Battle of Ban Me Thuot

Battle of Ban Me Thuot
Part of the Vietnam War
A Vietnam People's Army T-54 tank during operations in the Central Highlands
Date March 3–18, 1975 Location Ban Mê Thuột, Đắk Lắk Province, South Vietnam Result North Vietnamese victory
Belligerents
South Vietnam	North Vietnam Viet Cong
Commanders and leaders
Phạm Văn Phú Trần Văn Cẩm [vi]	Hoàng Minh Thảo Vũ Lăng
Strength
78,300 soldiers 488 tanks 374 artillery pieces 134 fighter-bombers 250 helicopters 101 reconnaissance aircraft[1]	65,141 soldiers 57 tanks 679 vehicles 88 heavy artillery pieces 343 anti-aircraft guns 1,561 anti-tank guns or recoilless guns[1]
Casualties and losses
About 3/4 of all soldiers were killed, wounded, missing or captured. Vast quantities of military hardware were lost.[2]	800 killed 2,416 wounded[2]

The Battle of Ban Me Thuot was a decisive battle of the Vietnam War which led to the complete destruction of South Vietnam's II Corps Tactical Zone. The battle was part of a larger North Vietnamese military operation known as Campaign 275 to capture the Tay Nguyen region, known in the West as the Vietnamese Central Highlands.

In March 1975 the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 4th Corps staged a large-scale offensive, known as Campaign 275, with the aim of capturing the Central Highlands from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in order to kick-start the first stage of the 1975 spring offensive. Within ten days, the North Vietnamese destroyed most ARVN military formations in II Corps Tactical Zone, exposing the severe weaknesses of the South Vietnamese military. For South Vietnam, the defeat at Ban Me Thuot and the disastrous evacuation from the Central Highlands came about as a result of two major mistakes. Firstly, in the days leading up to the assault on Ban Me Thuot, II Corps commander Major General Phạm Văn Phú repeatedly ignored intelligence which showed the presence of several PAVN divisions around the district.^[3] Secondly, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's strategy to withdraw from the Central Highlands was poorly planned and implemented.^[4]

In the end, it was the ordinary South Vietnamese soldiers and their families who paid the ultimate price, as North Vietnamese artillery destroyed much of the South Vietnamese military convoy on Route 7.^[5]