"Al-Aqsa Flood" operation is no less great and is more powerful and more skillful in its planning, management, and implementation than the Vietnamese "Tet Offensive", which paved the way for America's defeat in Vietnam. Muhammad Al-Deif and his companions, who deliberated, planned, and executed, under conditions the cruelty of which history has never known, are no less, but more, in their genius, intelligence, and sophistication than Ho Chi Minh and his companions.

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is one of the most famous in modern history. It was a war between North Vietnam, supported by the two largest communist powers at the time, China and the Soviet Union, and South Vietnam, supported by the United States and its allies.

The causes of the conflict were deeply rooted in the Cold War era, as the United States feared the spread of communism and actively intervened in an attempt to prevent it. The Tet Offensive, which occurred in early 1968, was a pivotal moment that changed the course of the war forever.

What happened in the Vietnamese Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of attacks launched by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) forces against South Vietnamese and American forces on January 30, 1968, during the Vietnamese New Year (Tet) holiday. The attack was a surprise attack on major cities and towns throughout South Vietnam, including the capital, Saigon.

The Tet Offensive was the largest military operation of the Vietnam War, and it caught both American and South Vietnamese forces by surprise. North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces were initially able to capture several major cities, including Hue. However, American, and South Vietnamese forces eventually repulsed the attacking forces, and the Tet Offensive ended in a military defeat for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.

Results of the Tet Offensive

Although the Tet Offensive did not result in a military victory for North Vietnamese forces, it had major political consequences. It may cause:

- A significant increase in American losses.

- Popular support for the war declined in the United States.

- It led to the resignation of US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

- It strengthened the North Vietnamese resolve to continue fighting.

Turning Point

The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the Vietnam War because it shattered the illusion of America's invincibility and forced it to reevaluate the feasibility and purpose of the war. It revealed the huge gap between the military reality on the ground and the optimistic rhetoric coming from Washington. The Tet Offensive marked a decisive shift in public opinion that pushed the United States government toward a negotiated settlement to end the war.

 A vast gap between the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and “Tet”

Parties of the war

In the Vietnam War, there was a state recognized since 1945, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, fighting a war it saw as legitimate to unify the country.

North Vietnam was leaning on the solid Sino-Soviet wall, protecting its back and supplying it with all the weapons and supplies it needed. All this is in addition to the global media and diplomatic support for it from the communist countries and the socialist spectrum prevailing in the world at that time.

On the other hand, there was South Vietnam, which relied on the powerful American power. The Americans had military bases that used all their military technologies and weapons, except for nuclear weapons of course, in their battle, which they considered a proxy war with the communist forces at the time.

The Miracle of Gaza

In a quick comparison between the Al-Aqsa Flood and the Vietnamese Tet Offensive, it becomes clear that the forces between the two sides of the conflict in the Vietnamese War were almost equal, as two recognised countries were fighting, one of which had America and its allies behind it. The other was fully supported by two superpowers, China, and the Soviet Union.

Comparing the fighting Gaza to North Vietnam unfairly wrongs the facts.

Gaza has been besieged for more than fifteen years, but North Vietnam has never been besieged.

• Gaza is banned from weapons and equipment, except for light weapons that are smuggled with difficulty, or manufactured at home with minimal capabilities. While Russian and Chinese weapons stores were available and open to the Vietnamese.
• Gaza is confined to a narrow area that does not allow manoeuvring except within narrow limits, while North Vietnam enjoyed an area larger than that of England, allowing it to move, hide, manoeuvre, and strategic deception.
• North Vietnam was surrounded by friends on all sides, while Gaza was besieged by its brothers and deprived of food and medicine.
• Stealth and manoeuvring in open terrain in Gaza, with desert geography, or in things that are almost impossible or extremely difficult, as opposed to easy concealment and hidden manoeuvring in the dense and abundant forests of Vietnam.
• Gaza is besieged medially and diplomatically, and many campaigns are demonizing it. Its mujahideen did not stop, while Vietnam was supported by the media, especially by large masses of leftist media figures, even in America itself.
• What Gaza did was a military miracle in terms of managing, planning, implementation, strategic deception, and unparalleled courage. It rose to a height unmatched by any others.

History will record that the victorious leader Muhammad Al-Deif, along with a group of distinguished heroes, created an epic that we had never dreamed of, with his brilliant soldiers, surprising the friend before the enemy, in these dark circumstances. An epic that is dwarfed by the Vietnamese Tet Offensive, in terms of its strength and valour.

The Arab and Islamic nation now has the right to be proud of having produced a leader like Muhammad Al-Deif, just as it was proud before of outstanding resistance heroes like Abdul Karim Al-Khattabi, Abdul Qadir Al-Jazairi, and Omar Al-Mukhtar. The future will prove that the Al-Aqsa flood will produce results that will be dwarfed by the results that the Tet Offensive paved the way for.