Fall of Saigon

Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was captured by North Vietnam on 30 April 1975 during their 1975 spring offensive. This caused the collapse of the South Vietnamese government and the evacuation of thousands of civilians and U.S. personnel, and ended the Vietnam War. The aftermath ushered in a transition period under North Vietnamese control, culminating in the formal reunification of the country as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) under communist rule on 2 July 1976. The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC), under the command of General Văn Tiến Dũng, began their final attack on Saigon on 29 April 1975, with the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces commanded by General Nguyễn Văn Toàn suffering a heavy artillery bombardment. By the next day, President Minh had surrendered while the PAVN/VC had occupied the important points of the city and raised the VC flag over the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace, ending 26 years of existence of South Vietnamese governments supported by the West.

The capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the Republic of Vietnam. A few Americans chose not to be evacuated. United States ground combat units had left South Vietnam more than two years before the fall of Saigon and were not available to assist with either the defense or the evacuation of Saigon. The evacuation was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and the institution of new rules by the communist government contributed to a decline in the city's population until 1979, after which the population increased again.