Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam by Thomas P. McKenna (review)

The massive North Vietnamese attack against South Vietnam in April 1972 was the largest offensive of the war up to that point. Nicknamed the "Easter Offensive," it was the first time that Communist military strategists used large numbers of Soviet-built tanks and heavy artillery to augment multidivisional infantry thrusts. The goal of the offensive was to defeat the South Vietnamese armed forces and win the war or, failing that, to force the United States to overthrow President Nguyen Van Thieu and create a coalition government.

To achieve North Vietnam's objectives, Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap designed a three-pronged assault against South Vietnamese defenses. In the north, tank columns surged across the demilitarized zone and the Laotian border, trying to capture the old imperial capital of Hue. In the vast forests and mountains of the middle section of South Vietnam, called the Central Highlands, infantry and armor moved to capture the city of Kontum. From there, they intended to move eastward to the coast and cut South Vietnam in two. Further south, Communist infantry and tank units poured out of their sanctuaries in neighboring Cambodia and drove toward Saigon.

In all three areas, the North Vietnamese initially made significant gains. In the north, Communist troops captured the capital of Quang Tri Province and drove to within twenty miles of Hue. In the Central Highlands, North Vietnamese units effectively destroyed the 22nd Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) at the small village of Tan Canh and then moved up to the gates of Kontum. In the south, they surrounded the ARVN 5th Division at the city of An Loc and were preparing to overrun it. Yet even though South Vietnamese forces had crumbled under the first onslaught, they eventually stiffened. They stood their ground at key points in what became some of the defining battles of the war. President Richard Nixon's policy of "Vietnamization"—withdrawing U.S. ground combat forces while concurrently training units of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) to assume the lead role—now faced its sternest test.

To conduct that training, U.S. military officers were assigned as advisers to RVNAF units to tutor their counterparts, but the rapid drawdown of U.S. military forces in South Vietnam had pared their ranks as well. Now only regimental-size units and above had U.S. advisers. During the Easter Offensive, these advisers provided a direct link to U.S. airpower and logistics, and their steadying presence proved crucial in stopping the invasion.

In the historiography of the Vietnam War, the resultant battles to recapture Quang Tri City and defend An Loc have been heavily documented. Both have become iconic symbols of South Vietnamese resistance. Less well known is the battle for Kontum. Former U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Thomas McKenna, who fought at Kontum while serving as an adviser to the ARVN 44th Regiment, 23rd Division, has corrected that oversight. In a superb recounting of the battle, which in many ways was as critical as Quang Tri and An Loc, McKenna documents the tough fighting to defeat the unrelenting North Vietnamese effort to take the embattled city.

McKenna rightly points out that the Central Highlands theater, often overlooked because of its remoteness from Saigon and other major cities, was just as important as the two others. After destroying the ARVN 22nd Division, North Vietnamese commanders planned to annihilate the 23rd Division and drive to the coast. By cutting South Vietnam in two, Hanoi would achieve a position of military superiority that it would then use to construct a favorable political outcome to the war. First, though, its forces had to capture the city of Kontum. As Communist units closed in on the city, they suffered under a constant deluge of American tactical airstrikes and the judicious application of B-52 bombers. The progress of the North Vietnamese columns slowed, allowing the South Vietnamese time to concentrate the entire 23rd Division in...