Tet Offensive A Major Turning Point Essay Example For Students

Tet Offensive: A Major Turning Point Essay Tet Offensive: A Major Turning PointVillagers carried coffins filled with guns and ammunition through towns, accompanying them were the sounds of fireworks and flutes. Those sounds soon turned to the sound of assault rifle fire and explosions. Flares and green tracers dart through the night sky like hundreds of fireflies; gun flashes replaced Tet fireworks, and could be seen as far as the eye could see. This major event in the Vietnam War is called the Tet Offensive. After a surprise attack in the beginning, the United States and South Vietnamese army came back to overpower the Vietcong and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and decisively win all the battles. Even though the United States and South Vietnamese won the Tet Offensive, it was a major turning point towards ending the Vietnam War. Escalation of the war would end and withdraw would begin. The Vietcong and NVA lost the battle on the battlefield but they had won a major political battle. The American public became disillusioned wit h what was called a military intervention. Intelligence failure, Johnson’s over confidence in the war, and its profound impact on American attitudes about involvement in Vietnam are three major reasons why the Tet Offensive was the turning point in ending the war. We will write a custom essay on Tet Offensive: A Major Turning Point specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Intelligence failure was one of the main reasons why the Tet offensive happened. The allies undergo a failure of intelligence before Tet, a failure that helped plan the stages for changes in the strategies of the US. The four parts of intelligence are crucial in determining the actions of the enemy. The four tasks consist of collection of information, the analysis of the information, the decision to respond to a warning issued in the analytical stage, dissemination of the order to respond to the field commanders. The first task in intelligence is the collection of accurate information about the opponent’s intentions and capabilities. There are many ways to obtain the accurate information needed, which include reading a foreign press release to advanced monitoring technology. Though this may seem simple, the enemy government goes through great lengths to prevent accurate information from reaching their enemies. In the spring of 1967, General Giap, in charge of the NVA, began ba ttles in the outlying country away from cities in an attempt to draw the US army and ARVN (Army Republic of Vietnam) away from the large cities and provincial capitals. This was so General Giap could sneak in large amount of supplies, weapons, and ammunition. A secondary plan was to have the stronger US troops deployed away from the areas he planned to attack. The second stage of intelligence is the analysis of the information gathered. From April to December of 1967, the intelligence was unable to accurately predict the coming Tet Offensive on January 30th and 31st 1968. Why wasnt the intelligence organization aware that no battles were being fought around major cities of Sigon, Hue, and Da Nang? Why didn’t they see the massive amount of troop build up from the North? They even missed all the supplies being brought down from the North to stage the attacks. Almost 3,000 vehicles a month are coming down the Ho Chi Minh trail near the end of 1967. In the many months before Tet, it is hard to believe that the civilian and government of South Vietnam did not see or hear about the pending offensive. The third stage is the decision to respond to the warning issued in the analytical stage. The third stage of intelligence was not even responded to because of the failure of intelligence in the second stage. In fact, almost the opposite was true. President Lyndon Johnson and the American public were fed false information from General Westmoreland and the Joint Chiefs of Staff that we were winning the war. In fact, they were able to build the American troops strength to 500,000 troops and significantly increase military spending. At the same time they were not aware of General Giap’s plan to attack the entire South Vietnam. The fourth stage of intelligence is dissemination of the order to respond to the field commanders. The realization of the pending attacks comes only days before the Tet offensive. The US military

Compare and Contrast the European Rulers essays

Compare and Contrast the European Rulers essays Throughout this worlds great history there have been many great rulers. Some of these great rulers to note would be Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Peter the Great of Russia. These monarchs can be compared in various areas including domestic policies, foreign policies, their religion and how it affected their policies, any wars they were involved in, and their achievements that left lasting impressions in the European continent. Each of these rulers had unique domestic policies. One of Philips problems was that he took a very long time to actually do anything. However, because of this, many of his long-term policies were able to work. For example, he wanted to Castilise Spain. To do this, he filled many of the top positions with Castilians. Although he had a cabinet of advisors, he still considered himself an absolute monarch. One major issue during his control was the extremely deficit in the national budget. In fact, he went bankrupt three times. Louis revoked of Edict of Nantes that protected the Huguenots. Louis strengthened the central governments control over regions of France, incorporating the claimed lands into his territory. This caused hardship to many people who suffered starvation; which led them to fleeing their homeland. Catherine allowed a little bit of religious tolerance and banned torture. She tried to have better laws, and appointed a special legislative committee, but it fel l through. No new unified code was ever made. She tried to improve education and have a stronger local government. She freed the nobles from taxes and state service. The nobles also had absolute control of their serfs. During the reign of Peter, he was able to construct the Russian navy from scratch. Also, during the Great Northern War, he was able to modernize the army of backwards Russia. He tried to westernize all of Russ...

Organisational Behaviour in an Engineering Company Case Study

Organisational Behaviour in an Engineering Company - Case Study Example In 2009, Ronald retired and Christine took over as Managing Director. The company had gone through rough weather with an impact on profits though there had been no reduction of staff. Markets had stagnated and certain conditions had reduced the need for new grain silos. Christine’s vision was one of economic survival through expansion and diversification based on the existing competencies of the company. Existing resources may be made available for diversification projects without an increase in the outlay of the company. An understanding of Christine from the standpoint of Maslow’s model brings out the fact that she is keen to prove her capabilities. Recognition from colleagues and her peer group, she is keen to show her individual ability to manage new important projects without consulting employees who can add value to her decisions. She tries to get involved in projects that will bring her into the limelight and feed her need for prestige and status. She is at the Ego stage of the hierarchy. This is the reason she prefers to take independent decisions and shares information on a piecemeal basis. She has adopted a Directive style of leadership with the expectation that output will be produced on the strength of her communication. She derives power from her status of leader and expects staff behaviour to mould itself on the strength of monetary incentives that she introduces to enthuse the staff. There has been a shared sense of pride in the objective of the company. This is brought out by, Dobson’s statement of pride in producing silos for farmers of the country. Dobson is upset that nobody asked about his willingness to manage a new challenge since he is used to being involved in key decisions about the company. Dobson is conscious of his seniority and is used to being consulted as brought out in the comment about his age and  experience with the company.