Eastertide Offensive
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The Eastertide Offensive was a military campaign in the Vietnam War. It lasted from March to October 1972. It was North Vietnam's first attempt to invade South Vietnam since the third phase of the General Offensive had been stalled at the Battle of Dai Do in May 1968.
The offensive began on 30 March 1972, when 200,000 North Vietnamese Army troops under the command of General Vo Nguyen Giap, entered the demilitarized zone of South Vietnam and attacked the city of Quang Tri from the North and West. This was followed by attacks on Kontum on 12 April and An Loc on 19 April. The offensive was designed to split South Vietnam into two halves. The attack on Quang Tri was met with heavy aerial bombardment by the United States Navy. B-52 bombers were used to extend the air strikes to all the North Vietnamese forces in the demilitarised zone on 4 April, and areas of North Vietnam on 10 April, in a bombing campaign unprecedented during the Vietnam War. Hanoi was bombed on 15 April.
Quang Tri fell to the North Vietnamese on 1 May. America and South Vietnam withdrew from the peace talks in Paris three days later, though talks resumed on 13 July. The North Vietnamese soon pressed the attack on Hue where they were rebuffed with the help of American air support on 5 May. America reinforced its bombers and continued to provide aerial support to South Vietnamese troops, and began Operation Linebacker I. At the same time it continued to withdraw troops, culminating in the departure of the last American combat troops from Vietnam on 23 August. On 8 May, South Vietnamese planes dropped napalm on the village of Trang Bang, an incident recorded in the famous photo of Kim Phuc. With Operation Linebacker I underway, the Eastertide Offensive was disrupted by supply shortages. The North Vietnamese Army withdrew from the offensive on Kontum on 30 May, and An Loc, which had been besieged unsuccessfully by the communists, on 11 July.
The South Vietnamese launched an offensive to re-take Quang Tri on 28 June, finally recapturing the city on 16 September. One tenth of North Vietnam's air force was destroyed during the bombing of Vietnam airfields at the end of September. The peace talks in Paris reached fruition on 8 October as both sides agreed to major concessions. However, American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's proposals were initially rejected by the South Vietnamese government. America ended Operation Linebacker I on 22 October amid talks of an end to the Vietnam War, although north Vietnamese troops remained in South Vietnam's demilitarised zone. Estimated troop casualties during the Eastertide Offensive were 100,000 for North Vietnam and 40,000 for South Vietnam. Following the failure of the offensive, General Giap was replaced by his deputy, General Van Tien Dung.
Peace talks failed again in December, leading to Operation Linebacker II, a devastating bombing campaign. The Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 confirmed that North Vietnamese troops would remain in South Vietnam. America ended its involvement in the Vietnam War in April 1973. The North Vietnamese Army launched a third attempt to invade South Vietnam in the spring of 1975, and was successful.