THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL-MAY 2025 39 THE TẾT OFFENSIVE Six Hours That Transformed America ON THE U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONSHIP A career diplomat reflects on a pivotal moment in the fraught Vietnam War era. BY KENNETH M. QUINN Kenneth M. Quinn, PhD, served as U.S. ambassador to Cambodia from 1996 to 1999. The first tour of his 32-year career as a Foreign Service officer was for almost six years in Vietnam, during which he became the only civilian to earn the Army Air Medal for his participation in more than 100 hours of helicopter combat operations; received the State Department Award for Heroism and Valor for four life-saving rescues he carried out in the war zone; and submitted the first-ever report from the remote Vietnam-Cambodia border, warning about the genocidal Pol Pot Khmer Rouge movement. He is the only three-time recipient of the AFSA Award for Constructive Dissent. January 1968 had not started in an apocalyptic fashion. The triumphal sense that America was a force for good and capable of accomplishing almost anything it put its mind to—having begun with victory in World War II and, inspired by President John F. Kennedy, taken us to space and set us en route to the moon—still pervaded the country. As a result, President Lyndon Johnson seemed securely ensconced in the White House as he prepared to launch his reelection campaign. While there were some disquieting signs that anti-war elements were causing unrest on college campuses—something I had witnessed as an instructor at the University of Maryland—as the year began, the opinion polls still showed a firm majority supporting the war effort in Vietnam. Saturday, Jan. 27, 1968, was the first day of Tết Mậu Thân, the Vietnamese New Year celebration that marked the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. As the media ran stories about the informal military cease-fire that was going into effect across South Vietnam, I had just begun long-term Vietnamese language training and was immersed in learning phrases to extend wishes for good health and prosperity. I was a brand-new Foreign Service officer from Dubuque, Iowa, and my visions of diplomatic soirees in chandeliered ballrooms in Paris or Vienna had been dashed when the personnel mavens at Foggy Bottom assigned me—a single, unmarried, 25-year-old draft-eligible male—to 10 months of Vietnamese language training followed by a tour as a pacification adviser helping win the “hearts and minds.” Although whatever that exactly entailed was not yet clear, the scheduled training segment at the Special Warfare Training School at Fort Bragg conjured up ominous possibilities. FOCUS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=