Fire in the Lake: Fall of Saigon

Vietnam, 1975. The Provisional Revolutionary Government was ready. After internal debate, the Communists had issued Resolution 21—the war to unify the country would continue. The Paris Peace would serve as merely one more tool in the armed struggle. In Saigon, President Thieu had known from the beginning that the ceasefire was an empty promise, but he had to accept his US ally’s hollow accords with the North. Nonetheless, he now fielded one of the world’s best equipped armies, and the victories of 1972 proved to him that it could withstand even an all-out assault from the North. While President Nixon had pledged peace with honor, his determination to enforce South Vietnam’s independence had floundered amidst the worst US presidential scandal in history. What now from Ford? From Hanoi, Le Duc Tho—the negotiator who had squared off against Kissinger in Paris—was to trek south to oversee the final push to Saigon on behalf of the Politburo. His orders: “Do not come home until victory is won.”