e. Included in the citieswere Saigon, capital of South Vietnam and home to the United States Embassy. At first the TetOffensive appeared a failure for North Vietnam. A large portion of Vietcong troops were killed,and major Vietcong outposts were discovered. Most of the overtaken cities, including Saigon, hadbeen regained. Unfortunately for the United States the timing of the Tet Offensive couldn’t havebeen worse. For the past three years the Americans at home had been promised a swift defeat ofthe (so called) nearly destroyed Communists, which, after the retreating of the French, hadbecome the main goal of the United States. Worst of all, election year was approaching, and theincumbent Richard Nixon was promising a swift plan of "Vietmenization" in which the war wassupposed to be placed in the hands of the South Vietnamese and allow for the retreat of Americansoldiers. Johnson was so unconfident he didn’t run for reelection. Finally, in 1972 the last UnitedStates foot soldiers were removed from Vietnam, and in 1975 the North Vietnamese over tookSaigon, renaming it Ho Chi Mien City after their brilliant military leader. At this time the UnitedStates Embassy was surrendered, marking the end of the war (Winthrop, 861-865). As thesoldiers returned home they had to adapt from a war in which over one million people were killed.There were no banners or celebrations, and as the news of events such as the My Lai Massacrespread, they were seen as ruthless killers. When these soldiers risked their lives every minute for areason they were not told and seemingly was purposeless, and then returned to a country thatdespised them for what they did negative effects are emanate(Winthrop, 861-865). During the warmany soldiers realized their maximum threshold for violence. When, as was the case for manysoldiers, this limit was reached and even exceeded, psychological scarring is going to take place.This, combined with the return to a country th...
