Air operations Campaign 972 (28 October 1972 – 22 February 1973) was the final offensive in the south of the Kingdom of Laos by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

Although a ceasefire officially ended the Laotian Civil War at noon on 23 February with Salavan, Thakhek, and Lao Ngam in Communist hands, the PAVN launched another successful assault on Paksong 15 minutes later.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was central to the PAVN strategy for the conquest of South Vietnam during the Second Indochina War.

Operation Lam Son 719 was a larger and more forceful failed attempt at interdiction of the Trail by the South Vietnamese military in February 1971.

The Communist leaders in Hanoi ordered increased assistance to the Pathet Lao stationed near the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

[4] On 25 September 1972, the Pathet Lao political commissar for Borikhane Province arrested his PAVN adviser before deserting to the Royalists.

There was a month's delay while PAVN and loyalist Pathet Lao pursued the dissidents, then regrouped for the assault.

Despite their efforts, the PAVN probes neared the Mekong River, essentially cutting Laos in two while threatening the Kingdom of Thailand.

Their infantry now backed up by PT-76 tanks, they ejected a RLA garrison from a Route 13 bridge 40 kilometers south of Thakhek.

[5] On 5 January 1973, the GM 34 irregulars began an anticlockwise sweep back towards Thakhek, searching for any stray Vietnamese units.