Before the Tet Offensive, the U.S government was encouraging patriotism and telling Americans that the South Vietnamese and the American soldiers were winning. Even after press released images and videos of the Tet Offensive, the government was desperate to cling to any form of public support, according to Charles Kaiser in the book, 1968 in America, “Just four days after Tet began, [President] Lyndon Johnson called the enemy's military effort a complete failure”(Kaiser, 79). Even after seeing such horrendous pictures of soldiers being murdered, the president still wanted to convince the public that we were still winning. Of course, everyone saw through his attempts and thus, many lost hope in the country and lost trust in their favorite politicians.
