American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

The Tet offensive marked a unique stage in the evolution of North Vietnam's "People's War." Hanoi's solution to the stalemate in the South was the product of several factors. North Vietnam's large-unit war was unequal to the task of defeating American combat units. South Vietnam became polit- ically and militarily stronger, while the Viet Cong's grip over the rural population eroded. Hanoi's leaders suspected that the United States, frustrated by the slow progress, might intensify its military operations against the North. (Indeed, West- moreland had broached plans for an invasion of the North when he appealed for additional forces in 1967.) The Tet offensive was Hanoi's brilliant stroke of strategy designed to change the arena of war from the battlefield to the negotiating table.

A Viet Cong ambush in Saigon took a toll of U.S. Army MPs.