Meanwhile, the NVA had launched the second effort of their battle plan in II Corps in the Central Highlands. The NVA 320th Division, supported by tanks and anti-aircraft weapons, swept across the Laotian border and advanced on the city of Kontum, badly mauling the 22nd ARVN Division in the process. The 22nd Division was split between the Highlands and the coast, where it still had area security missions, and was more or less chopped up in detail (i.e., defeated one unit at a time).

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The NVA 320th Division attacked more than a dozen ARVN outposts southwest of Kontum and blocked Routes 14 and 19. The NVA were able to occupy the northern part of the coastal province of Binh Dinh and capture Dak To in the highland province of Kontum, before moving on the city of Kontum itself and surrounding it. In Kontum, the newly assigned commander of defenses for the region, Colonel Ly Tong Ba, found it nearly impossible to control the many diverse units under his command. He had a mixed bag of airborne, ranger, territorial and armored forces, as well as one regiment of his own 23rd Division.

The first major drive on Kontum itself occurred on the morning of May 14. Battalion-sized units of NVA soldiers supported by two columns of tanks attacked from the north and northwest. South Vietnamese defenders, using hand-held anti-tank weapons and supported by fighter-bombers, were able to deal with the tanks and held their ground. Similar attacks were launched and subsequently broken up by the Kontum defenders and by U.S. and South Vietnamese air power over the next several days. Of particular help against the North Vietnamese tanks was the introduction of the TOW (tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) anti-tank missile. These missiles, launched from U.S. Army helicopters and guided to their targets by the pilots, gave the allies a great advantage by being able to pick off the NVA tanks as they moved in to attack. Of the first 101 firings, 89 scored direct hits on enemy tanks and trucks. Through June 12, the U.S. Army claimed 26 tank kills by the helicopter-launched missiles, including at least 11 T-54s in the Kontum area.

As each enemy attack was repulsed, the morale of the Kontum defenders grew while the North Vietnamese Army commanders became increasingly frustrated by their lack of progress. Pressing their attack, the NVA units surrounding Kontum laid siege to the city, dropping more than 1,000 rounds of artillery and rockets onto the defenders, and were able to seize parts of the city and close down the airport, necessitating the resupply of the defenders by helicopter. Finally, unable to break the ARVN resistance and devastated by tactical airstrikes and especially the B-52 raids, the North Vietnamese pulled away from Kontum during the first half of June. Sporadic fighting continued, but by mid-July, the highway connecting Kontum and Pleiku was cleared, and armed convoys were once again able to travel between the two cities.

The third prong of the NVA attack began on April 2, as the enemy 5th Division, composed of both Viet Cong and NVA units, rolled into northern Tay Ninh province in III Corps and attacked the fire support base at Lac Long. Within two days the Communists had effective control of key positions in the province and were able to direct their attention to their main objectives, the towns and airfields in Loc Ninh, An Loc and Quan Loi, along with positions astride Highway 13, the main highway connecting the region with Saigon. As elsewhere, the Communists? main objectives were to establish a regional government and to better position themselves for subsequent ‘peace’ talks. The city of Loc Ninh, located close to the Cambodian border, fell within a couple of days and subsequently became the capital of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRGSVN), a distinction it held until it was disbanded by the North Vietnamese after the war.

After securing that city, the NVA drove on to their main military objective, the small provincial capital of An Loc, to which most of the ARVN units in the region had withdrawn. Here the city was probed by the enemy 9th Division, while the 7th Division, a mixture of Viet Cong and NVA, successfully blocked Route 13 about 25 kilometers to the south. On April 13, with their escape route effectively cut off, the town’s five ARVN regiments and about 10,000 civilians found themselves under a siege that would last for 95 days.

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