The Vietnam Story
Part III
But the fighting continued in spite of the cease-fire agreements, and North
and South Vietnam each denounced the other for numerous violations of the truce.
Casualties, both military and civilian, were as high as they had ever been.
The year 1974 was characterized by a series of small offensives as each side
sought to seize land and people from the other. The North Vietnamese began
preparing for a major offensive to be launched in either 1975 or 1976, while the
South Vietnamese tried to hold all of the areas under their control, although
they lacked the strength to do so. South Vietnam's difficulties were compounded
when the United States drastically cut its military aid in August 1974. The
morale and combat effectiveness of the ARVN plummeted as a result.
In December 1974 the North Vietnamese attacked Phuoc Binh, a provincial
capital about 60 miles (100 km) north of Saigon. Their capture of this city in
early January 1975 convinced the North Vietnamese that a full-scale invasion of
the South was now practicable. Accordingly, in early March, North Vietnamese
forces began a large-scale offensive in the central highlands. When President
Thieu ordered a withdrawal of all ARVN forces not only from the central
highlands but from the northernmost two provinces of the country as well,
general panic ensued, and the South Vietnamese military machine began to come
apart. The withdrawals rapidly became routs as large ARVN units disintegrated
into columns of refugees. One by one the coastal cities were abandoned, and by
early April the ARVN had abandoned the northern half of their country to the
North Vietnamese forces. The troops of the ARVN began to melt away, and the
remaining Americans escaped by air- and sealifts with Vietnamese friends and
coworkers. On April 21, President Thieu resigned and flew to Taiwan. On April 30
what remained of the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally,
and North Vietnamese tank columns occupied Saigon without a struggle. A military
government was instituted, and on July 2, 1976, the country was officially
united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Hanoi. Saigon
was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
The effects of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. More than 47,000 Americans were killed in action, nearly 11,000 died of other causes, and more than 303,000 were wounded in the war. Casualty figures for the Vietnamese are far less certain. Estimates of the ARVN's casualties range from 185,000 to 225,000 killed and 500,000 to 570,000 wounded. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong suffered about 900,000 troops killed and an unknown, but huge, number of wounded. In addition, more than 1,000,000 North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war. Parts of the countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation, and some cities and towns were heavily damaged. By the war's end much of the population of South Vietnam had become refugees seeking an escape from the fighting. Agriculture, business, and industry had been disrupted. In the United States, Johnson's economic program for a "Great Society" had been largely halted by the economic and military demands of an unpopular war. The cost of the war has been estimated to have totaled about $200 billion. With the communist victory in South Vietnam and communist takeovers in neighbouring Cambodia and Laos, the new Vietnam emerged as an important Southeast Asian power.