Editing Trần Văn Trà (section)

==Vietnam War==
During the [[Vietnam War]] against the Americans and South Vietnamese, he led the attack on [[Saigon]] during the [[Tet Offensive]] of 1968 and commanded the B2 Front during the [[Easter Offensive]].[[File:Svnmapfront.jpg|thumb|left|270px|NLF Fronts and Military regions, 1970]]

During a 1974 meeting of North Vietnamese military leaders in Hanoi, Trà argued against a conservative strategy during the coming year and suggested that South Vietnam's [[Phước Long province|Phước Long Province]] be attacked in order to test both [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|South Vietnamese]] and American military reaction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/Vietnam.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916230911/http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/Vietnam.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 16, 2012 | title = Vietnam: A History of the Bulwark B-2 Theater Translation of ''Kết thúc cuộc chiến tranh 30 năm.'' | author = Colonel General Trần Văn Trà | publisher =  United States. Joint Publications Research Service | date = February 1983 | accessdate =14 October 2015}}</ref> The attack was successful and the U.S. did not respond militarily, prompting larger, more aggressive communist operations. In April 1975, Trà became Deputy Commander of the A75 headquarters under Senior General [[Văn Tiến Dũng]] during the [[Ho Chi Minh Campaign]], the final assault on Saigon which led to the capitulation of the South Vietnamese government. He took charge of Vice-Minister of Defence from 1978 to 1982.{{Citation needed|date=September 2012}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Thanh Binh|first=Nguyen|date=25 September 2012|title=Senior Lieutenant General Tran Van Tra|url=http://www.mod.gov.vn/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/vZTbbqMwFEW_pR8QYQjXRwPhFjA3A4aXCHJrCAkkZIDw9ZNOq5GmmiYvbXyejrSPlvc-sqmMIlR2zLvdNr_s6mNevfUZv9AgCkSZhgCAkAPmFM4jW7o1ULgJ0ptA0aHBCjYAoq3fBNCIAsmfTgGc_juvw1gDphUCqAgco-gslVCkTDmk1E4_M4kH9knSgwAt1etcaC3H8XW0u3jMZJ-_mgbG46Yrk7FfLl2lPYGiLTNAHJJ6kTwyjTM5F5ZdHRMxcOeZJdTI7SR5Clmms1KJ351n8SqaX5SJatFrpW4UzpRJVB6rndhw-bDRak7ZZAuAkWRsNzAv5eOHP_DFgeCRv_f5O4IH-SZUdhfBCh-Ceyv4I7jjIb0JhK8vyVGYIoBdhOW1Mcf9GJSjP4Sqzzg4sOiItkMgxCjaA7yK0UWFNCijvo1ebQebAGHkhRfDW8VBJENo_bKV-gFQ5J8NZH8c6BpvQGxxoeszgGWe7fD7d2hR2baqi9snEWdpY6u1BWcz7LGnORkxNl8dHdf2ZThsVWujyXm_am1LSffFqVl3WXCi7YjooQR9zxEz0ZEyhdVqhbAu1NEoBrBwyDxjrjIxz2FQ6VMjyAI1VlO78bQLmeUNmhrbq7tgeyOQUu9YD-pis6i5yuPjdLcqoJscssqNtXPUKNcRhWdSGWY75hOU5rTDcUWHeb9FZ2EPKWTUh_XnCD89Rv8_EYagnV0HR11ZtJrQjmqEqJjBdtfjqB_oMh0wVpgwAgOyl1csEWel3RKUxK1q9i8vD4A8-2SgL_w08PMzAM-OlP92YHOIurnNB8ZI_tZa7w7vtX35Dfj4uXo!/dl4/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/|access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref>

In 1982, Trà published ''Vietnam: A History of the Bulwark B-2 Theatre, Volume 5, Concluding the 30-Years War'', which revealed how the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam|Hanoi Politburo]] had overestimated its own military capabilities and underestimated those of the U.S. and South Vietnam prior to and during the [[Tet Offensive]]. This account offended and embarrassed the leaders of the newly unified [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam]]. This was probably the reason he lost his membership in the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam|Central Committee]], and only two volumes were ever published of the five Tra had planned. Suggestions that he remained in such disgrace as to be under something similar to house arrest, until his death on 20 April 1996,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/contentpages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1194574&currentSection=1194544&productid=10 | title =The Tet Offensive and the Media: Tran Van Tra |author =  William Head |publisher = [[ABC-CLIO]]  |date =  2011 |accessdate =14 October 2015 |archive-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151014150347/http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/contentpages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1194574&currentSection=1194544&productid=10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|William Head's source contains a critical misinformation that consider '''Trần Nam Trung''' was just an alias of '''Trần Văn Trà'''. In fact, they were two different figures.}} are exaggerated. He published two articles in ''Tap chi lich su quan su'' [Journal of military history] in 1988,<ref>Tran Van Tra, "Tet Mau Than, chien cong hien hach [Tet, the Year of the Monkey, a glorious feat of arms]," and "Thang loi va suy nghi ve thang loi [Victory and reflections on victory]," ''Tap chi lich su quan su'' [Journal of military history], February 1988, pp. 8-23, and April 1988, pp. 36-45.</ref> and he was even permitted to travel to the United States in 1990 to present a paper at a conference at Columbia University.<ref>Tran Van Tra, "The War that Should Not Have Been," in Jayne S. Werner and Luu Doan Huynh, eds., ''The Vietnam War: Vietnamese and American Perspectives'' (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 233-242.</ref> In 1992, the People's Army published another volume of his projected five-volume history of the B-2 Theater.<ref>Tran Van Tra, ''Nhung chang duong lich su cu B2 thanh dong,'' vol. 1, ''Hoa binh hay chien tranh'' (Hanoi: Nha Xuat Ban Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 1992)</ref> From 1992 to 1996 he was Deputy Chairman of the Veterans Association of Vietnam.<ref>''Tu dien bach khoa quan su Viet nam'' [Military encyclopedia of Vietnam] (Hanoi: Quan doi nhan dan, 1996), p. 807.</ref>