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Vietnam The Final Campaign
Although the terms of the peace agreement were less than the
communists had hoped for, the accords did permit them to
participate in the new government legally and recognized their
right to control certain areas. Most important, the removal of
United States forces gave the communists a welcome breathing
space, allowing them to concentrate on political efforts. In the
initial period after the signing of the agreement, the party
leadership viewed armed struggle as a last resort only because it
was feared that the United States might reintroduce its forces.
PLAF troops were instructed to limit their use of force to selfdefense . Meanwhile, the Thieu government embarked on pacification
efforts along the central coast and in the Mekong Delta, which
resulted in a reduction of the area under official communist
control to about 20 percent of the South. The Saigon government,
however, faced serious difficulties, including the negative
effect on the economy of the withdrawal of United States forces
and a critical refugee problem. During the course of the war,
several million Vietnamese had been evacuated or had fled from
their villages to find safety and jobs in urban areas. Most of
these remained unemployed and, together with militant Buddhist
groups, the Cao Dai, and the Hoa Hao, represented a sizable
wellspring of discontent with the Thieu government.
In early 1974, the communists launched a campaign to regain
the territory they had lost since the cease-fire. Raids were
conducted on roads, airfields, and economic installations; the
flow of supplies and equipment from the North was stepped up; and
a 19,000-kilometer network of roads leading from the DMZ in Quang
Tri Province to Loc Ninh, northwest of Saigon, was completed. By
summer the communists were moving cautiously forward, seizing
vulnerable areas in the Central Highlands and in the provinces
around Saigon. There was no direct response from the United
States, and the resignation of Nixon in August convinced the
party leadership that further United States intervention was
unlikely. ARVN forces continued to deteriorate, suffering high
casualties and facing a lack of ammunition and spare parts. The
party leadership met in October to plan a 1975 military offensive
concentrating on the Cambodian border area and the Central
Highlands. The taking of the Phuoc Lang province capital, Phuoc
Binh (now Ba Ra in Song Be Province), in early January was
followed by a surprise attack in March on Ban Me Thuot, the
largest city in the Central Highlands. President Thieu ordered
ARVN units at Pleiku and Kontum to leave the highlands and
withdraw to the coast to regroup for a counter attack on Ban Me
Thuot. The ARVN strategic withdrawal became a rout, however,
because PAVN units had already cut the main roads to the coast
and fleeing civilians clogged the secondary roads as panic
ensued. By the end of March, eight northern provinces had fallen
to the communist forces, including the cities of Hue and Da Nang.
Buoyed by this stunning victory, the party leadership directed
the commander of revolutionary forces in the South, General Van
Tien Dung to prepare for an offensive against Saigon. In early
April, PAVN and PLAF troops moved south and began an encirclement
of the capital. On April 20, after ten days of stiff resistance,
the ARVN Eighteenth Division, stationed thirty kilometers north
of Saigon, finally crumbled under the attack of three PAVN
divisions. With Saigon in a state of panic, President Thieu
resigned the following day and was replaced by Vice President
Tran Van Huong. Duong Van Minh, thought to be more acceptable to
the communists, took over the presidency on April 28. The
communists refused to negotiate, however, and fifteen PAVN
battalions began to move toward Saigon. On April 30, communist
forces entered the capital, and Duong Van Minh ordered ARVN
troops to lay down their arms.
Nearly thirty years had passed since Ho Chi Minh first
declared Vietnam's independence as a unified nation in September
1945. In the interim, an entire generation of Vietnamese had
endured a divided Vietnam, knowing only continuous warfare. The
events of April 1975 not only abruptly concluded the war but also
prepared the way for the official reunification of the country
the following year, when the Vietnamese people were brought
together under one independent government for the first time in
more than a century.
* * *
The body of literature in English on the history of Vietnam
has increased dramatically since the mid-1960s. Most of the
writing, however, has focused on the three decades of war in that
country following World War II. The increased interest in
Vietnam, nevertheless, has prompted a number of historians to
take the longer view--the Vietnamese view--of history and to
examine earlier time periods.
Based on Vietnamese and Chinese sources, and particularly
useful for Vietnamese history from the earliest traditions up to
the end of the Chinese millennium, is Keith Weller Taylor's
Birth of Vietnam. Also treating this period, as well as
the period up through World War II, is Thomas Hodgkin's,
Vietnam. The Revolutionary Path. Hodgkin gives detailed
coverage of the 900-year period of Vietnamese independence, while
D.G.E. Hall's classic History of South-East Asia provides
a description and analysis of that period within the larger
Southeast Asian context. Another useful single-volume history of
Vietnam up to 1968 is Joseph Buttinger's Vietnam: A Political
History. Finally, Alexander Woodside in Vietnam and the
Chinese Model presents an interesting analysis, based on
Vietnamese and Chinese sources, of Chinese influence on
Vietnamese education, administration, education, literature, and
law during the nineteenth century.
J. F. Cady treats in detail the French conquest and early
colonial period in The Roots of French Imperialism in Eastern
Asia. David Marr uses Vietnamese source materials to examine
the roots of Vietnamese nationalism in Vietnamese
Anticolonialism, 1885-1925, and William Duiker in The Rise
of Nationalism in Vietnam, 1900-1941 carries the examination
of the nationalist movement up to the early period of Japanese
occupation. Duiker also traces the communist movement from its
origins to the reunification of the country in The Communist
Road to Power in Vietnam.
Although their focus is somewhat peripheral to an overview
history of Vietnam, there are a number of accounts of the United
States involvement in Vietnam that bear mentioning, including:
William Turley's The Second Indochina War; Ronald
Spector's Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960;
R.B. Smith's An International History of the Vietnam War;
Stanley Karnow's Vietnam. A History; and George Mc T.
Kahin's, Intervention. How America Became Involved in
Vietnam. (For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1987
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