The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War
CMH Pub 76-8
GPO S/N: Not Available

By the beginning of 1972, the United States had been involved in the war in Vietnam for more than a decade. The Vietnamization effort and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, first announced by President Richard M. Nixon in June 1969, continued without let up. While Henry A. Kissinger attempted to negotiate an acceptable peace settlement in Paris, the Nixon administration pursued its twin track strategy of disengagement from Vietnam while preparing the South Vietnamese to stand on their own after U.S. forces departed. The U.S. commander in Vietnam, General Creighton W. Abrams Jr., faced a daunting challenge; he had to direct the war that continued to rage while also taking measures to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese, even as the United States drew down the number of troops he needed to accomplish those missions. It became a race against time to prepare the South Vietnamese military before all U.S. forces departed.