Sunday, April 27, 1975. Big Minh takes charge.

Minh in 1964.

Duong Van Minh, "Big Minh" was unanimously elected as President of South Vietnam by the South Vietnamese National Assembly, and authorized to negotiate a peace agreement with the Viet Cong and with North Vietnam. "

Tran Van Huong refused to step aside as President, however.

A career Army office, Minh had joined the French Army early in World War Two and had been captured by the Japanese.  He subsequently joined the French supported Vietnamese National Army and became aprionser of the Viet Minh.  After the Paris Peace Accords he's advocated for Vietnam to be reunited as neither a right wing or Communist nation.  He was regarded as a friendly South Vietnamese politician by the Communists and therefore was allowed to return to his villa after the South Vietnamese surrender, which he orchestrated.  In 1983 he moved to France, and then in 1988 to the US.  He remained silent about the war after the 1975 surrender.

He died in 2001, unlamented by the Vietnamese diaspora, who blamed him for the South Vietnamese surrender.

The NVA took Nam Yet Island, Ba Ria Town, and the entire Phuoc Tuy Province.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 26, 1975. The attack on Saigon begins.

Labels: 1960s, 1968, 1970s, 1975, Growing up in the 1970s, NVA, Saigon Vietnam, South Vietnam, South Vietnamese Air Force, television, The Fall of Saigon, Vietnam War

Tuesday, April 22, 1975. Proposing negotiations.

The new President of South Vietnam, Trần Văn Hương, proposed a ceasefire in the fighting and negotiations, a really delusional proposition given that the NVA was about to take Saigon.

Huong was a politician who had been into a family so poor, that his parents had given him away to be raised by foster parents.  He initially was a teacher.  He had been a member of the Việt Minh but left when Communist domination became too strong in the organization.  Unlike many of his fellows, he remained in Vietnam, even after he was imprisoned following the war.

The Department of Justice made plans to admit 130,000 Vietnamese refugees into the US.

Last edition:

April 21, 1975. The end at Xuân Lộc.

Labels: 1960s, 1963, 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Battle of Xuân Lộc, Catholic, Christianity, Ngô Đình Diệm, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Personalities, religion, South Vietnam, Việt Minh, Vietnam War