Battle Of Kontum
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The lead-up to the Battle of Kontum began in mid-1971, when North Vietnam realized that its victory at Operation Lam Son 719 meant it was ready for larger offensives that could end the war sooner. They planned three offensives for the spring of 1972; offensives that would make use of fourteen divisions and it would be the largest in the war.
The 1972 Nguyen Hue Campaign began with a massive attack on the Demilitarized Zone with 30,000 People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) soldiers and more than 200 tanks. Two thrusts of equivalent size, one towards Saigon and a third to the Central Highlands and provincial capital of Kontum began soon after. North Vietnam knew if they could capture Kontum and the Central Highlands, they could cut South Vietnam in half.
The Battle for Kontum would pit the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 22nd and (later) the 23rd Divisions under the command of Lt. Gen. Ngo Dzu and later Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van Toan against the equivalent of three North Vietnamese Army divisions, the 320th and 2nd Divisions plus combat units of the 3rd PAVN Division, B-3 Front, and local Viet Cong forces under the command of Lt. Gen. Hoang Minh Thao.
There were two factors that persuaded North Vietnam that all out assaults of this kind could be successful. First, due to President Nixon's Vietnamization policy, there were no American divisional forces in the Central Highlands, only advisers and U.S. aviation units including Air Cavalry helicopter units from the 7/17 Air Cavalry Squadron. By June of that year there were less than 50,000 U.S. forces in all of Vietnam.
Second, the North Vietnamese had persuaded the Soviets and Chinese to provide a thousand T-54, PT-76 and Type 59 tanks before the spring offensive. The T54 was better than any tank used by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and would add to the PAVN's superiority on the ground.
Read more about Battle Of Kontum: Situation On The Ground, Lead-up To The Main Battle, Main Battle of Kontum, Final Attack On Kontum, Aftermath
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