Tanks In The Easter Offensive 1972

This study explains how the armies of North and South Vietnam, newly equipped with the most modern Soviet and US tanks and weaponry, fought the decisive armored battles of the Easter Offensive. Wearied by years of fighting against Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese regulars, the United States had almost completely withdrawn its forces from Vietnam by early 1972. Determined to halt the expansion and improvement of South Vietnamese forces under the U.S. “Vietnamization” program, North Vietnam launched a major fourteen-division attack in March 1972 against the South that became known as the “Easter Offensive.” Hanoi's assault was spearheaded by 1,200 tanks and was counteracted on the opposite side by Saigon's newly equipped armored force using U.S. medium tanks. The result was ferocious fighting between major Cold War-era U.S. and Soviet tanks and mechanized equipment, pitting M-48 medium and M-41 light tanks against their T- 54 and PT-76 rivals in a variety of combat environments ranging from dense jungle to urban terrain. Both sides employed cutting-edge weaponry for the first time, including the U.S. TOW and Soviet 9M14 Malyutk wire-guided anti-tank missiles. This volume examines the tanks, armored forces and weapons that clashed in this little-known campaign in detail, using after-action reports from the battlefield and other primary sources to analyze the technical and organizational factors that shaped the outcome. Despite the ARVN's defensive success in October 1972, North Vietnam massively expanded its armor forces over the next two years while U.S. support waned. This imbalance with key strategic misjudgments by the South Vietnamese President led to the stunning defeat of the South in 1975 when T54 tanks crashed through the fence surrounding the Presidential palace and took Saigon on 30 April 1975.

The North Vietnamese launched thier Easter Offensive on March 2, 1972. Col. Turley gives an eyewitness account on this attack on South Vietnam.

On 30 March 1972, while peace negotiations had been dragging on for four years in Paris, the North Vietnamese launched a wide scale offensive in order to break the stalemate. At that date, practically no American ground forces remained in South Vietnam where a limited offensive was expected in the Central Highlands area. But nobody imagined the magnitude of the multidivisional, armor led onslaught. The blow fell first across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the North from South Vietnam (see Volume 1). Following from the initial attack, in a surprise move, three communist divisions with T-54 tanks attacked from their sanctuaries in Cambodia just north of Saigon. Their tanks ventured into the streets of An Loc City where they were checked by a desperate and heroic stand by the South Vietnamese soldiers and their American advisers, thus saving the capital of South Vietnam. Finally, the third prong of the North Vietnamese offensive swept across the northern Central Highlands, destroying a whole South Vietnamese division. The communists then resumed their advance, but their tanks were again entangled in street fighting, this time inside Kontum City. Furthermore, they were harassed by newly developed helicopter gun ships armed with antitank missiles. This volume not only details the combat taking place in these two areas but also the organization of both the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the South and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the North. It particularly emphasizes the transformation of the former from a mainly infantry force into a modern motorized force. It also describes how the North Vietnamese learnt the hard way about the use of their tanks. The author relies on not only American archives but also on Vietnamese sources, from both sides. The book contains 130 photos, five maps and 18 color profiles. Asia@War - following on from our highly successful Africa@War series, Asia@War replicates the same format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.

Includes over 30 maps and illustrations This monograph forms part of the Indochina Monograph series written by senior military personnel from the former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who served against the northern communist invasion. “In 1968, a U.S. presidential election year, Communist North Vietnam initiated the Tet Offensive, striking at almost all major cities and towns of South Vietnam. This general offensive was eventually defeated by the collective efforts of the Republic of Vietnam, United States and Free World Assistance forces. Four years later, in 1972—again a U.S. presidential election year—North Vietnam threw its entire military might behind an invasion to conquer the South. This time, however, South Vietnam had to fight for survival with only logistics and combat support provided by the United States. Almost all U.S. and Free World Military Assistance combat forces had been withdrawn when the first attacks began on 30 April 1972. By all standards, the Easter Offensive of 1972 was one of North Vietnam’s most significant initiatives during the Vietnam War. This all-out effort involved eventually in excess of ten divisions on each side and affected the lives of well over a million South Vietnamese people. During the eight long months of fierce fighting, the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces put Vietnamization to a severe test. During the period of the Easter Offensive, I had the privilege of participating in some of its major battles, first as IV Corps and then as I Corps commander beginning in early May 1972. I visited many of our combat units as they fought the North Vietnam Army and commanded the RVNAF counteroffensive to retake Quang Tri City. My critical analysis of the enemy 1972 Easter Invasion, therefore, is based almost exclusively on my own personal observations, impressions and interviews with Vietnamese who were directly involved.”-Authors’ Preface.

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam launched a massive, three-pronged attack into South Vietnam that was eventually repulsed by South Vietnamese forces, United States (US) advisors and massive amounts of American airpower. The problem is determining what factors were key to South Vietnam’s successful defense. To that point, this thesis will address the overall effectiveness of US airpower in defeating North Vietnam’s attack. This paper first examines the strategic and operational environment surrounding the 1972 offensive, including the role and influence that the leaders of the US, Saigon, Hanoi, China, and the Soviet Union had on the conflict. It then shifts to the three primary tactical battles, describing each in detail, from the initial communist successes to their ultimate defeat. Finally, the analysis focuses specifically on airpower’s role, from the massive strategic deployment that doubled the available assets in theater in just over a month, to its operational success striking targets in North Vietnam, to its tactical successes on the various battlefields of South Vietnam. Ultimately, this analysis determines that US airpower, with US advisors playing a critical enabling role, was the decisive element in the defeat of North Vietnam’s Easter Offensive.

"The Easter Offensive took place primarily in the northern three military regions (out of a total of four) of South Vietnam. In the northernmost region, called I Corps, the North Vietnamese opened the attack on 30 March 1972 with a massive artillery barrage of an intensity unmatched since World War II. Worse, from an infantryman's perspective, there were heavy tanks, also unprecedented on the battlefields of South Vietnam. Frightened South Vietnamese soldiers cowered in their positions, often refusing to fight. They abandoned many key positions and by the end of April most of Quang Tri Province, including the provincial capital, was in enemy hands and an entire South Vietnamese division had been destroyed." "In II Corps and III Corps the battle began less dramatically, but with equally devastating effects. District capitals fell in quick succession in three provinces, and two key cities, Kontum and An Loc, came under siege. After savage fighting lasting more than a month, both cities managed to hold out, though they were largely destroyed. The key to this pyrrhic victory was American air power - lots of it - which bombed the besieging North Vietnamese troops around the clock. Statistics indicate that a vast majority of enemy casualties (there were probably some 30,000 killed and wounded) were inflicted by aerial attacks." "Both sides claimed victory after the Easter Offensive, which officially ended in September 1972 with the recapture of Quang Tri City by South Vietnamese Marines. But the verdict is not so clear cut. North Vietnam had gained none of its goals of capturing and holding a provincial capital, nor had it decisively defeated the South Vietnamese Army. On the other hand, North Vietnam did gain considerable territory along the Laotian and Cambodian borders as well as the area just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Few people lived in these regions, but any ground gained played well at the Paris negotiating table." "In the end, North Vietnam committed all but one of its divisions to battle, leaving only a skeleton force to guard the homeland against a counterattack. This is unprecedented in military history and illustrates how confident Hanoi was that the Americans would not strike back. Indeed, the only U.S. response was renewed bombing of the North, the culmination of which was Operation Linebacker II, the "infamous" Christmas bombing. Whatever else it accomplished, the combination of North Vietnamese offensive and American bombing retaliation brought about final agreement on a peace treaty at Paris and allowed final U.S. disentanglement from Vietnam."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in what became known as the Easter Offensive. Almost all of the American forces had already withdrawn from Vietnam except for a small group of American advisers to the South Vietnamese armed forces. The 23rd ARVN Infantry Division and its American advisers were sent to defend the provincial capital of Kontum in the Central Highlands. They were surrounded and attacked by three enemy divisions with heavy artillery and tanks but, with the help of air power, managed to successfully defend Kontum and prevent South Vietnam from being cut in half and defeated. Although much has been written about the Vietnam War, little of it addresses either the Easter Offensive or the Battle of Kontum. In Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam, Thomas P. McKenna fills this gap, offering the only in-depth account available of this violent engagement. McKenna, a U.S. infantry lieutenant colonel assigned as a military adviser to the 23rd Division, participated in the battle of Kontum and combines his personal experiences with years of interviews and research from primary sources to describe the events leading up to the invasion and the battle itself. Kontum sheds new light on the actions of U.S. advisers in combat during the Vietnam War. McKenna's book is not only an essential historical resource for America's most controversial war but a personal story of valor and survival.