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 Me Thuot, Đắk Lắk Province, Vietnam Result Decisive North Vietnamese victory
Belligerents
South Vietnam	North Vietnam Viet Cong
Commanders and leaders
Phạm Văn Phú Tran Van Cam	Hoang Minh Thao
Strength
78,300 soldiers 488 tanks 374 artillery pieces 134 fighter-bombers 250 helicopters 101 reconnaissance aircraft	65,141 soldiers 57 tanks 679 vehicles 88 heavy artillery pieces 343 anti-aircraft guns 1,561 anti-tank guns or recoilless guns
Casualties and losses
About 3/4 of all soldiers were killed, wounded, missing or captured. Vast quantities of military hardware were lost.	600 killed 2,416 wounded

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 Vietnam People's Army (VPA) 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 South Vietnamese military formations in II Corps Tactical Zone, exposing the severe weaknesses of the South Vietnamese Army. 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, ARVN Major General Pham Van Phu repeatedly ignored intelligence which showed the presence of several North Vietnamese combat divisions around the district. Secondly, President Nguyen Van Thieu's strategy to withdraw from the Central Highlands was poorly planned and implemented.

In the end, it was the ordinary South Vietnamese soldiers and their families who paid the ultimate price, as North Vietnamese artillery decimated the South Vietnamese military convoy on Route 7.

At the beginning of 1975, members of the North Vietnamese Political Bureau paid close attention to the military situation in South Vietnam to plan for their next major offensive. On January 8, two days after the Vietnam People’s Army 4th Corps had captured Phuoc Long on the northern edges of South Vietnam’s III Corps Tactical Zone, North Vietnamese leaders agreed to launch an all-out military offensive, in order to end the war. Originally the North Vietnamese leaders expected the campaign would last two years, be completed in 1976, and pave the way for final victory. Their key objectives were to bring military pressure closer to Saigon, annihilate as many South Vietnamese military units as possible, and create favourable conditions on the battlefield so that combat forces could be deployed from their current localities.

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