This is the photograph marking the loss of the United States in the Vietnam War.

The soldier's terrible warning, in the darkness of the half century ago, signaled the most devastating beginning of American pride and prestige since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

It was the most spectacular event of the so-called offensive Tet, 50 years ago co-ordinated attacks by 67, 000 guerrillas and regular northern Vietnamese troops, taking advantage of the new year's annual festivals and ceasefire to capture Americans and their allies of unequipped South Vietnam.

Only part of the Americans were sleeping in the embassy building when the Vietnamese hit them, reports “Daily Mail”, the Periscope broadcast.

The true ruler of North Vietnam in 1968 was almost unknown to Le Duane. It was he who, against Ho's wishes, Giap and most of the army, insisted that it was time to drop everything the communists could do in an attack on the South, where he predicted that half a million sympathies would gather to expel the long “ ” from the country.

Americans were caught largely because logic suggested that the Tet promotion was military madness.

As a result, within minutes, 10,000 communist troops marched towards the conquest of the city.

Vietnamese suicide bombers, who died tens of thousands in 1968, told their Islamic followers that how rebels can rob themselves of defeat, even the most powerful military machine on earth./Periscopi/