LYCOS RETRIEVER 
South Vietnam: North Vietnam
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North Vietnamese Politburo orders major People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) offensive to "liberate" South Vietnam by NVA cross-border invasion. NVA general staff plan for the invasion of South Vietnam by 20 divisions. The Soviet-supplied North Vietnamese Army is the fifth largest in the world. It anticipates a two year struggle for victory, but Saigon falls in 55 days.
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The most crucial moment of truth for the ARVN came with General Vo Nguyen Giap's 1972 "Easter Offensive," the first all-out invasion of South Vietnam by the communist North. It was code-named "Nguyen Hue" after the historic Vietnamese hero who defeated the Chinese in 1778. The assault combined infantry wave assaults, artillery and the first massive use of tanks by the North Vietnamese. ARVN took heavy losses, but to the surprise of many, managed to hold their ground.
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On January 30, 1968, more than a quarter million North Vietnamese soldiers and 100,000 Viet Cong irregulars launched a massive attack on South Vietnam. But the public didn't hear about who had won this most decisive battle of the Vietnam War, the so-called Tet offensive, until much too late.
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The Socialist Republic of Vietnam consists of the former Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the former Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The division of the country resulted from the defeat of the French by Communist-inspired nationalists in 1954.
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The United States backed the anti-communist government in South Vietnam. It began to send military advisers to help train and support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The South was fighting a slowly rising insurgency from the North, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), which would be labeled the "Việt Cộng" in Ngô Đình Diệm's Denounce the Communists Campaign. The Americans would continue to call the NLF by this propaganda term.
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Using SEATO for political cover, the Eisenhower administration helped create a new nation from dust in southern Vietnam. In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was born. The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunchly anti-Communist figure from the South,won a dubious election that made him president of the GVN. Almost immediately, Diem claimed that his newly created government was under attack from Communists in the north. Diem argued that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) wanted to take South Vietnam by force. In late 1957, with American military aid, Diem began to counterattack.
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