ABSTRACT
For a brief period in 1972 the Nixon-Kissinger policy of withdrawal from Vietnam amid "Vietnamization" and negotiations for peace appeared in serious question. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong on April 1, 1972, opened their greatest offensive since Tet 1968, this time sending tanks as well as infantry across both the demilitarized zone and the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon. President Nixon responded to what has gone down in history as the "Easter Offensive" by resuming the bombing of North Vietnam, which the air force had already been doing in secret on a limited scale for several months, and shelling the coastline.
