File:BR, Vietnam, 1972, Easter Counter-Offensive, file 003.jpg

In the beginning: "... 30 March 1972 NVN launches "well-coordinated, well-planned, three-pronged infantry attack across the entire Quang Tri frontier...Supported by Soviet and Chinese-built tanks and artillery, some 25,000 North Vietnamese infantry attacked across the Demilitarized Zone with such rapidity and shock that the men facing the onslaught were stunned. ...the bold and sudden thrust directly across the DMZ was neither predicted nor expected. ...In the minds of both the ARVN and U.S. commanders a massive attack by the NVA across the entire DMZ, and especially its eastern portion, was unthinkable." [30] "The NVA's sudden shift from guerrilla harassing tactics to mobile conventional warfare ... Never before had the North Vietnamese struck either military or civilian areas with such a concentration of artillery fire. ...In the face of this unprecedented attack, civilians began gathering their belongings and fleeing south .." "The NVA had taken a mere 48 hours to rush the northern "ring of steel". At best, the retreating ARVN had served to slow the NVA because the enemy had deployed into battlefield formations." [31]