Vietnam War

===Hanoi's war strategy===
[[File:Vietnampropaganda.png|thumb|upright|Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of [[Viet Cong]] and [[North Vietnam]]ese to the side of the [[Republic of Vietnam]]]]

In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died at age 79.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 September 1969 |title=Ho Chi Minh Dies of Heart Attack in Hanoi |page=1 |work=The Times}}</ref> The failure of the 1968 Tet Offensive in sparking a popular uprising in the south caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the [[Võ Nguyên Giáp|Giáp]]-[[Trường Chinh|Chinh]] "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn-[[Hoàng Văn Thái]] "Southern-First" faction.<ref name="Currey">{{Cite book |last=Currey |first=Cecil B. |title=Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap |date=2005 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-57488-742-6 |page=[{{GBurl|id=jm-jh1_D0I4C|p=272}} 272]}}</ref>{{Rp|272–274}} An unconventional victory was sidelined in favor of a strategy built on conventional victory through conquest.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|196–205}} Large-scale offensives were rolled back in favor of [[Low intensity conflict|small-unit]] and [[Sapper#PAVN and Viet Cong|sapper]] attacks as well as targeting the pacification and Vietnamization strategy.<ref name=Currey/> In the two-year period following Tet, the PAVN had begun its transformation from a fine [[Light infantry|light-infantry]], limited mobility force into a [[Maneuver warfare|high-mobile]] and mechanized [[combined arms]] force.<ref name=Currey/>{{Rp|189}} By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present |date=February 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=447}}</ref>