Tet and what actually happened

The Tet offensive during the Vietnam war has been discussed a lot lately and related to the situation in Iraq, and for good reason. To really understand the comparison, a little history lesson is in order. Arthur Herman at The Wall Street Journal has The Lies of Tet posted which covers it well.

• On January 30, 1968, more than a quarter million North Vietnamese soldiers and 100,000 Viet Cong irregulars launched a massive attack on South Vietnam. But the public didn't hear about who had won this most decisive battle of the Vietnam War, the so-called Tet offensive, until much too late.

  Media misreporting of Tet passed into our collective memory. That picture gave antiwar activism an unwarranted credibility that persists today in Congress, and in the media reaction to the war in Iraq. The Tet experience provides a narrative model for those who wish to see all U.S. military successes -- such as the Petraeus surge -- minimized and glossed over.