you know, giap was authorized to mount an invasion in 1972 before the u.s. withdrew. the north believed that the south vietnamese would collapse, the u.s. would be humiliated and that would be the end of the war. g argued, look, the arvn is too strong. usair power is too effective. don't go to phase iii now. just wait. the americans are leaving. again, he loses this fight. and the north decides that they're going to go to phase iii once again. they benefit from huge amounts of soviet and chinese aid to do this. and they launch what becomes known as the easter offensive in march. 1972. and here again, the communists are fighting while negotiating. negotiations are going on while they do this. and here again, the communists, they go to stage iii. the invasion is launched in three phases. the phases are on your outline. it's poorly executed, it's heavily bombed and ends in failure. some of the sources will say the north suffered 100,000 dead during this invasion. again, it's difficult with the numbers to know. but they did get some benefit. they took parts of south vietn