The Fall of Saigon Remembered Thirty Years Later

By Linda Orlando

On April 30, 1975, the United States’ involvement in Vietnam came to an end when the last U.S. Marines were evacuated from the embassy roof in Saigon. A Vietcong guerrilla raised the flag of the Vietcong’s Provisional Revolutionary Government over the presidential palace, effectively ending the existence of the nation of South Vietnam. The conflict in Vietnam created deep wounds in the United States, some of which are still festering even though the war ended 30 years ago. The events leading up to the Vietnam War have been forgotten by many people because of the national strife caused by the war, but the anniversary of the fall of Saigon is reason to look back and remember.

In response to the World War II invasion of Indochina by the Japanese, Ho Chi Minh founded the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1939. The ICP soon organized a guerrilla force, the Viet Minh, which seized power of Vietnam in 1943 and Ho Chi Minh announced Vietnam’s independence. The country was divided north and south. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh attempted to negotiate the end of colonial rule with the French, but his attempts met with resistance and were eventually unsuccessful. The French army shelled Haiphong harbor in November, killing more than 6,000 Vietnamese civilians, and, by December, open war had begun between France and the Viet Minh. The French had a firm hold on the south and had installed Bo Dai, the former Vietnamese Emperor, as the Chief of State.

Because the United States recognized Boa Dai’s regime as legitimate, it began to subsidize the French in their war with Vietnam. General Navarre, the French commander in Vietnam, was convinced that if he could maneuver General Vo Nguyen Giap of the Viet Minh army into engaging in a large-scale battle, he could ensure a quick victory for France. So in December 1953, General Navarre setup a defensive complex at Dien Bien Phu, which would block the route of the Viet Minh forces trying to return to camps in neighboring Laos. Navarre surmised that in an attempt to reestablish the route to Laos, General Giap would be forced to plan a mass attack on the French forces at Dien Bien Phu. However, instead of making a massive frontal assault, Giap instead surrounded Dien Bien Phu and ordered his men to dig a trench to encircle the French troops, allowing them to move in close on the French troops defending Dien Bien Phu. As a result, the French were soundly defeated, and France was forced to withdraw.

In 1954, a demilitarized zone was announced at the 17th parallel with the North under Communist rule and the South under the leadership of Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. President Eisenhower pledged support to Diem’s government. After their victory at Dien Bien Phu, some members of the Viet Minh were reluctant to accept the cease-fire agreement, mainly because of the division of Vietnam into two sections. However, Ho Chi Minh argued that this was only a temporary situation. He was convinced that in the promised General Election, the Vietnamese were sure to elect a communist government to rule a reunited Vietnam. But it became clear that Ngo Dinh Diem had no intention of holding elections for a united Vietnam, so his political opponents began to consider alternative ways of obtaining their objectives. Some came to the conclusion that violence was the only way to persuade Diem to agree to the terms of the 1954 Geneva Conference. In 1959, an estimated 1,200 of Diem's government officials were murdered.

Ho Chi Minh sent a trusted adviser to visit South Vietnam, and learned that Diem's policy of imprisoning the leaders of the opposition was so successful that unless North Vietnam supported armed resistance, a united country would never be achieved. Ho Chi Minh agreed to supply the guerrilla units with aid, and he encouraged the different armed groups to join together. They agreed and in December 1960, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) was formed. The NLF, or the 'Vietcong', as the Americans were to call them, was made up of over a dozen different political and religious groups, many of whom were supporters of communism.

The next year, Diem organized the independent Republic of Vietnam. In 1961, the U.S. military buildup in Vietnam began with combat advisors, and President Kennedy declared that they would respond if fired upon. Three years later, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox in 1964, with a second attack two days later. Three months after Lyndon Johnson was elected president in 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonklin Resolution, and Johnson launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a plan designed to destroy the economy of North Vietnam and force Diem to stop helping the guerrilla fighters in the south. Bombing was also directed against territory controlled by the Vietcong in South Vietnam. In 1965, the first American combat troops arrived in Vietnam. Johnson authorized the use of U.S. ground combat troops for offensive operations. In November of that year, the first major military engagement occurred between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces.

The plan was for Operation Rolling Thunder to last for eight weeks, but it lasted for the next three years. During that time, the United States dropped 1 million tons of bombs on Vietnam. In 1968, communist forces launched attacks in the Tet Offensive, which is now seen as the great turning point in the war, which by then was widely acknowledged as being unwinnable by the United States. Although the offensive was a military failure for the North, the death of 2,500 Americans was a serious blow to domestic support for the war. Later that year, 150 unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by members of the U.S. Army at My Lai, in a bloody attack remembered now as the My Lai Massacre. In 1969, President Richard Nixon authorized the bombing of North Vietnamese and Vietcong bases in Cambodia. U.S. forces dropped more than a half million tons of bombs on Cambodia over the next four years. U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam exceeded the 33,629 men killed in the Korean War.

In 1972, South Vietnam and the U.S. invaded Laos in an attempt to sever the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In December 1972, the Christmas bombing of Hanoi was underway. In 1973, the U.S. and North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending the American combat role in the war. The U.S. military draft ended, and in March 1973, the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam. In 1975, the city of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese army, and the U.S. evacuated U.S. personnel and South Vietnamese refugees. South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, ending the war and reunifying the country under communist control. More than 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh City, the city formerly known as Saigon, marked the anniversary of its communist victory with a colorful parade. Soldiers in uniform marched through the streets and costumed dancers waved red national flags. Hundreds of veterans watched from the sidelines, their chests covered with medals earned while serving their country’s armed forces. Floats made their way slowly down the same streets where tanks rolled to victory in 1975 against a government supported by the United States. But some of the floats exhibited small hints of capitalism bearing the logos of American companies—a telltale sign of global changes taking place. Guests of honor at the ceremonies included Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul Castro.