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Fall of Saigon | |||||||
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Part of the 1975 spring offensive of the Vietnam War | |||||||
![]() A CIA officer helps evacuees up a ladder onto an Air America Bell 204/205 helicopter at 22 Gia Long Street on 29 April 1975 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
270,000 regulars 180,000 irregulars and guerillas[1] | 31,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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History of Ho Chi Minh City |
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Metro • Names (district names) • Organised crime |
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The fall of Saigon[9] was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on 30 April 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the collapse of the South Vietnamese state, leading to a transition period and the formal reunification of Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under communist rule on 2 July 1976.[10]
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong, under the command of General Văn Tiến Dũng, began their final attack on Saigon on 29 April 1975, with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces commanded by General Nguyễn Văn Toàn suffering a heavy artillery bombardment. By the afternoon of the next day, the PAVN and the Viet Cong had occupied the important points of the city and raised their flag over the South Vietnamese presidential palace.
The capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the Republic of Vietnam regime. A few Americans chose not to be evacuated. United States ground combat units had left South Vietnam more than two years prior to the fall of Saigon and were not available to assist with either the defense of Saigon or the evacuation.[11] The evacuation was the largest helicopter evacuation in history.[12]: 202 In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and the institution of new rules by the communist government contributed to a decline[13] in the city's population until 1979, after which the population increased again.[14]
On 3 July 1976, the National Assembly of the unified Vietnam renamed Saigon in honor of Hồ Chí Minh, the late Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam and founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).[15]
I think we got all the Americans out who wanted to leave. Some of them elected to stay there, mostly reporters.(originally published in the May 1975 issue of Leatherneck Magazine)
This is a story about a few brave, good people who stayed behind in order to not leave anyone behind.(mentions NBC correspondents Jim Laurie and Neil Davis who stayed after the evacuation)