1975 in the Vietnam War

1975 in the Vietnam War
← 1974
A VNAF UH-1H Huey loaded with Vietnamese evacuees on the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Midway during Operation Frequent Wind, 29 April 1975.
Location Indochina
Belligerents
Anti-Communist forces:  South Vietnam  United States Khmer Republic Kingdom of Laos	Communist forces:  North Vietnam Viet Cong Khmer Rouge Pathet Lao
Strength
US:
Casualties and losses
US: 161 killed [1] South Vietnam: Killed

1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. After the South Vietnamese army folded under NVA pressure the Fall of Saigon was inevitable. The US started evacuating its citizens but to not alarm the South Vietnamese they left under a number of pretexts including Operation Babylift. On April 30, 1975 Saigon fell and the Vietnam War was over.

March

March 10-March 12

The Battle of Buôn Ma Thuột was part of North Vietnam's Campaign 275 to capture the Central Highlands following the victory at Phước Long on January 6, 1975.

April

April 3–26

Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries (including Australia, France, and Canada) at the end of the Vietnam War. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated, although the actual number has been variously reported.

April 3 – September 3

Operation New Life was the U.S. military evacuation of about 110,000 Southeast Asian refugees displaced by the Vietnam War out of South Vietnam.

April 4

The 1975 Tan Son Nhut C-5 accident refers to the 4 April 1975 crash of Lockheed C-5A Galaxy serial number 68-0218 participating in Operation Babylift. The C-5 crashed on approach during an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. The cause was ascribed to loss of flight control due to explosive decompression and structural failure. The accident marked the second operational loss and first fatal crash for the C-5 Galaxy fleet. It is also the deadliest accident involving a U.S. military aircraft.

April 12

Operation Eagle Pull was the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 12, 1975.^[2]

April 29

The Battle of Truong Sa was a naval battle that resulted in the capture of the South Vietnamese-held Trường Sa Islands by North Vietnamese forces on April 29, 1975. Following the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, Trường Sa became a part of Khánh Hòa Province.

Fall of Saigon

April 29

Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge were the last two U.S. servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They died during a rocket attack while serving with the Marine Security Guard Battalion at the US Embassy, Saigon and were providing security for the DAO Compound, adjacent to Tân Sơn Nhứt Airport, Saigon.^[3]

April 29

Hubert van Es was a Dutch photographer and photojournalist who took the well-known photo on 29 April 1975, which shows South Vietnamese civilians scrambling to board a CIA Air America helicopter during the U.S. evacuation of Saigon.^[4]

April 29–30

Operation Frequent Wind was the evacuation by helicopter of American civilians and 'at-risk' Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, on 29–30 April 1975 during the last days of the Vietnam War.

April 30

The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the North Vietnamese Army on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.

May

May 12-15

Khmer Rouge forces seize the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez, US Marines recover the vessel and the crew is released during the Mayaguez incident, the 15 US servicemen killed and 3 missing in action during the action would be the last official casualties of the Vietnam War.

October

October 30

James Lewis a CIA agent captured near Phan Rang Air Base on 16 April 1975 and 13 other US prisoners captured during the 1975 Spring Offensive were transported by a UN-chartered C-47 from Hanoi to Vientiane, Laos and then on to Bangkok, Thailand.^[5]

Year in numbers

Armed Force	KIA	Reference		Military costs – 1975	Military costs in 2016 US$	Reference
South Vietnam ARVN
United States US Forces	161	[1]
North Vietnam

Bibliography

Notes

1. United States 2010
2. history.navy.mil (2000). "Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973–1975". history.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 27 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
3. Mather 1995, p. 33
4. Lucas 2010
5. "14 Captives freed by Vietnam Reds". New York Times. 31 October 1975. Retrieved 11 October 2016.

References

• Lucas, Dean (2010). "Famous Picture:Vietnam Airlift". Famous Pictures Magazine. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
• Mather, Paul D. (1995). M. I. A.: Accounting for the Missing in Southeast Asia (1995 ed.). DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-7881-2533-8. - Total pages: 207
• United States, Government (2010). "Statistical information about casualties of the Vietnam War". National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2010.