Nguyen Hue Offensive, 1972 Campaign badge

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The SRV flag is inscribed QUYET THANG (Resoved to Win) At the bottom of the badge is inscribed CHIEN THANG (Victory) 1972.

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The Easter Offensive, officially, the Nguyen Hue Offensive and also Chiến dịch Xuân hè 1972 in Vietnamese) was a military campaign conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the United States between 30th March and 22nd October 1972, during the Vietnam War. This conventional invasion (the largest offensive operation since 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" had crossed the Yalu River into South Korea during the Korean War) was a radical departure from previous North Vietnamese offensives. Although not designed to win the war outright, North Vietnam hoped to gain as much territory and destroy as many units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) as possible.
The allied high command had been expecting an attack sometime during 1972, but the size and ferocity of the assault caught the defenders off balance because the attackers struck on three fronts simultaneously with the bulk of the North Vietnamese army. This first attempt by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to invade the south since the Tet Offensive of 1968 became characterized by conventional infantry/armor assaults backed by heavy artillery, with both sides fielding the latest in technological advances in weapons systems.
In the Ist Corps Tactical Zone, North Vietnamese forces overran South Vietnamese defensive positions in a month-long battle and captured Quang Tri city before moving south in an attempt to seize Hue. PAVN similarly eliminated frontier defense forces in IInd Corps and advanced to seize the provincial capital of Kontum, which would have opened the way to the sea, splitting South Vietnam in two. Northeast of Saigon in IIIrd Corps, the communists overran Loc Ninh and advanced to assault the capital of Binh Long Province at An Loc. The campaign can be divided into three distinct phases: April was a month of communist advances and allied withdrawals; May became a period of equilibrium; in June and July the South Vietnamese forces counterattacked, culminating in the recapture of Quang Tri City in September.
On all three fronts of the offensive, initial North Vietnamese successes were hampered by high casualties, inept tactics, and the increasing application of U.S. and South Vietnamese air power. One result of the offensive was the launching of Operation Linebacker, the first sustained bombing of North Vietnam by the U.S. since November 1968. Although South Vietnamese forces withstood their greatest trial thus far in the conflict, the North Vietnamese accomplished two important goals: they had gained valuable territory within South Vietnam from which to launch any future offensives, and they had obtained a better bargaining position at the peace negotiations being conducted in Paris.