1972 in the Vietnam War 1972 in the Vietnam War 1972 in the Vietnam War saw foreign involvement in South Vietnam slowly declining. Two allies, New Zealand and Thailand, which had contributed a small military contingent, left South Vietnam this year. The United States continued to participate in combat, primarily with air power to assist the South Vietnamese army, while negotiators in Paris tried to hammer out a peace agreement and withdrawal strategy for the United States. One American operation that was declassified years after the war was Operation Thunderhead, a secret mission that attempted to rescue POWs. U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam numbered
1972 in the Vietnam War The United States Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the performance of South Vietnamese armed forces thus far in the Easter offensive as "encouraging." The city of Quang Tri was captured by the communist forces, the only provincial capital to fall to them during the Easter Offensive. The preceding week saw South Vietnamese casualties, especially near Quang Tri, reach their highest level of the entire Vietnam War. Two combat divisions of South Vietnam collapsed and fled the fighting. President Nixon withdrew his demand for a withdrawal of all North Vietnamese forces from South Vietnam as a precondition for a peace agreement.