Operations Enhance and Enhance Plus
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Operations Enhance and Enhance Plus in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
transferred large quantities of
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
military equipment and bases to the
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
ese government in advance of the
Paris Peace Accords The Paris Peace Accords, () officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam (''Hiệp định về chấm dứt chiến tranh, lập lại hòa bình ở Việt Nam''), was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1 ...
which ended American involvement in the war. The two operations were conducted between May and December 1972.


Operation Enhance

In late March 1972,
North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
launched the
Easter Offensive The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 spring–summer offensive ('' vi, Chiến dịch Xuân–Hè 1972'') by North Vietnam, or the red fiery summer (') as romanticized in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted b ...
against South Vietnam. The communist objective was to weaken the South Vietnamese armed forces, capture additional South Vietnamese territory and weaken American resolve to continue to assist South Vietnam. The Easter Offensive was carried out in the context that North Vietnam was negotiating a peace agreement with the United States and wished to strengthen its position in South Vietnam prior to completing the agreement. The Easter Offensive put the military forces of South Vietnam under intense pressure. After the fall of the provincial capital of Quang Tri and the capability of the South Vietnamese to stave off North Vietnam in doubt, U.S. President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
on 17 May directed that a maximum of U.S. equipment and material be given to South Vietnam as quickly as possible. On 19 May, Nixon approved a list of equipment to be provided to South Vietnam by 1 August and Project Enhance began. Nixon also wanted to build up South Vietnamese military equipment so that, if the anticipated peace agreement declared a moratorium on introducing new military equipment, South Vietnam would have adequate supplies. Operation Enhance provided South Vietnamese armed forces with artillery and anti-tank weapons, 69 helicopters, 55 jet fighters, 100 other aircraft, and 7 patrol boats. The equipment provided to the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suf ...
(ARVN) included 2 air defense artillery battalions, 3 175mm artillery battalions, 2 M48A3 tank battalions and 141
TOW missile The BGM-71 TOW ("Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided") is an American anti-tank missile. TOW replaced much smaller missiles like the SS.10 and ENTAC, offering roughly twice the effective range, a more powerful warhead, and a greatly ...
launchers.


Operation Enhance Plus

On 20 October 1972 Nixon ordered additional U.S. military equipment to be delivered to South Vietnam. Nixon anticipated that a peace agreement would be concluded shortly and that the agreement would ban an expansion of military aid to South Vietnam and permit only a one-for-one replacement of military equipment. He wanted the South Vietnamese to have a maximum of equipment on hand before the restrictions in the peace agreement took place. The last shipment of equipment arrived on 12 December and the peace agreement was not concluded until 27 January 1973. The equipment transfers to South Vietnam consisted of 234 F-5A and A-37 jet fighter planes, 32
C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desi ...
transport planes, 277
UH-1H The Bell UH-1 Iroquois military helicopter, first introduced in 1959, is the first production member of the prolific Huey family of helicopters, and was itself developed in over twenty variants, which are listed below. XH-40 and YH-40 The firs ...
helicopters, 72 tanks, 117 armored personnel carriers, artillery and 1,726 trucks. The cost of the equipment was about $750 million 9 ($5.7 billion in 2015 dollars). Moreover, most of the U.S. supplied equipment of two departing
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
n divisions (approximately 38,000 men) was also given to South Vietnam. In addition, the U.S. transferred title of its military bases in South Vietnam and all the equipment on the bases to South Vietnam.


Impact

As a result of Operations Enhance and Enhance Plus, South Vietnam at the end of 1972 had the fourth largest air force in the world. However, the ability of the South Vietnamese to use all this equipment and to maintain it was much in doubt. An adviser to President
Nguyen Van Thieu Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this ...
said that the operations had political value as a sign that the U.S. would not abandon South Vietnam"Lipsman, Samuel and Weiss, Stephen (1984), ''The False Peace,'' Boston: Boston Publishing Company, p 18 The Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties to the war on 27 January 1973 prohibited replacement of military equipment in South Vietnam except on a one-for-one basis and ended large transfers of military equipment from the United States. The agreement also required the withdrawal of nearly all U.S. military personnel although the US would retain several thousand civilian advisers in South Vietnam.


References

{{reflist Enhance Plus Enhance Plus Enhance Plus 1972 in Vietnam History of South Vietnam 20th-century military history of the United States