<P> In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died at age seventy - nine . The failure of Tet in sparking a popular uprising caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy and the Giáp - Chinh "Northern - First" faction had regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn - Hoàng Văn Thái "Southern - First" faction . An unconventional victory was sidelined for a strategy built on conventional victory through conquest . Large - scale offensives were rolled back in favour of small - unit and sapper attacks as well as targeting the pacification and Vietnamization strategy . In the two year period following Tet, the PAVN had begun its transformation from a fine light - infantry, limited mobility force into a high - mobile and mechanised combined arms force . </P> <P> The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the United States . Nixon appealed to the "silent majority" of Americans who he said supported the war without showing it in public . But revelations of the My Lai Massacre, in which a U.S. Army platoon raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "Green Beret Affair" where eight Special Forces soldiers, including the 5th Special Forces Group Commander, were arrested for the murder of a suspected double agent provoked national and international outrage . </P> <P> In 1971 the Pentagon Papers were leaked to The New York Times . The top - secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, commissioned by the Department of Defense, detailed a long series of public deceptions on the part of the U.S. government . The Supreme Court ruled that its publication was legal . </P> <P> Following the Tet Offensive and the US public beginning to publicly turn against the war, US forces begun a period of morale collapse, disillusionment and disobedience . At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels . Among enlisted only 2.5% chose infantry combat positions in 1969 - 1970 . ROTC enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971 and reaching an all - time low of 33,220 in 1974, depriving US forces of much - needed military leadership . </P>

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