William Westmoreland

November 14–18, 1965 · 3,561 total casualties

Proved helicopters could transform tactical mobility but also showed the NVA was a formidable force willing to fight at close quarters to neutralize US firepower. The after-action body counts — a metric that would define and distort the entire war — showed a 12:1 kill ratio. US commanders concluded they were winning. They were not.

January 21 – July 9, 1968 · 15,000 total casualties

The siege fixed American attention while Tet unfolded. The decision to later abandon Khe Sanh — after holding it at enormous cost — was a propaganda disaster. 'If we're not in Khe Sanh to stay, why did so many men die there?' It became a symbol of the war's strategic incoherence.

January 30 – September 23, 1968 · 85,000 total casualties

The most consequential battle of the war — not militarily, but psychologically. Walter Cronkite, 'the most trusted man in America,' declared the war a stalemate on national television. Johnson's approval ratings collapsed. He announced he would not seek re-election. Tet destroyed the 'credibility gap' — the chasm between official optimism and reality — and turned American public opinion against the war.