The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Second Indochina War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong), and the People's Army of Vietnam (the North Vietnamese army), fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow.