Vietnam ground combat operations in 1965, and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000. The US also engaged in a sustained aerial bombing campaign. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers. Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail, which passed through the Kingdom of Laos. The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. Although the campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and turned US public opinion against the war. During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians
Dispatched release. Between the August 3 and 7, 1998 Dispatched visited The Abyss, with Tommy Tägtgren to record the MCD "Promised Land". Dispatched signed a one-MCD deal with Kshatryas Productions of Germany, and released "Promised Land" in late 1998. In 1999, the band began rehearsing for a full-length album. In October, they entered Studio Abyss again with Tägtgren as producer. Two weeks were booked, but Dispatched was well-prepared and used only twelve days for the recording of ten new songs. The band had already received offers from several record companies before the session, but they refused to sign anything. Now with