Showing posts with label Central Highlands Campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Central Highlands Campaign. Show all posts

Monday, March 31, 2025

Monday, March 31, 1975. Resupply and luck.


U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick C. Weyand was in South Vietnam and determined that: "It is possible that with abundant resupply and a great deal of luck, the GVN [Government of South Vietnam] could survive...It is extremely doubtful that it could withstand an offensive involving the commitment of three additional Communist divisions...without U.S. strategic air support."

Colonel William Le Gro of the U.S. Embassy said that without U.S. strategic bombing of North Vietnamese forces, South Vietnam would be defeated within 90 days, which proved to be an overestimate of the time the South could hold out.

Gro would later write a book about the fall of South Vietnam.

North Vietnamese General Dung, was instructed to  "liberate Saigon before the rainy season [mid-May]" rather than the original plan of taking the city in 1976.

Technicians from the United States Atomic Energy Commission escorted by Navy SEALS removed the fuel rods from the nuclear research reactor at Dalat University (Đại học Đà Lạt) in Đà Lạt, capital of Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam. and flew them to Johnston Atoll.  It was a Catholic institution at that time.  It still exists, but of course is no longer a Catholic university.

Last edition:

Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975.

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Thursday, March 27, 1975. NVA at Chơn Thành Camp reinforced, Construction of Alaska Pipeline commences.

Construction began on the Alaska Pipeline.

TAPS Throwback, March 27, 1975: First pipe installed at Tonsina River

I remember this well from grade school. The nation was going to build the pipeline and drill our way out of the Oil Crisis of the 70s.  It was a monumental accomplishment, and it changed Alaska forever.

Map showing location of the camp.  This map depicts attacks in the 1972 Easter Offensive.

The NVA 273d Regiment was sent to reinforce the 9th Division for its ongoing assault on Chơn Thành Camp.  Further attacks on that day, however, failed.

Stacy Ferguson, "Fergie", was born.

Linda Ronstadt appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and was interviewed in the magazine.

Related threads:

Before the Oil. And after it? The economies of Wyoming and Alaska.

Last edition: 

Wednesday, March 26, 1975. A new king.

    Sunday, March 23, 2025

    Sunday, March 23, 1975. Advances in the Central Highlands.

    Gia Nghĩa and the Khiem Duc District were captured by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong.

    French Ambassador to Somalia Jean Gueury was kidnapped as he left Mass.

    Last edition:

    Friday, March 21, 1975. End of Empire.

    Sunday, March 16, 2025

    Sunday, March 16, 1975. Withdrawing from the Central Highlands.

    The ARVN began to withdraw from the Central Highlands.  Senior officers left by helicopter, leaving combat troops to retreat under fire, with fleeing civilians, on Route 7B.

    180,000 ARVN troops began the journey, only 60,000 would complete the retreat.  Vietnamese Rangers rallied to protect those retreating, with only 900 out of 7,000 surviving.  Mass desertions began.

    The NVA was surprised by the ARVN collapse and had been planning on the war continuing on inot 1976.

    Last edition: 

    Saturday, March 15, 1975. Abandoning Buôn Ma Thuột and Huế.

    Saturday, March 15, 2025

    Saturday, March 15, 1975. Abandoning Buôn Ma Thuột and Huế.

    Gen. Phu gave up on trying to retake Buôn Ma Thuột and ordered his forces to retreat to the coast.

    President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered the ARVN to abandon the defense of Huế, and to retreat southward to defend Saigon. The decision led to a mass civilian exodus.

    The war was, effectively, over.  The tragedy was not.

    It's about this point that eleven year old me really began to take notice of the unfolding drama, although it might have been before that.  A National Geographic map of Vietnam was up on my wall, with my color pencil notations of how things were progressing.

    Last edition:

    Friday, March 14, 1975. Desperate measures.

    Friday, March 14, 2025

    Friday, March 14, 1975. Desperate measures.

    President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu met with his military commanders and ordered General Phú to retake Buôn Ma Thuột.


    Regarded as an unrealistic order, the tactical situation was such that if the situation was not capable of being reversed, the Vietnam War was effectively over, save for American reentry in the conflict.  The order resulted in the withdrawal of ARVN forces from other parts of the Central Highlands in order to supply the effort, and also to defend the South Vietnamese coast.  US  and South Vietnamese provincial authorities were not informed, and Montagnard highland forces were left to their fate.

    Effectively Thieu was abandoning the upper half of the country in order to try to save Saigon.

    Last edition:

    Thursday, March 13, 1975. Chili's and other red things.

    Tuesday, March 11, 2025

    Wednesday, March 12, 1975. Reporting the grim news.

    ARVN II Corps Commander General Phạm Văn Phú, reported to his government that the PAVN were firmly in control of Buôn Ma Thuột, a disaster of epic proportions as half the ARVN now lay behind NVA lines to the north, save for the coast, which really depended upon the reaction of the United States and the willingness to deploy its Navy for evacuation, or its Naval air arm for combat advantage.

    Gen. Phú began his military career as an interpreter for the French Army and moved on to officer status during the French Indochinese War.  He was captured by the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu and thereafter went into the ARVN.  He was relieved of command in 1972 due to exhaustion, but recovered and returned to service.  He committed suicide on April 30, 1975, the day of the fall of Saigon.

    Fourteen foreign citizens including American missionaries (who frankly should have left the task of evangelization to the Catholic Church) were taken by the NVA.  They were taken north and would be released in October, including a six year old.

    Interesting, in 2025, Vietnam has a sufficient surplus of Priests such that it now sends Priests to the United States, thereby giving an example of a land betrayed seeking to save the souls of those who betrayed it.  We can, probably, look forward to Ukrainian Catholic Priests in the future.

    The last full draft lotter took place.  Nobody was called to service.  Lil' Donny Trump was free from any danger.  Not just him, of course, but Joe Biden, and Bill Clinton, as well.

    In a sign of more to come, an Air Vietnam DC-4 crashed 25 km southwest of Pleiku killing twenty six on board, including New Zealand Red Cross team leader Malcolm Riding.

    The Dubai Islamic Bank was established in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first private institution to operate under the principles of Islamic banking.

    Last edition:

    Monday, March 10, 1975. Buôn Ma Thuột city center taken.

    Monday, March 10, 2025

    Monday, March 10, 1975. Buôn Ma Thuột city center taken.

    The North Vietnamese Army attacked Buôn Ma Thuột, gaining the city center by nightfall, while the ARVN held out on the outskirts.  NVA forces outnumbered ARVN forces 5.5 to 1, showing how massive a violation of the Paris Peace Accords the North Vietnamese offensive was.

    It also shows, however, that even at this stage, which was turning disastrous, the ARVN was fighting.

    Buôn Ma Thuột is dead center in the Central Highlands of what was the the Republic of Vietnam.

    Ibrahim Nasir, the President of the Maldives, fired Premier Ahmed Zalti and imposed presidential rule.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, March 4, 1975 (posted late). The last North Vietnamese Offensive.

    Wednesday, January 8, 2025

    Wednesday, January 8, 1975. Campaign 275.

    Party First Secretary Lê Duẩn who approved Campaign 275.

    The politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party, noting a lack of US reaction to the fall of Bình Phước province, approved Campaign 275 to conquered South Vietnam.  The campaign called for the first offensive to be in the Central Highlands, with the objectives of Buôn Ma Thuột, Tuy Hòa, Qui Nhơn, Huế and Da Nang.

    Ella Grasso became the first woman governor in the United States who had not succeeded her husband when she was sworn in as Governor of Connecticut.

    Firearms designer David Marshall Williams, aka "Carbine" Williams, died at age 74.  He's best known for the M1 Carbine, which was for many years the most mass produced US firearm of all time.  It likely no longer is, with variants of the AR15 likely taking that spot.

    Williams started designing firearms while in prison for murder, although he had been out for many years by the time he designed the M1 Carbine.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, January 7, 1975. The fall of Bình Phước province