many milestones that marked the tortuous path of Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive stands out.

Man of war vietnam happy tet day