The collapse of South Vietnam in 1975, including the failure of the Paris Peace Accords, the final offensive of the People's Army of Vietnam, the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, and the reunification of Vietnam

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to explain the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam. Strong answers cover the failure of the Paris Peace Accords to hold, the PAVN buildup under the ceasefire, the cutting of US aid, the Thieu regime's strategic errors, the fall of the Central Highlands and the north, the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, and reunification on 2 July 1976.

The answer

The failure of the Accords

The 27 January 1973 Paris Peace Accords broke down almost immediately. The ceasefire was violated by both sides; the ICCS commission was paralysed (Canada withdrew in July 1973). The Council of National Reconciliation never functioned.

PAVN forces in the south at the ceasefire (around 145,000) grew to around 200,000 by late 1974. The Trail was upgraded into the 8-metre paved Truong Son Highway (Highway 14, completed 1973 to 1975). Soviet and Chinese deliveries of T-54 tanks, BM-21 rocket artillery, MiG-21 fighters, and SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles continued.

In the United States, Watergate paralysed the Nixon administration. Nixon resigned on 9 August 1974. Congress cut military aid to South Vietnam from $2.27 billion (FY1973) to$1.01 billion (FY1974) to $700 million (FY1975, against an administration request of$1.4 billion). The promise that Nixon had made to Thieu privately, to enforce the Accords by air power, could not be honoured.

ARVN was rationing fuel; helicopters and fighters were grounded. Defensive minefields were thinned. Air mobility, the cornerstone of the war for a decade, evaporated.

Phuoc Long

In December 1974 PAVN attacked Phuoc Long Province, about 110 kilometres north of Saigon. The provincial capital, Phuoc Binh, fell on 6 January 1975. It was the first whole province lost since 1965.

Hanoi watched the US response. President Gerald Ford expressed regret; there were no B-52 strikes. The Politburo, meeting in Hanoi from 8 to 30 October 1974 and reconvening in late December, concluded that the United States would not return. The Politburo authorised a two-year plan: a major offensive in 1975 to set the conditions for a decisive victory in 1976.

The Central Highlands

General Van Tien Dung, PAVN Chief of Staff, took command of Campaign 275. The plan: attack Ban Me Thuot, the population centre of the Central Highlands, to lure ARVN reinforcements south, then defeat them in detail.

PAVN forces (3 divisions, around 75,000 troops) struck on 10 March 1975. Ban Me Thuot fell on 11 March 1975 in 32 hours. President Nguyen Van Thieu, conferring with senior commanders at Cam Ranh Bay on 14 March, ordered the evacuation of Pleiku, Kontum, and the rest of the Central Highlands south of Da Nang.

The retreat down Route 7B, a poor road through PAVN ambushes, became "the convoy of tears". Around 60,000 II Corps troops withdrew with around 400,000 civilians. PAVN harassment, panic, and disintegration of unit cohesion turned the retreat into a rout. ARVN II Corps effectively ceased to exist.

The northern collapse

PAVN exploited the disintegration immediately. I Corps, holding the north, was outflanked. Hue, with no defensible perimeter, fell on 25 March 1975. Civilian refugees flooded into Da Nang.

Da Nang, the second city of South Vietnam, fell on 29 March 1975 amid chaos. American consul Albert Francis directed an emergency air and sea evacuation; the last World Airways 727 flight from Da Nang on 29 March was famously stormed by ARVN deserters. Around 70,000 civilians escaped by sea.

ARVN losses in March 1975: around 150,000 troops killed, captured, or deserted; around half of ARVN's combat strength. PAVN now had 17 divisions in the south.

The Ho Chi Minh Campaign

The Politburo renamed Campaign 275 the "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" on 1 April 1975. The objective was Saigon by 19 May, Ho's birthday. General Van Tien Dung commanded; Le Duc Tho served as the Politburo's political commissar.

The 18th ARVN Division under General Le Minh Dao made a stand at Xuan Loc on Highway 1, 60 kilometres east of Saigon, from 9 to 21 April 1975. The defence held off three PAVN divisions for 12 days at heavy cost; Xuan Loc fell on 20 to 21 April.

Thieu resigned on the evening of 21 April 1975 in a bitter speech blaming the United States. Vice President Tran Van Huong succeeded; on 28 April he handed power to General Duong Van Minh (the same Minh who had led the 1963 coup), in the hope that "Big Minh" might negotiate a soft landing. PAVN was not interested in negotiations.

Operation Frequent Wind and the fall

Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of the last Americans and selected Vietnamese, was triggered on 29 April 1975 when Tan Son Nhut airbase was hit by PAVN rockets. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" on the American Radio Service was the signal. From the embassy compound at 4 Thong Nhut Boulevard and the Defence Attache Office at Tan Son Nhut, around 7,000 people were lifted to ships of Task Force 76 offshore. Hubert Van Es's photograph of a CIA Air America helicopter on the roof at 22 Gia Long Street became iconic.

Around 5,500 Vietnamese were evacuated by Frequent Wind, far short of the 200,000-plus who had worked for the Americans. The last US Marines left the embassy roof at 0753 on 30 April 1975.

PAVN T-54 tanks (the leading tank was number 843) crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace on Norodom Boulevard at 1130 on 30 April 1975. General Duong Van Minh surrendered on Saigon Radio. The war was over.

Reunification

South Vietnam was briefly governed as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (1975 to 1976). The reunification elections held on 25 April 1976 produced a single national assembly. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 2 July 1976 with Hanoi as the capital and Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

The new regime imposed re-education camps; around 200,000 to 300,000 former ARVN officers and southern officials were detained, many for years. The "boat people" exodus began (around 800,000 by 1979, perhaps 200,000 dying at sea). Australia accepted around 70,000 Vietnamese refugees from 1975 onwards under the Fraser government.

Historiography

George Veith (Black April, 2012) is the standard military history of the 1975 campaign from the southern side.

Van Tien Dung (Our Great Spring Victory, 1976) is the commander's memoir.

Larry Berman on the politics of the abandonment.

Frank Snepp (Decent Interval, 1977) is the CIA analyst's account of the chaotic evacuation.

Common exam traps

Treating 30 April 1975 as a single day's event. The collapse ran from 10 March (Ban Me Thuot) through 30 April (Saigon).

Forgetting the US aid cut. Congressional reductions of $1.5 billion across 1974 to 1975 broke ARVN's logistics.

Misdating reunification. 2 July 1976, not 30 April 1975.

In one sentence

South Vietnam collapsed in 1975 because the Paris Peace Accords left PAVN in the south, Congress cut US military aid by around two thirds across 1974 to 1975, Thieu's botched evacuation of the Central Highlands on 14 March 1975 turned a setback into a rout, the Ho Chi Minh Campaign drove on Saigon through April, Operation Frequent Wind lifted the last Americans and 5,500 Vietnamese from rooftops on 29 to 30 April, PAVN T-54 number 843 crashed through the Presidential Palace gates at 1130 on 30 April 1975, and Vietnam was reunified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 2 July 1976.