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On April 28, 1967, General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. operations in Vietnam, addressed Congress on America's expanding military role in the Vietnam conflict. Westmoreland, a decorated veteran of World War II and the Korean War, had replaced General Paul Harkins as chief of Vietnam operations in 1964. By the spring of 1967, the extended length of the war and the mounting number of U.S. casualties had helped to turn many in America against the U.S. military presence in Vietnam. Westmoreland responded to the criticism by asking Congress for over 200,000 troops, and in November 1967 he famously declared that the end of the war was in sight. However, his war of attrition met with little success, and in February 1968, the Communists' massive Tet Offensive crushed all hopes of an imminent end to the conflict. Following the Tet Offensive, which is widely regarded as the turning point in the Vietnam War, General Westmoreland was recalled to Washington, D.C., where he was reassigned as U.S. Army chief of staff. He retired from the military in 1972 and in 1974 unsuccessfully ran for governor of South Carolina.