By late 1967 the war was going strong against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. They decided to launch an offensive throughout the country which began with an attack on the US embassy in Saigon. The Communists captured the city of Hue, and fighting was fierce. In the end, the Communists were defeated on every front.
However, the American perception was that the war had been lost. The American people had been told that progress had been made throughout the war, and many Americans wondered how the Communist forces could accomplish what they had, militarily, and have lost. The result of the offensive seemed to be a collective loss of will, among Americans, to continue fighting the Vietnam War.
Protests against the war increased, and President Johnson announced that he would not run again.
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