Wars of The Cold War by David Stone

Author:David Stone [Stone, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 20th Century, Technology & Engineering, Military Science, Military, General
ISBN: 9781849945196
Google: pOUmEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Batsford
Published: 2018-10-26T22:29:24+00:00

Relating this situation to his account of the West Point graduates of 1966 Atkinson added:

Among the West Pointers from the class of 1966, the death toll [had] continued to rise with monotonous consistency. Soon it proportionately exceeded even the Korean War losses of the class of 1950, a group widely regarded [within the United States] as having been mauled in combat. The chance of being killed in Vietnam was about one in twenty among the ‘66ers; the chance of being wounded was about one in six.

Hollow Victory: The Defeat of the Communist Invasion, 1972

With US strengths reduced to levels not seen since the mid-1960s, and South Vietnam’s industry, commerce and even agriculture booming, Hanoi could delay its invasion no longer. The ARVN was also gaining in strength and professionalism by the month. Forgoing the option of mounting another offensive at Tet, the date selected was March 1972. This would allow the NVA to complete its new campaign before the monsoon rains arrived in May to hamper armoured movement and favour the forces defending South Vietnam. The fact that a US presidential election was once again in the offing was a bonus, but not entirely coincidental.

In 1971, Le Duan, formerly the senior Viet Minh leader in South Vietnam, had visited Moscow and secured Soviet approval of a conventional invasion of the South, plus an agreement to provide the necessary matériel and equipment to carry it out. As many hundreds of tons of armaments (including T-34, PT-76 and T-54/55 tanks, 122mm and 130mm artillery pieces and SA-2 and SA-7 surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems) and supplies flowed into North Vietnam, the USAF and South Vietnamese air force resumed their bombing of targets below the 20th parallel; but they still stopped short of strategic strikes against Hanoi and Haiphong, or at the PRC–North Vietnam border. Where they did attack the NVA build-up, these air strikes were generally very effective, but political constraints limited the extent of the USAF missions. With their bombing accuracy and techniques the Americans could almost certainly have stopped the impending invasion in its tracks; but all too familiar political pressures in Washington, a US fear of being labelled as aggressors, and the evidence of direct Soviet support for the North, all combined to inhibit the commanders in the field.

At 02.00 hours on 30 March thousands of shells, rockets and mortar rounds fell on South Vietnamese positions along the demilitarised zone (DMZ). This tremendous bombardment neutralised the ARVN fire support bases and was followed shortly afterwards by the rumble of tank tracks as the NVA 304th and 308th Divisions stormed across the border. The NVA attack was spearheaded by the newly acquired T-54/55 main battle tanks. Simultaneously the NVA 324th Division broke across the western border from Laos and drove eastward from the A Shau Valley towards Hue. Some 40,000 NVA troops swept into Quang Tri province, and within six days they had penetrated ten miles into the South. Eventually, a total of six NVA divisions were committed in the area of South Vietnam designated Military Region I (MR I).

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