The Tet Offensive of 1968 has long been recognized as a turning point in the Vietnam War, leading to Lyndon B. Johnson's decision to reduce the bombing of North Vietnam, open peace negotiations with Hanoi, and, most dramatically, take himself out of the upcoming presidential race. Tet 1968 was also significant in another way. It marked the first time in the post-World War II era when the United States came face to face with the limits of its power, or, to borrow Paul M. Kennedy's phrase, the reality of “imperial overstretch.” The North Vietnamese offensive occurred at the same time as the Pueblo crisis in Korea and a major economic crisis in Western Europe, Great Britain, and the United States. The shock of these simultaneous crises led some U.S. policymakers and leaders of the foreign policy elite to conclude that the nation was overextended and to propose adjustments. Johnson eventually muddled through this crisis of hegemony without resolving or even addressing in any substantive way the fundamental issues raised by it. But in doing so he laid the foundation for detente and the Nixon doctrine, the major adjustments to America s changed position instituted by his successor.