A Brief History
On October 31, 1968, in a political move intended to help Hubert Humphrey win the Presidential election, President Lyndon Johnson made an announcement that became known as “The October Surprise,” in which he stated that all bombardment of North Viet Nam would be halted. The reason publicly given for this halt was that North Viet Nam had supposedly shown good faith in negotiations toward ending the Viet Nam War.
Since then, the term “October Surprise” has been used to describe news events that have been deliberately created to influence the outcome of elections, in particular the U.S. presidency.
Digging Deeper
Johnson should have realized by that time that communists did nothing in “good faith;” the January 1968 Tet Offensive, for example, should already have illustrated that point; and his announcement became just another of the many blunders he committed in prosecuting this war.
In the Tet Offensive, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong violated a holiday cease fire at the time of the Chinese New Year and launched a massive offensive all over South Viet Nam. Though the U.S. military crushed that offensive and caused horrific losses of men and equipment to the communists, the American people were shocked and rattled by the enormous nature of the enemy offensive, especially after being told by the Johnson Administration that victory was just around the corner. It obviously was not, and the American people were eager to get out of Viet Nam.
North Viet Nam established a pattern of pretending to negotiate honestly when they were getting plastered by U.S. airpower, and then using the respite of a bombing halt to resupply, repair damaged infrastructure, regroup and then finally go back in the offensive.
President Nixon also found out the hard way that this was the modus operandi of the North Vietnamese. As a political ploy to help himself get re-elected in 1972, he also used the pretense that the U.S. and North Viet Nam were on the verge of “Peace with Honor.” When the bad faith of the North Vietnamese became apparent, Nixon ordered the bombing of North Viet Nam and the mining of Haiphong Harbor in a massive operation known as “Linebacker II.” The U.S. military suffered heavy losses of planes and men but inflicted heavier damage on the North Vietnamese. North Viet Nam was on the ropes and almost out of anti-aircraft missiles, but they used their usual trick of pretending to negotiate, and the bombing was again halted when carrying on with it would have been most effective for the U.S.
While facing the fallout of the Watergate Scandal, an embattled Nixon quickly agreed to a fake “peace” treaty that would end U.S. involvement in the war. When the U.S. pulled out of South Viet Nam for good in 1975, the North Vietnamese quickly overran the South.
The moral of the story is that when you are fighting someone and you get the upper hand, do not ease up, finish them off! If you have ever watched a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) cage fight or a horror movie, you will see that people (or armies) show stunning resilience if you fail to take them down off when you can. Another moral of the story is running a war as part of an election campaign is a bad idea.
Question for students (and subscribers): Can you think of other examples of these lessons? Please feel free to share them with us in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Arnold, James. Tet Offensive 1968: Turning point in Vietnam (Campaign). Osprey Publishing, 1990.
Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam. W. W. Norton & Company, 1991.
Robbins, James S. This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive. Encounter Books, 2012.
Schmitz, David F. Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War: The End of the American Century (Vietnam: America in the War Years). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="6221 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=6221">109 Comments
Unfortunately, sometimes politicians… will be politicians! — DAVID WARDLE
Always finish an opponent when given the opportunity. No reason to let up and hope they will comply just because they say so.
Amen to that, though we should take care to ensure we need to fight in the first place
You cant trust anyone.
I’m not surprised that so many people in politics lie all the time!
We should’ve never went to this war in the first place
For political interest in terms of elections, I probably would have done the same thing.
Politicians are politicians.
It’s sad that politicians used the war as an effort to get re-elected but had no real intentions on actually doing anything about it. They did it then, they do it now, they will probably do it in the future.
Re-election and campaign financing have become more important to politicians than actual issues. Politicians will say or do just about anything in order to keep their seat in government.
Its a shame how corrupt politics are in society today and back then. In history I feel the greatest leaders truly cared about the people they were leading. All to many get caught doing whatever it takes to stay in power and you hope that those are the people who do not become our elected officials in the future.
War at that time probably wasn’t the best idea.
Doing anything for the purpose of obtaining votes is never a good idea!
Well just like any other politician. He will say he will do anything to get people to like and vote for him. Well we now see what kind of trouble that caused. Probably not the best idea.
You think America would’ve learned after the first two times that the Vietcong faked willingness to negotiate peace. They should have stuck to bombing the North until they really did surrender.
Tet is suppose to be a very happy and exciting time of the year. To launch an attack on that day is horrible.
It is terrible that the Tet Offensive happened. The north had to be especially evil to go against a cease fire.
I agree that we never should have let up on the North Vietnamese.
I liked when the author of this article said “The moral of the story is that when you are fighting someone and you get the upper hand, do not ease up, finish them off!”
Why can politicians just be truthful? This world would be a better place if they actually keep their promises.
It’s exhausting just reading about the back and forth fighting that went on through this war. I cannot imagine actually fighting at that time.
To launch an attack on that day of Tet is horrible.
This should have never happened. It is also very heartless that the attack was scheduled for a major holiday.
Very heart breaking astonishing to read about
I agree with the two lessons. It’s such a shame that politics played such a role in our loss in Vietnam. I can’t imagine how those veterans must feel.
This is a small defeat in war in the grand scheme of things
i wrote my paper on this topic, and definitely not a small defeat. economically we were 148 billion in debt, we lost 200,000 lives. vietnamese in total lost close to 2 million. north lost 1.1 million lives. and the pentagon papers is an embarrassment to our government that led to the dismissal of president Nixon. flat out stupid we even tried to stop communism.
billion or million for my correction* if i had my paper on me i would know more. *comment below*
The lost kinda made the United States look foolish. It made other countries happy to see that the U.S is not invincible. It is so fitting that Richard Nixon was the president at the time.
Very sad to see but it was small on the spectrum
This attack was heartless.
This seems like another reason why this war didn’t go anywhere. Nothing was accomplish, only people died. North Vietnam wanted to negotiate but it was pointless when both countries are so hard headed.
I think that the war in general made the United States look bad. We were not used to losing any war. It made us look like we were foolish and what we were doing was a joke.
You know the us dont loose much wars because we are the bullies but when we do we come together as a country and kind of ball up and cry.
I think that having the war at this time was not a good idea.
A war drummed up by old men and fought by the young. By the time we decided to move in we had already lost. But it took us many soldiers lives to realize that.
Same thing with our middle east wars we had them down and running and didn’t finish them and now look how big of a nightmare it is that we didn’t just finish them.
I think it’s hard to “finish people off” because, at least personally, I’d like to have faith that people are redeemable.
War is a horrible campaign tactic. This was political abuse of the citizens, taking advantage of their emotional status.
Nixon was not trustworthy in any way. I know about the Watergate Scandal, but I was not aware that he was going to sign a fake “peace” treaty to get out of the war.
The presidents involved during this war were under so much pressure from people here in the states, that I think they made mistakes or choices due to that pressure.
I think losing this war made us look bad but I understand the presidents involved in the war were under pressure causing mistakes to happen.
So much like a world-wide chess game. Except for the fact that each move is on a global scale and has the propensity to affect the lives of millions who have little say in what is going on.
After losing the war made the US look bad for getting involved in the first place, I think that the presidents involved with this war were under an extreme amount of pressure which caused mistakes to be made.
I feel that this is unethical because he said that he would literally do whatever it takes to get people to vote for him. I feel that if you are running to be the president of our country and are promising the people certain things, you should do everything in your power to keep those promises. This just makes the US look bad.
Politics. It is not shocking that this was the means that were brought to the polls. people backed him and supported him
How can a war be fought when politics are in the way.
After the war many people fought and argued about the politics going on.
I do not think anyone should “fake” anything in war. Everything should be sincere; those who fight deserve sincerity.
The U.S. should not have let off and instead just finished their attacks, especially after already losing men and forces from the Linebacker II bombing.
During times of war sometimes the president has to make split second decisions. I think Nixon did this because he was under pressure.
I think it is absurd that news events are purposely created just for the benefit of a candidate in a presidential reaction. The candidates should win on their own merit, not based on false news events.
False news influencing elections is something we still have problems with today!
The communists could never be trusted.
I remember learning about the Tet Offensive in my high school history class. Although communism is not an effective way of government, I still find it sad that these people were demolished by the Americans.
I find it very interesting that this October surprise was something to try and have a candidate win a presidential election. I feel as though halting a war to help someone win an election is very confusing.
The more and more I learn about this war, the more I know how bad of a choice it was on out part to take part in it. Nothing good came out of it.
I never realized that the war was used to win a campaign.
Wars are often used to win campaigns but I had never heard of the term “October Surprise.”
Wow! I had no idea that Nixon had done this!! It is so sad when someone like Nixon has his own agenda at the loss of so many lives.
Wars should not be used to win campaigns. It is a wrong concept.
It shocked me that a president would do that, war really has a crazy effect on people.
There is no lost about the place never belong to your country.
America was originally not even fighting the war. America was holding off the North so the south could get themselves together to be politically and economically sound and if needed, fight.
War should only ever be the last option in a situation.
This was an interesting article. The October Surprise
Dishonesty in politics…..time may pass, but some things do not change.
Never give the enemy a chance to get back to their feet… sounds like there might be a moral dilemma there.
you should give anyone chance . nice article.
Had the United States held firm to their commitment, at least all of the lives lost would not have been in vain.
Enemies will always be enemies. Don’t let them full you.
War is not easy. You keep them down completely. The Vietnam War was fought on their land. We should have taken better precautions.
Politics create war, politics fog up wars, and politics lose wars. Never trust the enemy either.
Wars are almost always politically driven. I would have to agree though that when your opponent is down, you must finish them.
Never trust people engaged in Guerrilla warfare. The Vietcong would have done anything to have a unified communist Vietnam, and lying was the least of it.
I am not surprised that the cease fire during Chinese new year didn’t end up working.
Politics and war go hand in hand. It’s almost like you can’t have now without the other.
I cant believe a present would use a war like this to get reelected but politics are made of false and lies
A countries differences of opinions turn into wars and politics is a big contributor. Politics is the main cause because they have the final say in what the country stands for.
I am not shocked that there was dishonesty in politics. Welcome to the real world.
Dear Kacey, You may also want to read the list at http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-honest-politicians.php for some possibly honest politicians! Best, Dr. Zar
he lies that were told amaze me . Looking into the post that was posted below.
The problem is don’t mix politics with military strategies. The military knows their job, so maybe the politicians should listen once in while to the people fighting the war.
All of the men in fighting in Vietnam wanted out asap. I cannot believe that anyone would trust the North Vietnamese (As this was not a good idea).
We have experienced similar situations in Iraq. We pulled out before completely squashing the enemy and they were able to rise up and cause chaos.
This was clearly a political move for Johnson to get out of office. He had been lying to the American people telling them the war was almost won, and the American people saw his lie after the Tet Offensive was aired on American television as the article describes. Politics have always been corrupt, television just showed the American people how corrupt. It is sad that it took an election for Johnson to stop the bombing since negotiations had fallen through for months in part because Johnson refused to stop bombing.
Even though politics goes hand in hand with war, it doesn’t mean that it should.
They should have known that honesty and North Vietnam did not go together.
Sad that so many lives were lost for polical gain
I just think the Vietnam War should never have happened. We lost so many good men for no reason.
Politicians lie. Every single last one of them. Money, personal gain, and ignorance. We shouldn’t be in anyone else’s civil war, ever.
Second guessing history will not change the outcome. Should we have dropped the second bomb? Should we have stayed in Vietnam? If we stayed would we have won the war? When it comes to war there is no right answer. There will always be lives lost, someone who lied, and questions asked what if we did this differently.
There is no way around politics being a part of war sadly. But I have said it many times before hind sight is 20-20 everyone is going to have a opinion on the decision that was made. In the end nothing changes it is the past and all we can try to do is learn from it.
I think another part of the Vietnam war that people forget is what happened to South Vietnam after we pulled out. It was time for America to get out of that conflict, but unfortunately it meant we were throwing South Vietnam to the wolves.
It is surprising to me that the American government seems to have fallen for the trap of trusting the North Vietnamese so many times. “Fool me once, shame on me…” as the saying goes, and I understand the Americans’ desire for peace. But it looks foolish on the military’s part to be taken by surprise on multiple occasions.
Politics an war seem to be intertwined with not all truths being told!!!
The war seemed like a basketball game. One side would have the momentum then the other side would let up, then the momentum would swing the other way. Just ashamed we would fall for the okie doke.
Unfortunately, dishonesty is very common in politics back then and today.
It sounds like everyone was just telling people what they wanted to hear. Instead of doing what was right they were worried about politics.
I liked the horror movie analogy. Pretty much in every horror movie ever, the killer is never really dead when the victims walk away. Have e learned nothing from these movies?
Nixon faking a peace treaty was a way for the US to get out of there. Sure it had a personal benefit to him but maybe he knew something extreme needed to be done.
So, we never actually lost the Vietnam War? President Nixon agreed to a fake treaty and pulled out of Vietnam what we lost is a lot of men during that war.
Nixon knew that this war was unnecessary and he knew his soldiers, along with himself, weren’t prepared for the war they were about to fight.
“October surprise” is still a phrase you will hear in late October of every single presidential election year. I will never understand the reasons why Nixon felt like he could trust the North Vietnamese. They proved themselves time and time again to be dishonest.
Interesting moral of the story with respect to finishing an opponent off. The second moral of the story is interesting because Bush ran on the “War on Terror.” Now I will admit President Bush was nothing like President Nixon with respect to the Vietnam War.
Nixon obviously did what he thought was necessary to save the lives of the remaining men.
The delay in Discus is frustrating. The Tet Offensive is when Americans decided to let their voices be heard.
We removed some of the ads. Please see if it loads better for you now and let us know. Thanks!
How unfortunate we teach children to be honest and tell the truth but our own government cannot tell the truth and we wonder why we have so many lairs in the country,