An offensive launched in the Vietnam War by Vietcong and regular North Vietnamese army units against US and South Vietnamese forces. In a surprise attack timed to coincide with the first day of the Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) holiday, North Vietnamese forces under General Giap took the war from the countryside to the cities of South Vietnam. After initial successes, the attackers were repulsed with heavy losses on both sides, but the offensive seriously damaged South Vietnamese morale and shook US confidence in their ability to win the war and brought them to the conference table in Paris in 1969. This led to the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 and the withdrawal of US forces from Indochina.