Easter Offensive 1972 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Easter Offensive 1972 - Research Paper Example The size and ferocity the offensive unleashed to the waiting American and Vietnamese forces had been under estimated thus leading to them being overwhelmed by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The involvement of John Ripley in the Easter offensive which lasted over three hours is also reportedly the end of the North Vietnam Army push to conquer the south. The following paper is a description of the Easter offensive that occurred in Dong Ha when the NVA’s Push for the Southern Vietnamese nation. It also describes the involvement of John Ripley in combat while still exploring the under looked issues in the mission. The Easter Offensive Before the South Vietnamese Operation Lam Son which was to fail, discussions had been held by the Hanoi leadership on the Easter offensive. This was during the 19th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Lang Dong party in 1971. It is reported that by December that same year the Politburo had resolved to launch a mega attack on the southern region of Vietnam (George 75). This would be favored by the elections that were to take place in the United States the following year. In addition, the US marines in the area were being withdrawn from Vietnam. Consequently, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was increasingly being stretched over the South Vietnam border. It is also reported that the ARVN was increasing losing their ground on the border to an estimated 600 miles to the NRV. Moreover, the ARVN was offensive was a promising memory after the failure of the Laos mission. As described by George (24), ‘This decision marked the end of three years of political infighting between two factions within the Politburo: those members grouped around  Truong Chinh, who favored following the Chinese model of continued low-intensity  guerrilla warfare  and rebuilding the north; and the "southern firsters" centered around Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap and supported by First Party SecretaryLe Duan  (both of whom supporte d the  Soviet  model of big offensives)’ . The decision would be to use a combined mega guerilla attack on the security forces. This is also supported by Nalty (