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... the right. 1968 was thus a watershed in the 1960s, symbolizing the ideals and fears, successes and failures of the 1960s. In late December 1968, the North Vietnamese Army launched a major offensive against the marine base at Khe Sanh. US command determined to hold the base and sent 50,000 reinforcements. One of the largest battles of the war, Khe Sanh was nonetheless a diversion, planned by the Vietcong, as an effort to weaken American forces further south. With American forces still north at Khe San, the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive, the "general offensive" the Vietnamese communists had been planning for years. Fighting was extended and intense, lasting over eight months, with the toughest fighting in Hue, which the NVA conquered for a few weeks, before American troops took it back. Fighting made it as far as Saigon. In the chaos of the Tet Offensive, cameramen captured SVN police chief ...