Video: 'North Vietnamese Army, NVA 1972 Easter Invasion'

(Thursday, March 30, 1972, noon Saigon Standard Time; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — The Easter Offensive, a military campaign conducted by the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN, the regular army of North Vietnam) against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN, the regular army of South Vietnam) and the United States military, began today when an intense artillery barrage rained down on the northernmost ARVN outposts in Quang Tri Province.

Video: 'PBS Nixon (1990)_2of3' (Easter Offensive at 50:13)

This conventional invasion, the largest invasion since 300,000 Chinese troops had crossed the Yalu River into North Korea during the Korean War, was a radical departure from previous North Vietnamese offensives.

Video: 'Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War - Frontline America [8/13]' (Easter Offensive at 40:58)

Video: 'Vietnam - The Ten Thousand Day War (1980) – Ep 11/13: Peace' (Easter Offensive at 15:48)

The offensive was designed to achieve a decisive victory, which even if it did not lead to the collapse of South Vietnam, would greatly improve the North’s negotiating position at the Paris Peace Accords.

Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Vietnamizing the War [7/11]' (Easter Offensive at 40:30)

The U.S. high command had been expecting an attack in 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.

Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Peace is at Hand [9/11]' (Easter Offensive at 25:43)

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.