North Vietnam's 1972 Easter Offensive - 9781526757128

\n\nNORTH VIETNAM\u2019S 1972 EASTER OFFENSIVE \nHanoi\u2019s Gamble\n\nNORTH VIETNAM\u2019S 1972 EASTER OFFENSIVE \nHanoi\u2019s Gamble\n\nBy the end of 1971, in what Hanoi called the American War and at the height of the Cold War, the fighting had dragged on for eight years with neither side gaining a decisive advantage on the battlefield and talks in Paris to the end the war were going nowhere. While the United States was steadily drawing down its ground forces in South Vietnam, Washington was also engaging in a grand effort to build up and strengthen Saigon\u2019s armed forces to the point of self-sufficiency. Not only had the ranks of Saigon\u2019s forces swelled in recent years, but they were now being equipped and trained to use the latest American military equipment. Perhaps now was the time for Hanoi to take one last gamble before it was too late. With the rumble of men and mechanized equipment breaking the early morning silence, some 40,000 North Vietnamese troops adv;