Ho Chi Minh Offensive Maps

The Fall of South Vietnam

Withdrawal from the Central Highlands

Ho Chi Minh Campaign/Battle of Xuan Loc

The Fall of Saigon

Images

1975 Ho Chi Minh Offensive

In late 1974 and early 1975 North Vietnam prepared for the final ofensive in South Vietnam. The big question was how the United States might react. Although the U.S. forces had withdrawn from the South, the threat of "swift and severe" action to aggression from the North, made by former U.S. President Richard Nixon, was still a possibility. But the North attacked anyhow, from Laos into the Central Highlands in March. Very quickly they punched through to the South China Sea. In the northern provinces, Da Nang fell to the advancing PAVN forces on March 30. President Thieu began withdrawing the ARVN forces to an area closer to Saigon.

Following the collapse of ARVN in Military Regions I and II, the North decided at the end of March to attack Saigon immediately. In early April PAVN forces began engaging ARVN forces around the city, blocking roads and shelling Bien Hoa airfield. At Xuan Loc, 35 miles east and slightly to the north of Saigon, the North Vietnamese began a hard-fought battle on April 8. On April 21 President Thieu, sensing the hopelessness of the situation, resigned in favor of Vice-President Tran Van Huong, but Washington's attempts to support Huong failed in Congress.

Xuan Loc fell on April 21 and, by April 25, ARVN forces in and around Saigon were feeling pressure from all sides. PAVN forces attacked the city on April 26, bringing artillery and captured A-37 aircraft to bear on the former U.S. bases at Tan Son Nhut airport, Ben Hoa, and Long Binh. As more and more ARVN military and civilian officials abandoned their posts, Huong resigned on April 28 in favor of Duong Van Minh. Crowds of civilians and ARVN soldiers tried to seek sanctuary and eventual escape in the U.S. Embassy grounds. The Northern forces moved into Saigon on April 29, concentrating on key targets such as the presidential palace. North Vietnam spurned South Vietnam's offers to negotiate; they, too, could sense that the end was near. On April 30 President Minh gave in to reality and ordered ARVN forces to cease fighting. The war was over. North Vietnam had won.

Resources:

Kolko, pp. 513-544.

Langguth, pp 643-668.

Web Site: Nhan Dan, Liberation of the Central Highlands

Web Site: Merle L. Pribbenow, "North Vietnam's Final Offensive . . ."

Web Site: Thomas M. Bibby, "Vietnam, The End, 1975"