Fall+of+Saigon

=Fall of Saigon=

created by Josh Yargeau
The final battle between South and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War is known as the Liberation or Fall of Saigon. The Fall of Saigon was April 30th, 1975. This was when the North Vietnamese captured [|Saigon], the capital of [|South Vietnam]. The North Vietnamese Liberation of Saigon meant the beginning of a formal Communist state. During this battle the American military was still evacuating South Vietnam. media type="youtube" key="IdR2Iktffaw" height="281" width="377" align="right"

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=Final Offensive=

The attack began in the early morning of April 29, 1975. It was led by Senior General [|Van Tien Dung]. The first assault was a heavy artillery bombardment of [|Tan Son Nhut] airport. The artillery assault was choreographed by General [|Nguyen Van Toen]. One day later Dung received the order from the Politburo to begin their final push into Saigon. Dung relayed the orders to his field commanders and soon after the first unit moved in. The first PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam) unit to attack was the 324th division. The current President of South Vietnam was [|Duong Van Minh]. He had been president 3 days and at 10:24 A.M. April 30th, 1975 he announced a surrender. Minh asked the South Vietnamese troops “to cease hostilities”. However the North Vietnamese continued their forceful assault. They eventually took the Independence Palace and raised their flag at 11:30 A.M. The day April 30th, 1975 is now a holiday in Vietnam known as [|Reunification day].

=AfterShock=

After the dust settled in Saigon the city was renamed [|Ho Chi Minh City]after the former communist North Vietnamese President. The North Vietnamese General [|Tran Van Tra] was placed in charge of the city. He was Dung’s administrative deputy. During this turnover period communication between the outside world and the newly named Ho Chi Minh City was cut. The purification of South Vietnamese officers, soldiers and government officials was brutal. The old supporters of the South Vietnamese government were sent to “[|reeducation camps]” where they were tortured. The new government in Saigon wanted less people so they forced some to pledge to move away. Within 2 years one million people had moved away and many more continued to slowly run from the new Communist Government.

=American Evacuation=

The Evacuation of Saigon unofficially began towards the end of March. As April arrived the DAO (Defense Attache’s office) started to fly out nonessential personnel. On April 3, 1975 current American president [|Gerald R. Ford] announced “[|Operation Babylift]”. The operation was the plan to evacuate 2,000 Vietnamese orphans, however one of the planes crashed and 138 were killed. Another operation put into action at this time was [|Operation New Life]. This operation was the evacuation of Vietnamese refugees. There was over 110,000 at the time. President Ford placed [|Graham Martin](US ambassador in South Vietnam) in charge of the operations and all evacuations in Saigon. The April 29th attack on the Airport impeded Americans from evacuating and eventually the only way to evacuate people was by helicopter.



The final operation to withdraw the remaining troops was called [|operation Frequent Wind]. Everything was done via helicopter at this point and the signal to begin the operation was “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin. The goal was to pick up everyone from the American embassy and bring them to nearby aircraft carriers. Eventually the aircraft carriers became so full they had to literally push helicopters into the sea to make room for the next helicopter coming. The call sign of the helicopter assigned to evacuate Martin was “Lady Ace 09”. He put up quite a struggle as he did not want to abandon the last hopefuls wanting to leave Saigon. However eventually he was flown to the [|USS Blue Ridge]. At the end of April Martin had calculated 22,294 of the 90,000 South Vietnamese employees at the Embassy (including their families) were evacuated successfully.

=Resources=

Fall of Saigon." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 06 Oct. 2012. Web. 12 June 2012.