Nguyen Van Thieu - Collapse

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By the end of 1974, around 370,000 communist troops were in South Vietnam, augmented by ever increasing influxes of military hardware. In mid-December, the communists attacked Phuoc Long City, and quickly gained the upper hand, besieging the city.

On 2 January 1975, Thiệu held an emergency meeting with General Dư Quốc Đống, who was in charge of the Phuoc Long situation, and other senior military figures. Đống presented a plan for the relief of Phuoc Long, but it was rejected because a lack of reserve forces of sufficient size available, a lack of airlift capability, and the belief that the besieged defenders could not hold out long enough for reinforcements. Thiệu decided to cede the entire province to the North Vietnamese, since it was considered to be less important than Tây Ninh, Pleiku, or Huế — economically, politically, and demographically.

On 6 January 1975, Phuoc Long City became the first provincial capital permanently seized by the communists. Less than a sixth of the ARVN forces survived. However, the more important result was that the Americans showed complete apathy to the communist violations of the ceasefire, severely denting South Vietnamese morale. Lê Duẩn declared that “Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage so great as we have now.” The communists thus decided to initiate a full-scale offensive against the central highlands, which had been named Campaign 275. General Văn Tiến Dũng planned to take Buôn Ma Thuột, using 75,000–80,000 men to surround the city before capturing it.

Major General Phạm Văn Phú, the II Corps commander, was given adequate warnings of the impending attacks, but was not worried. He thought the true objective was Pleiku or Kontum and that Buôn Ma Thuột was a diversion. The town was therefore lightly defended and communists outnumbered defenders by more than 8:1. The battle for Buôn Ma Thuột began on March 10 and ended only eight days later. Reinforcements were flown in, but were dismantled and fled in chaos.

On March 18 the communists took complete control of Đắk Lắk Province. ARVN forces began to rapidly shift positions in an attempt to keep the North Vietnamese from quickly pushing eastward to the coastal lowlands along Route 21. In the face of rapid communist advances, Thiệu had sent a delegation to Washington in early March to request an increase in aid. The U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin also traveled to Washington to present the case to President Gerald Ford. However, the U.S. Congress, increasingly reluctant to invest in what was seen as a lost cause, slashed a proposed $1.45 billion military aid package for 1975 to $700 million. The Ford administration, however, continued to encourage Thiệu to believe that money would eventually come.

During this time, Thiệu was feeling the increased pressure and became increasingly paranoid. According to one of his closest advisors Nguyen Tien Hung, he became "suspicious ... secretive ... and ever watchful for a coup d'etat against him." His increasing isolation had begun to deny him "the services of competent people, adequate staff work, consultation, and coordination". Thieu's military decisions were followed faithfully by his officers who generally agreed that he "made all the decisions as to how the war should be conducted."