page_title: 1972 in the Vietnam War
section_title: March
hierarchical_section_title: 1972 in the Vietnam War / March
caption_attribution_description: English: From Joel D. Meyerson, Images of a Lengthy War. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1986.
context_page_description: 1972 in the Vietnam War saw foreign involvement in South Vietnam slowly declining. Two allies, New Zealand and Thailand, which had each contributed military contingents, left South Vietnam this year. The United States continued to participate in combat, primarily with air power to assist the South Vietnamese army, while negotiators in Paris tried to hammer out a peace agreement and withdrawal strategy for the United States.
context_section_description: 6-31 March
  Operation Strength II was an RLA offensive designed to draw PAVN forces away from besieging Long Tieng. The operation failed to divert PAVN forces.
  7 March
  U.S. bombing of anti-aircraft installations extended up to 120 miles (190 km) north of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The 86 air raids carried out in North Vietnam so far in 1972 equaled the number of air raids against North Vietnam during all of 1971.
  10 March
  Prime Minister Lon Nol declared President of Cambodia.
  The U.S. 101st Airborne Division left South Vietnam, the last U.S. ground combat division to be withdrawn from South Vietnam.
  21 March
  The Khmer Rouge bombarded the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh with artillery, killing more than 100 civilians. This was the heaviest attack on Phnom Penh since the Cambodian Civil War began in 1970.
  21 March - 6 October
  The Lavelle Affair began when USAF General John D. Lavelle, commander of Seventh Air Force, was accused of breaching the rules of engagement for reconnaissance patrols and protective reaction strikes over North Vietnam, allowing the falsifying of records to show that U.S. aircraft had been fired on and so allowing them to hit North Vietnamese targets. Lavelle would be forced to retire as a Major General.
  22 March - 30 April
  The PAVN 101D Regiment attacked the ARVN 42nd Ranger Group at Kompong Trach in Cambodia. Each side reinforced and the fighting continued until the end of April when the ARVN withdrew having inflicted heavy losses on the PAVN 1st Division. The battle was the first phase of the Easter Offensive in southern Cambodia and the Mekong Delta.
  23 March
  The United States boycotted peace negotiations in Paris with the North Vietnamese, citing the failure of North Vietnam to negotiate seriously.
  30 March
  The long anticipated offensive by the PAVN/VC began. Called the Nguyễn Huệ Offensive or Chiến dịch Xuân hè 1972 in Vietnamese and the Easter Offensive in English, three PAVN divisions (30,000–40,000 men) with support from tanks and artillery crossed the DMZ or came from Laos to the west to attack the ARVN 3rd Division. Although a North Vietnamese offensive had been expected, the invasion across the DMZ was a surprise and the ARVN was ill-prepared. Several small firebases were overrun within hours.
  North Vietnam's military objectives in launching what would be a three-pronged offensive were the capture of the cities of Quang Tri in the northern part of South Vietnam, Kontum in the Central Highlands and An Loc in the south.
caption: PAVN M46 130mm guns
exif: {}