WI: Tet Offensive without America

In the OTL 1968, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive. The North put all their cards on the table and launched a massive offensive (the largest military action in the war up to that point, I believe) across the South in order to strike a decisive blow against the South and spark a general uprising. The US and South Vietnamese, after being caught off guard, managed to beat back the offensive, inflicting massive casualties which severely damaged the North Vietnamese military. But, the public face of it bolstered the view that Vietnam was a war the United States was not winning.

However, in our Alternate 1968, the United States has not Americanized the war as Johnson did in the OTL. The United States does not commit it's military to fighting the war or take over responsibility for the war (though perhaps there are some secret special ops missions here and there), it simply follows a policy of aiding and supplying. The Vietnam war is a conflict between the North and the South, both sides getting the aid and support of the superpowers, but without the superpowers making the war their own.
Now, let's say the North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive in this scenario. What happens?
 
The offensive was a strategy developed with a specific opponent in mind. If they were mainly after the South Vietnamese forces, their objectives and strategy would differ accordingly.
 
Without the US there wouldn't have been as extensive tunnel networks to move the troops.

America would need to have done its bombing campaign, and even then, the NVA would likely just use a conventional attack to knock down Thieu's house of cards.
 
Tet would not be the same as OTL, but it's not hard to imagine a massive offensive launched during the religious holiday against the South. Sort of a blitzkreig style offensive to finish off the South, as in my Camelot Forever TL.
 
Tet would not be the same as OTL, but it's not hard to imagine a massive offensive launched during the religious holiday against the South.
I agree. Tet was a gambit to end the game in one decisive blow. It's not hard to see it occurring in a form in the ATL. The North would want to overwhelm the South, and knock it out of the war.

My biggest question is, how does that go? Can the South beat it back? If so, will the North be as militarily devastated as in the OTL?

Sort of a blitzkreig style offensive to finish off the South, as in my Camelot Forever TL.
Ah, hcallega, you are the Pepsi to my Coke...or the Coke to my Pepsi.
 
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