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The final assault on Saigon 1975
The North Vietnamese Invasion
The long predicted final assault on S. Vietnam by the NVA invaders occurred in the early months of 1975. On 10 March Communist forces attacked Ban Me Thuot, the capital of isolated Darlac Province at the western edge of the Central Highlands, the first step to cutting S. Vietnam in half. South Vietnamese troops were routed. The debacle convinced Pres. Thieu that the strategic Military Regions I and II, including Pleiku and Kontum Provinces in the north, could not be held and must be evacuated. He established a defensive line from Tuy Hoa on the coast to Cambodia on the west and ordered a fighting retreat to that position.
On 15 March ARVN troops and thousands of civilian refugees began an exodus toward Tuy Hoa but NVA interdicted the main road with a bombardment. The orderly retreat became a deadly rout in which over 100,000 S. Vietnamese were casualties or were captured and huge quantities of supplies and materiel were abandoned. The enemy dispersed or destroyed many of the South Vietnamese II Corps units in this catastrophe.
These events set off a chain reaction as the demoralized South Vietnamese troops abandoned port after port along the South Vietnamese coast to swiftly advancing North Vietnamese forces. Learning of the disaster in II Corps and confused by contradictory deployment orders from Saigon, the defenders of I Corps also began to crack. On 24 March government units evacuated Tam Ky and Quang Ngai in southern I Corps and also streamed toward Danang. Simultaneously, the navy transported elements of the 2d Division from Chu Lai to Re Island 20 miles offshore. Hue was abandoned on 25 March, with Vietnamese troops retreating in disorder toward Danang. The Vietnamese Navy rescued thousands of men cut off on the coast southeast of Hue, but heavy weather and the general confusion limited the sealift's effectiveness. With five North Vietnamese divisions pressing the remnants of the South Vietnamese armed forces and hundreds of thousands of refugees into Danang, order in the city disintegrated. Looting, arson, and riot ruled the city as over two million people sought a way out of the fast-closing trap.
U.S. Evacuation Effort
During this period of growing chaos in South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy readied for evacuation operations. On 24 March, the Military Sealift Command (MSC) dispatched vessels toward Danang. Noncombatants were chosen for the mission because the Paris Agreement prohibited the entry of U.S. Navy or other military forces into the country. Arriving in Danang on 27 March, the massive U.S. sea evacuation of I and II Corps began. When the larger ships were filled to capacity with 5,000 to 8,000 passengers, they individually sailed for Cam Ranh Bay further down the coast. By 30 March order in the city of Danang and in the harbor had completely broken down. Armed South Vietnamese deserters fired on civilians and each other, the enemy fired on the American vessels and sent sappers ahead to destroy port facilities, and refugees sought to board any boat or craft afloat. The hundreds of vessels traversing the harbor endangered the safety of all. Weighing these factors, the remaining U.S. and Vietnamese Navy ships loaded all the people they could and steamed for the south. MSC ships carried over 30,000 refugees from Danang in the four-day operation. American ships stayed offshore to pick up stragglers until day's end on 30 March, when the North Vietnamese overran Danang. Only about 50,000 of the two million refugees in Danang had escaped.
The speed of the South Vietnamese collapse and the enemy's quick exploitation of it limited the number of refugees rescued from Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang. Before the latter port fell on 2 April, however, two U.S. vessels brought 11,500 passengers on board and put out to sea.
Initially, Cam Ranh Bay was chosen as the safe haven for these South Vietnamese troops and civilians transported by MSC. But, even Cam Ranh Bay was soon in peril. Between 1 and 4 April, many of the refugees just landed were reembarked for further passage south and west to Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam. U.S. ships each embarked between 7,000 and 8,000 evacuees for the journey and one sailed with 16,700 people filling every conceivable space from stem to stern. By 10 April, the intracoastal sealift of 130,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens was over.
Final Collapse of South Vietnam
The fate of South Vietnam was decided in Hanoi and Washington. On 23 March the Communist military commanders were given orders from Hanoi to capture Saigon with all possible speed. ARVN was to be given no time to recover and extend its resistance into the monsoon season starting in May. Pres. Thieu still commanded a powerful military and the N. Vietnamese wanted to take the capital without delay. In Washington, Pres. Ford and Henry Kissinger lobbied for authority to provide assistance to Pres. Thieu, at least military aid, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. There was no further funding, and certainly no American military intervention, for S. Vietnam.
Before the Communist drive on Saigon could begin, the NVA had to seize Xuan Loc -- 35 miles northeast of Saigon and the key to the city's defense -- where a heroic stand by ARVN took place. On 9 April the ARVN 18th Division under General Le Min Dao was attacked at Xuan Loc by IV NVA Corps consisting of four infantry divisions augmented with tanks and artillery. The 18th held them off until 22 April in ferocious fighting with horrific losses, delaying the NVA advance on the capital. In the end it mattered little. On 21 April Pres. Thieu resigned and went into exile, accusing the United States of betrayal. Thieu's successors either resigned and fled like Thieu or tried to offer terms to North Vietnam, offers that were rejected.
As South Vietnam imploded and Communist victory became certain, the American Embassy in Saigon became the focus of chaos. Ambassador Graham Martin resisted overt preparations for fear of causing panic. The result was the loss of critical days for preparation of the evacuation. At the same time, CIA units and others with independent transport got out who they could. Finally, President Gerald Ford ordered Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, to begin the morning of 29 April. Military Sealift Command (MSC) had prepared for the contingency with ships offshore loaded with food, water, and medicine along with Marine security detachments on board. Some 44,000 people had been flown out by Air Force fixed-wing aircraft from Saigon's Tan San Nhut air base 21-28 April, but hostile artillery and rocket fire on the 29th closed the runways leaving helicopter evacuation the only option. Marine CH-46 and CH-53 helicopters from the U.S. Seventh Fleet began airlifting refugees from Saigon to the MSC ships offshore. A contingent of Marines had to be brought in to the embassy grounds to use force to control the flood of S. Vietnamese nationals trying to escape. From 29 April until the rescue of the last stragglers a few days later, the MSC ships took on more than 50,000 evacuees.
The last Americans to die on Vietnam's soil were two Marines, killed in a rocket attack while providing security at Tan San Nhut on 29 April. The last two Americans to die in the Vietnam War were lost late on 29 April 1975 when their CH-46 evacuation helicopter crashed at sea near the USS Hancock (CV-19), one of the Navy ships receiving refugees, while making one more trip back to the Vietnam mainland to receive more refugees.
NVA forces entered Saigon on 30 April 1975 to find the capital almost empty. ARVN and S. Vietnamese government officials had fled and foreign delegations had gone home. The last of the remaining American staff was lifted out from the Embassy grounds early in the morning of 30 April and the last members of the Marine security force cleared at 7:46 AM. A Presidential order, based on faulty information, prevented evacuation of 420 refugees who had been assured of safe passage, still waiting on the Embassy stairway, including more than a dozen staff members from the South Korean Embassy. A little after 11:00 AM on 30 April 1975, a T-54 tank bearing a Viet Cong flag burst through the gates of the Presidential Palace, the vanguard of a force that took over the seat of S. Vietnamese government.
Offshore, the MSC ships, the Seventh Fleet contingent, and twenty-six Vietnam Navy ships with 30,000 Vietnamese sailors and their families aboard set sail for the Philippines. The Vietnam War was over.
http://olive-drab.com/od_history_vietnam_falls.php
The North Vietnamese Invasion
The long predicted final assault on S. Vietnam by the NVA invaders occurred in the early months of 1975. On 10 March Communist forces attacked Ban Me Thuot, the capital of isolated Darlac Province at the western edge of the Central Highlands, the first step to cutting S. Vietnam in half. South Vietnamese troops were routed. The debacle convinced Pres. Thieu that the strategic Military Regions I and II, including Pleiku and Kontum Provinces in the north, could not be held and must be evacuated. He established a defensive line from Tuy Hoa on the coast to Cambodia on the west and ordered a fighting retreat to that position.
On 15 March ARVN troops and thousands of civilian refugees began an exodus toward Tuy Hoa but NVA interdicted the main road with a bombardment. The orderly retreat became a deadly rout in which over 100,000 S. Vietnamese were casualties or were captured and huge quantities of supplies and materiel were abandoned. The enemy dispersed or destroyed many of the South Vietnamese II Corps units in this catastrophe.
These events set off a chain reaction as the demoralized South Vietnamese troops abandoned port after port along the South Vietnamese coast to swiftly advancing North Vietnamese forces. Learning of the disaster in II Corps and confused by contradictory deployment orders from Saigon, the defenders of I Corps also began to crack. On 24 March government units evacuated Tam Ky and Quang Ngai in southern I Corps and also streamed toward Danang. Simultaneously, the navy transported elements of the 2d Division from Chu Lai to Re Island 20 miles offshore. Hue was abandoned on 25 March, with Vietnamese troops retreating in disorder toward Danang. The Vietnamese Navy rescued thousands of men cut off on the coast southeast of Hue, but heavy weather and the general confusion limited the sealift's effectiveness. With five North Vietnamese divisions pressing the remnants of the South Vietnamese armed forces and hundreds of thousands of refugees into Danang, order in the city disintegrated. Looting, arson, and riot ruled the city as over two million people sought a way out of the fast-closing trap.
U.S. Evacuation Effort
During this period of growing chaos in South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy readied for evacuation operations. On 24 March, the Military Sealift Command (MSC) dispatched vessels toward Danang. Noncombatants were chosen for the mission because the Paris Agreement prohibited the entry of U.S. Navy or other military forces into the country. Arriving in Danang on 27 March, the massive U.S. sea evacuation of I and II Corps began. When the larger ships were filled to capacity with 5,000 to 8,000 passengers, they individually sailed for Cam Ranh Bay further down the coast. By 30 March order in the city of Danang and in the harbor had completely broken down. Armed South Vietnamese deserters fired on civilians and each other, the enemy fired on the American vessels and sent sappers ahead to destroy port facilities, and refugees sought to board any boat or craft afloat. The hundreds of vessels traversing the harbor endangered the safety of all. Weighing these factors, the remaining U.S. and Vietnamese Navy ships loaded all the people they could and steamed for the south. MSC ships carried over 30,000 refugees from Danang in the four-day operation. American ships stayed offshore to pick up stragglers until day's end on 30 March, when the North Vietnamese overran Danang. Only about 50,000 of the two million refugees in Danang had escaped.
The speed of the South Vietnamese collapse and the enemy's quick exploitation of it limited the number of refugees rescued from Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang. Before the latter port fell on 2 April, however, two U.S. vessels brought 11,500 passengers on board and put out to sea.
Initially, Cam Ranh Bay was chosen as the safe haven for these South Vietnamese troops and civilians transported by MSC. But, even Cam Ranh Bay was soon in peril. Between 1 and 4 April, many of the refugees just landed were reembarked for further passage south and west to Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam. U.S. ships each embarked between 7,000 and 8,000 evacuees for the journey and one sailed with 16,700 people filling every conceivable space from stem to stern. By 10 April, the intracoastal sealift of 130,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens was over.
Final Collapse of South Vietnam
The fate of South Vietnam was decided in Hanoi and Washington. On 23 March the Communist military commanders were given orders from Hanoi to capture Saigon with all possible speed. ARVN was to be given no time to recover and extend its resistance into the monsoon season starting in May. Pres. Thieu still commanded a powerful military and the N. Vietnamese wanted to take the capital without delay. In Washington, Pres. Ford and Henry Kissinger lobbied for authority to provide assistance to Pres. Thieu, at least military aid, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. There was no further funding, and certainly no American military intervention, for S. Vietnam.
Before the Communist drive on Saigon could begin, the NVA had to seize Xuan Loc -- 35 miles northeast of Saigon and the key to the city's defense -- where a heroic stand by ARVN took place. On 9 April the ARVN 18th Division under General Le Min Dao was attacked at Xuan Loc by IV NVA Corps consisting of four infantry divisions augmented with tanks and artillery. The 18th held them off until 22 April in ferocious fighting with horrific losses, delaying the NVA advance on the capital. In the end it mattered little. On 21 April Pres. Thieu resigned and went into exile, accusing the United States of betrayal. Thieu's successors either resigned and fled like Thieu or tried to offer terms to North Vietnam, offers that were rejected.
As South Vietnam imploded and Communist victory became certain, the American Embassy in Saigon became the focus of chaos. Ambassador Graham Martin resisted overt preparations for fear of causing panic. The result was the loss of critical days for preparation of the evacuation. At the same time, CIA units and others with independent transport got out who they could. Finally, President Gerald Ford ordered Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, to begin the morning of 29 April. Military Sealift Command (MSC) had prepared for the contingency with ships offshore loaded with food, water, and medicine along with Marine security detachments on board. Some 44,000 people had been flown out by Air Force fixed-wing aircraft from Saigon's Tan San Nhut air base 21-28 April, but hostile artillery and rocket fire on the 29th closed the runways leaving helicopter evacuation the only option. Marine CH-46 and CH-53 helicopters from the U.S. Seventh Fleet began airlifting refugees from Saigon to the MSC ships offshore. A contingent of Marines had to be brought in to the embassy grounds to use force to control the flood of S. Vietnamese nationals trying to escape. From 29 April until the rescue of the last stragglers a few days later, the MSC ships took on more than 50,000 evacuees.
The last Americans to die on Vietnam's soil were two Marines, killed in a rocket attack while providing security at Tan San Nhut on 29 April. The last two Americans to die in the Vietnam War were lost late on 29 April 1975 when their CH-46 evacuation helicopter crashed at sea near the USS Hancock (CV-19), one of the Navy ships receiving refugees, while making one more trip back to the Vietnam mainland to receive more refugees.
NVA forces entered Saigon on 30 April 1975 to find the capital almost empty. ARVN and S. Vietnamese government officials had fled and foreign delegations had gone home. The last of the remaining American staff was lifted out from the Embassy grounds early in the morning of 30 April and the last members of the Marine security force cleared at 7:46 AM. A Presidential order, based on faulty information, prevented evacuation of 420 refugees who had been assured of safe passage, still waiting on the Embassy stairway, including more than a dozen staff members from the South Korean Embassy. A little after 11:00 AM on 30 April 1975, a T-54 tank bearing a Viet Cong flag burst through the gates of the Presidential Palace, the vanguard of a force that took over the seat of S. Vietnamese government.
Offshore, the MSC ships, the Seventh Fleet contingent, and twenty-six Vietnam Navy ships with 30,000 Vietnamese sailors and their families aboard set sail for the Philippines. The Vietnam War was over.
http://olive-drab.com/od_history_vietnam_falls.php
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