The Easter Offensive of 1972 a Failure to Use Intelligence
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The Easter Offensive of 1972: A Failure to Use Intelligence by W. R. Baker It was not Intelligence (evaluated information of the enemy) that failed. The failure was [that of] the commanders and certain G2s, who did not act on the intelligence they had. Colonel Robert S. Allen, on The Battle of the Bulge 1 Like the Battle of the Bulge, the 1972 Easte r Off ensive in Vie tnam has ofte n been referred to as an "intelligence failure," mainly because it caught the United States and South Vietnam completely by surprise. A look beneath the surface, however, reveals tha t U.S . and Sou th Vi etname se comba t comman der s were awar e of sig nif ica nt changes in the posture of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and had access to many in di ca to rs of an impe nd in g NV A of fe ns iv e. Co lo ne l Al le n' s as se ssme nt th at commanders at The Bulge failed to embrace the intelligence available to them holds true whe n eval uat ing why Amer ican and South Vietn amese forc es failed during the Easter Offensive, as well. Sever al facto rs contr ibu ted to the success enj oye d by the NVA dur ing the Eas ter Offensive. First, the U.S. and South Vietnamese commanders failed to use all of the intelligence available to them. Their overconfidence, coupled with command and control (C 2 ), and communications problems, violated the cardinal rule of "never underestimate your enemy." Also, Allied commanders relied on only two of the three forms of intelligen ce---imag ery inte llig ence (IMI NT) and sign als inte llig ence (SIGINT ). In igno ring human inte llig ence (HUMINT) data, they overlooked the most accurate forecast of enemy intentions leading up to the Easter Offensive. Background While most areas of South Vietnam encountered NVA ground force activity during the Easter Offensive of 1972, it was the northern-most portion of the country, the Quang Tri Province, which bore the initial and most severe brunt of the NVA's conventional ground
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