The General commanded the Ho Chi Minh Campaign in April 1975

After the victories that created a solid foundation for the Tay Nguyen Campaign, Tri Thien-Hue Campaign and the Da Nang Liberation Campaign (March 1975), the opportunity for us to launch a general offensive and uprising in Saigon-Gia Dinh was ripe.

On March 31, 1975, the Politburo met and assessed: “The strategic general offensive has achieved an extremely great victory, destroying and eliminating 2 army corps from combat, liberating 16 provinces, bringing the population of the liberated areas to 8 million; the strategic opportunity to launch a general attack and general uprising in the enemy's lair is ripe. We need great determination to complete the final strategic decisive battle in April 1975.”

In that context, in early April 1975, the Politburo decided to establish the Command Headquarters to command the Saigon-Gia Dinh Liberation Campaign.

Later, in response to the earnest wishes of the people and armed forces on the battlefield, including the army and people of Saigon-Gia Dinh city, the Politburo approved the Campaign Command's proposal to change the name of the "Saigon-Gia Dinh Liberation Campaign" to "Ho Chi Minh Campaign".

At the same time, Senior Lieutenant General Van Tien Dung - Member of the Politburo, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, was promoted by the State to the rank of General of the Vietnam People's Army. At the same time, he was appointed as a representative of the Politburo, the Central Military Commission, the General Command, and Commander of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign.

General Van Tien Dung was the commander of the 320th Division operating on the Northern battlefield during the resistance war against the French and the person who directly commanded the campaigns that were decisive for the final victory such as the Route 9 - Southern Laos campaign (1971), the Tri - Thien campaign (1972), and the Central Highlands campaign (March 1975).

Propaganda poster for the 45th anniversary of Southern Liberation and National Reunification Day.

During the attack on the last stronghold of the Republic of Vietnam - the Saigon-Gia Dinh area, General Van Tien Dung and his comrades in the Campaign Command such as Pham Hung, Le Duc Tho, Tran Van Tra, Le Duc Anh, Dinh Duc Thien, Le Ngoc Hien... thoroughly grasped the guiding ideology of the Politburo: "Speed, boldness, sure victory, quickly capture Saigon, but must ensure that the city is least destroyed, minimizing human and material losses".

Before making the decision, General Van Tien Dung pondered a lot: How to attack Saigon quickly, win for sure, collapse the puppet army and government regime, smash the entire military and government organization system of Saigon from the central to the grassroots, destroy the war machine..., but how to attack so that the city is least destroyed, liberate millions of people while limiting bloodshed and ensuring life quickly returns to normal.

To solve this problem, the General and the Campaign Command analyzed the problem thoroughly, comprehensively, and specifically, finding the optimal solution to ensure victory.

After many sleepless nights of discussion, General Van Tien Dung and the Campaign Command came to an agreement on how to fight:Using a suitable part of the force in each direction, strong enough to form a siege, divide, block the enemy, not allowing them to retreat to Saigon... Using the majority of the force of the units to quickly penetrate deep, capture key areas in the suburbs, opening the way for strong, tightly organized mechanized assault troops to advance along the main roads, attacking directly at 5 selected targets in the inner city. Those five targets were: the puppet General Staff, the Independence Palace, the Capital Special Zone, the puppet Police General Department and Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Under his direction, after only 5 days (from April 26-30, 1975), the Ho Chi Minh Campaign ended successfully, completely liberating the South.

The Politburo's telegram from Hanoi to the Campaign Command: "We have received news of our flag being raised on the Independence Palace. We send you our congratulations on the great victory. The Politburo is very happy"...

According to the analysis of the generals, the command of 5 armies from 5 directions to attack and surround the enemy's headquarters in Saigon - Gia Dinh was a large-scale combined arms attack.

The troops from Bac Tri Thien, Tay Nguyen, and Zone 5 departed at different times, traveled on many routes, and handled different attack and opening situations, but General Van Tien Dung calculated and directed uniformly so that all troops could march in time to Saigon and coordinate well.

The historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign ended successfully, everyonegOnly then can one fully understand the collective intelligence of the Campaign Command, including the outstanding role of commander Van Tien Dung, a very decisive and highly responsible person...

General Van Tien Dung recounted the scene of his comrades in the Campaign Command Center at noon.gApril 30, 1975: "Everyone sat around the radio and when we heard the voice of the puppet President Duong Van Minh declaring unconditional surrender, we all jumped up, cheered, hugged and kissed each other, carried each other on our backs. There was applause, laughter, chatter, and excitement. Le Duc Tho and Pham Hung hugged me. Everyone was choked up and moved... Dinh Duc Thien's eyes were red, he said that now if he could close his eyes, he would feel at peace"...

Then, on the day before Tet Binh Thin in 1976, General Van Tien Dung led the Party delegation to Paris to attend the 22nd Congress of the French Communist Party.

In a large hall in Paris, nearly 2,000 delegates attending the 22nd Congress of the French Communist Party stood up and applauded for a long time when General Van Tien Dung, in military uniform, entered, under the bright lights of cameras and video cameras. At the break, many people gathered around the General to shake hands, congratulate him on the victory of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign; ask for his autograph, take a group photo and ask for an interview: "Why did Vietnam win and America lose?"

At this time, General Van Tien Dung was moved to think of Uncle Ho's great contributions; the wise leadership, strategic talent, determination, and revolutionary offensive ideology of the Politburo and the Central Military Commission.g; the noble sacrifices and extraordinary efforts of our army and people in the resistance war against America to save the country and in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign.

Those great feats will forever be recorded in history!