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By the beginning of 1968, the war in Vietnam had reached stalemate. The US had deployed half a million men, massive firepower, and every hightech weapon in its armoury, but the Vietcong guerrillas and their North Vietnamese backers did not seem to realise that they should have been beaten. Then on 31 January, as the Tet Festival began, Communist forces co-ordinated by the legendary Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap launched a major offensive against every major city and military base in South Vietnam. At last the commander William Westmoreland had an enemy he could see and fight conventionally. He won the campaign, but the US lost the war. Popular opposition escalated, Westmoreland was replaced, and peace talks began a few months later.
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