File this post under… someone on the Internet is wrong.

I was reading a click-bait titled article on Military.com called “‘The Father of Naval Special Warfare’ Almost Changed the History of the Vietnam War” when I ran into this eye-watering paragraph:

The seaborne infiltrations by communist forces went on for years. Despite the U.S. Navy’s patrols successfully intercepting communist supply runs for eight years, the North still stockpiled what it needed to launch the 1968 Tet Offensive. The surprise attack turned American public opinion against the war for the first time.

Had the United States prevented the Tet Offensive by choking its shallow water supply points, the entire history of the war might have been different from 1968 onward.

Let’s focus down to one sentence in particular.

The surprise attack turned American public opinion against the war for the first time.

The Tet Offensive was January 30, 1968. Right?

In 1967 there were hundreds of thousands of Americans openly protesting against the Vietnam War.

At least a year before the Tet Offensive, nation-wide protests and opposition already were in motion (and being documented).

The Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam was organized on November 26, 1966, to sponsor antiwar demonstrations in the spring of 1967

I’m not sure how the title or the article made it past Military.com editors without someone realizing the entire premise of both is completely broken.