Battle of Ban Me Thuot - Aftermath - South Vietnamese Mistakes

South Vietnamese Mistakes

The collapse of South Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands came about as a result of three major factors. Firstly, during much of the war, President Nguyen Van Thieu’s confidence in the ARVN’s intelligence could not be shaken. However, following the capitulation of Ban Me Thuot, Thieu lost all faith in his own military intelligence agencies, when it became evidently clear that the strength of North Vietnamese forces was far greater than what South Vietnamese intelligence agencies had gathered. Consequently, Thieu completely ignored his own military intelligence and the CIA, and made all military decisions by himself without consulting the Joint General Staff. Thus, when Major-General Pham Van Phu requested that Thieu send reinforcements to bolster the strength of South Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands, Thieu gave him two options: either carry out the President’s orders, or be replaced by somebody who was willing to do so. General Phu chose to implement Thieu’s orders and evacuated his units from II Corps.

The second factor which contributed to the destruction of the ARVN 2nd Brigade, II Corps Tactical Zone, was the inability of South Vietnamese commanders to coordinate the withdrawal. In the process of pulling out from the Central Highlands, large numbers of South Vietnamese soldiers and heavy military equipment were stretched out along the narrow corridor of Route 7. Behind the military formation were huge numbers of South Vietnamese civilians who were relatives of the military personnel, as well as government officials and their families. Unfortunately for the South Vietnamese soldiers on the ground, their army simply lacked the logistical system required to maintain the element of secrecy, which South Vietnamese commanders had hoped would enable them to pull out from the region without drawing too much attention from the North Vietnamese. It is hard to fathom how South Vietnamese commanders hoped to move 400,000 civilians in utmost secrecy. So when North Vietnamese forces attacked the South Vietnamese column along Route 7, there was little South Vietnamese commanders could do to prevent the destruction of their units.

The third factor which led to the quick disintegration of II Corps was the poor state of morale amongst the soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. By 1975, the morale of South Vietnamese soldiers and their commanding officers had reached its lowest point as the war continued to drag on with no end in sight. The determination of the ARVN officer corps had taken a serious blow when South Vietnamese Foreign Minister Tran Van Lam returned from the United States in February 1975, and reported that no additional military or economic aid had been offered. When the order was given to abandon the Central Highlands, the primary concern of South Vietnamese military personnel was not battlefield victories, but the welfare of their families. Consequently, when the North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnamese forces on Route 7, large numbers of South Vietnamese soldiers left the battlefield to search for their families amidst the chaos. During the final days of South Vietnam’s existence, the average South Vietnamese soldier showed more loyalty to his family than to his commanding officer, which had a significant impact on his willingness to fight on.

During the First Indochina War (1945 to 1954), both Viet Minh and French forces considered the Central Highlands to be their ‘home’, as it was considered the key to domination in Indochina. Both sides recognised that in order to occupy the Central Highlands, they had to possess a sufficient reserve of manpower with which to control the strategic areas within the region. By 1975, the South Vietnamese military could no longer afford to maintain a large strategic reserve. South Vietnamese units in II Corps were overstretched in various locations across the Central Highlands, and could easily be overrun by enemy forces. Although Thieu’s decision to abandon the region was made with the aim of saving the military formations of II Corps, the decision nonetheless turned into a death warrant for General Phu’s men and their families. The lack of coordination and poor organisation during the withdrawal operation not only led to the destruction of II Corps, but marked the beginning of the end for South Vietnam.