The 1975 Spring Offensive was the final communist offensive of the Vietnam War, occurring between 13 December 1974 and 30 April 1975. The North Vietnamese NVA and their Viet Cong guerrilla allies launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam, during which the fragile ARVN collapsed and the country was rapidly conquered. Saigon's fall on 30 April 1975 brought an end to South Vietnam and led to the reunification of the country under the rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Background[]
Paris Peace Accords[]
On 27 January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords brought an end to US involvement in the Vietnam War, with the United States agreeing to withdraw all of its combat troops by August in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of all American POWs being held in Indochina. The North Vietnamese were allowed to retain 145,000 troops in South Vietnam during the ceasefire, but the NVA and Viet Cong were not deterred by the peace agreement. The War of the Flags broke out as the ARVN struggled to push all of the communists out of South Vietnam, and President Nguyen Van Thieu counted on President Richard Nixon's promise that the US would provide air support if Saigon was ever threatened again.
Political crises[]
Protests against Nguyen Van Thieu in 1975
However, in June of 1973, an energized US Congress - reflecting the views of a majority Americans - voted to stop all military operations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia by 15 August, insisting that they not be resumed without congressional approval. In the 18 months that followed the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, South Vietnam's position became more and more precarious. However, the American public was distracted by the Watergate scandal by the summer of 1974, debating the legitimacy of their own government. On 27 July 1974, the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee recommended that Nixon be impeached for abusing his office. On 9 August, rather than face impeachment, Nixon became the first President in American history to resign. In Saigon, Van Thieu closed his office door and refused to see anyone, feeling betrayed by the resignation of his ally. Just a few days after President Gerald Ford moved into the White House, Congress cut military assistance to South Vietnam in half. Conditions in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate as one out of every five civilian workers became jobless and prices soared. Thieu had steadily grown more authoritarian, closing newspapers, restricting opposition parties, and selling military and political appointments. A coalition of Catholics and Buddhists accused him of corrupting every aspect of South Vietnamese life and demanded his resignation. Thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Saigon to demand his removal.
Weakening of the ARVN[]
A despairing ARVN soldier
Meanwhile, the chronically-underpaid ARVN suffered further pay cuts and began to disintegrate. As many as 20,000 troops deserted each month to return to their families, and those ARVN who stood and fought lacked the sophisticated weaponry that the US had trained them to use. Much of the equipment Nixon provided was ill-suited to the South Vietnamese military, as there were no pilots to fly the planes and no spare parts to work on trucks. Fuel and ammunition ran low, and artillerymen in the Central Highlands were limited to firing 4 shells a day, while infantrymen were limited to 85 bullets a month.
Offensive[]
Test attacks[]
In November of 1974, the Politburo and the Central Military Committee met in Hanoi to discuss strategy. Some members urged caution, as they were afraid that the Americans would return if Saigon was pushed to the brink; they predicted that final victory would come in 1976. However, First Secretary Le Duan disagreed, as he believed that it would be hard for the US to return. He started with a test attack in the Battle of Phuoc Long, seeing if the Americans would react with air power as they had during the Easter Offensive two years earlier. In December 1974, NVA forces overran the entire province of Phuoc Long and killed or captured thousands of ARVN defenders as the US did nothing in response. President Ford, preoccupied with inflation, unemployment, and Middle Eastern tensions held a press conference in which he did not anticipate any further aid to South Vietnam. Thieu was stunned by the US' lack of aid and by the raising of the communist flag in Phuoc Long, which was a sign of the coming end to the war.
Assault on the Central Highlands[]
NVA troops advancing, 1975
The NVA now undertook new assaults on cities in the Central Highlands, including Ban Me Thuot, where their forces outnumbered the overextended ARVN nearly six to one; Ban Me Thuot fell in two days. Hanoi was delighted by the lack of a US response, and he turned to General Vo Nguyen Giap (the architect of the great victory at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, who had been sidelined during the Tet Offensive) to bring the war to a victorious end. The ARVN top command warned Thieu that his forces were spread too thinly and that it was impossible to defend the country, and Thieu reluctantly ordered his troops to abandon the highlands, withdraw under fire, and regroup in order to take Ban Me Thuot. Within a week, Pleiku and Kontum were in communist hands. Thieu issued orders to abandon the civilians and the local forces, and many villagers panicked and ran as the communists approached. 400,000 civilians accompanied the ARVN on their withdrawal south, but the communists blocked the main road and forced them to take a disused back road where thousands were killed by artillery bombardments and bombs from both sides in the "Convoy of Tears". Shortly after, Hue fell, and the NVA headed to Da Nang, scattering the ARVN forces, who left behind their uniforms. On 29 March 1975, the NVA entered Da Nang, South Vietnam's second-largest city, and civilians and soldiers alike tried to flee. On the same beach where the US had landed nearly ten years earlier, 16,000 ARVN soldiers fought for space with 75,000 terrified civilians aboard an improvised fleet of freighters and fishing boats headed south towards Cam Ranh Bay, Vung Tau, and Saigon. Thousands drowned struggling to reach the boats, while thousands more were killed by NVA shells which struck the beach.
Push on Saigon[]
Civilians in Saigon, 1975
The ARVN strongholds of Da Nang, Tam Ky, Quang Ngai, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, and Cam Ranh fell in rapid succession. The NVA then moved on Saigon, aiming to take it before Ho Chi Minh's birthday on 19 May. At the same time, the CIA station chief began preparations to evacuate the 5,000 Americans and 200,000 South Vietnamese collaborators from Saigon. However, the US ambassador to South Vietnam refused, believing that the NVA would never attack Saigon. Similarly, President Thieu insisted that all was not lost, and that the ARVN were ready to fight on to the last bullet and the last grain of rice. 40 miles east of Saigon, the NVA attacked the town of Xuan Loc on Highway 1, the last obstacle on their way to Saigon. The outnumbered and outgunned ARVN refused to retreat and attempted to keep the NVA from Saigon. On 10 April, President Ford appealed to the US Congress for emergency aid to Saigon, and he said that Congress, not the White House, should take the blame if South Vietnam fell. Ford asked Congress for $722 million in military aid, but there was no applause, and most legislators and their constituents felt that it was too late to make a difference. Soon, the US officials in Saigon prepared for either a sealift out of Saigon, a civilian airlift, a military airlift, or evacuation by helicopters to a flotilla of US ships in the South China Sea.
Crisis in Saigon[]
Xuan Loc burning
On 21 April, Xuan Loc finally fell to the NVA after twelve days of resistance. Highway 1 was now open all the way to Saigon, and, that evening, Thieu resigned. Four days later, the CIA spirited Thieu to Taiwan, where Ford sent a messenger to inform Thieu that it was not a good time for him to visit America, as anti-war feelings were too strong. News of Thieu's resignation sent thousands of South Vietnamese to Tan Son Nhut Airport with the hope of escaping their country, with some having exit visas, but many having no papers. People attempted to bribe the Marines to let them through, but the Marines were forced to decline. On 27 April 1975, rockets landed in the heart of Saigon before the NVA began their main assault, attacking from five sides. The White House ordered all American cargo ships to sail out to sea without any passengers, preventing an organized sealift from taking place. When the communists began shelling Vong Tau, thousands of terrified people clamored onto vessels with the hope that the Americans would save them. 60,000 were picked up, but thousands more were left behind, floating helplessly in the sea. The American ambassador continued to believe that Saigon would not come under attack, but his judgment was possibly affected by his pneumonia. The Americans set up two secretive evacuation sites at the US embassy, where helicopters would arrive to pick up evacuees. At the same time, Duong Van Minh was sworn in as the new President of South Vietnam. He called for an immediate ceasefire and asked that Americans leave within 24 hours. On 29 April, at 3:58 AM, NVA rockets began falling on Tan Son Nhut Airport, and Lance Corporal Marlin Judge and Corporal Charles McMahon Jr. were killed in the barrage, the last American servicement to die in Vietnam. The runways were cratered and blocked by wrecked planes, littered with jettisoned bombs and fuel tanks. The Americans ran out of evacuation options, so helicopters from the offshore fleet were called in.
Evacuation[]
US troops pushing helicopters from a carrier
Against the orders of the US ambassador, the American embassy staff chopped down the tamarind tree in the courtyard to allow for a helicopter to land there. Just after 11:00 AM, a prearranged signal to evacuate was broadcast over a special radio frequency in the capital, playing Tennessee Ernie Ford's "White Christmas" over the radio to signal the Americans to evacuate. The evacuees at the Tan Son Nhut Airport were divided into helicopter teams of 50 each, and the helicopters flew toward the coast from the 7th Fleet. Up to 12,000 South Vietnamese surrounded the US embassy, demanding to be taken with the Americans. The Americans treated the South Vietnamese as subhuman, throwing them back as they attempted to enter the embassy, and handpicking those who could join them in evacuating. Elsewhere in the embassy, Marines shredded and incinerated classified material around the clock. When the choppers began coming in, some of the classified material was left behind, and the North Vietnamese would scotch-tape the papers together and create a blood list of South Vietnamese collaborators. Bags of currency in contingency funds were also burned, and the CIA chief issued one last message from the Saigon station, telling Washington that they had lost a long fight, and asked for future Americans to learn their lesson from the war. More than 50 helicopters criss-crossed the sky over Saigon, picking up evacuees from designated rooftops as well as the embassy. Some desperate ARVN officers also commandeered helicopters for themselves and their families, dangerously crowding the decks of US aircraft carriers. The Americans had to push helicopters off of their landing decks to clear room for more arrivals, and, at 4:58 AM on 30 April, Ambassador Martin was evacuated from the embassy with the furled American flag. From then on, Ford only allowed Americans to be evacuated, and tens of thousands of South Vietnamese were left behind, while more than 400 were still waiting in the embassy courtyard. 129 Marines remained in the compound and slowly pulled back onto the embassy roof to be choppered out, and at 7:53 AM on 30 April 1975, the last helicopter lifted off the embassy roof, with Master Sergeant Juan Valdez being the last American to climb aboard.
Communist takeover[]
NVA troops in Saigon
At mid-morning, President Minh urged the rest of the ARVN to stop fighting as he handed over authority to the North Vietnamese. At noon, NVA tanks flying VC tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace, and, within hours, victorious soldiers were calling Saigon Ho Chi Minh City. Several ARVN soldiers tore off their uniforms and did their best to melt into the crowds, and families burned their photo albums to remove evidence that their sons or husbands had ever fought for South Vietnam. Hundreds to thousands of people in the countryside were killed in individual acts of revenge or political retaliation, and many former South Vietnamese regime loyalists from officers to clerks were sent to re-education camps, with some soldiers spending as few as three days "studying". 1.5 million people underwent re-education, and ARVN cemeteries were either bulldozed or padlocked, erasing vestages of the South Vietnamese regime.
Aftermath[]
Bui doi children
3 million Vietnamese people had died from 1945 to 1975, while yet more were wounded. Thousands of children fathered by American servicemen had been left behind, villages needed to be rebuilt, land had to be reclaimed, cities were choked with refugees, and millions were unemployed. President Ford imposed an economic embargo and Washington DC refused to recognize the new government, but Le Duan and his Politburo were optimistic, as Vietnam was finally reunited. He turned all of Vietnam into an "impregnable outpost of the socialist system" with Soviet help, virtually abolishing capitalism, nationalizing industries and appointing planners to run it all among strict communist lines, and collectivizing southern agriculture. Inflation rose 700% yearly, and people starved as Vietnam's standard of living hit rock bottom due to its Stalinist economic program. Vietnam also found itself at war with the brutal Maoist regime of Cambodia in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War of 1978, and a ten-year Cambodian insurgency ensued, giving Vietnam its own "Vietnam War". The Vietnamese lost 50,000 more men in Cambodia, almost as many as the Americans had lost in their war. China went on to invade Vietnam with 85,000 troops in 1979 before the Vietnamese pushed them back. 1.5 million Vietnamese ("boat people") would eventually flee Vietnam, many of them ethnic Chinese who were persecuted, refugees of the Cambodian war, or former Saigon supporters. 400,000 eventually made it to America, where they settled in nearly every state, becoming more entrepreneurial and eager to become US citizens than other Asian immigrants.