Battle of Phước Long

Battle of Phuoc Long
Part of the Vietnam War
Battle of Phuoc Long.
Date December 12, 1974 – January 6, 1975 Location 11°51′3″N 106°59′48″E / 11.85083°N 106.99667°E / 11.85083; 106.99667Coordinates: 11°51′3″N 106°59′48″E / 11.85083°N 106.99667°E / 11.85083; 106.99667 Phước Long Province, South Vietnam Result Decisive North Vietnamese victory.
Belligerents
North Vietnam Viet Cong	South Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
Hoàng Cầm	Dư Quốc Đống Nguyễn Thống Thành
Strength
14,500	In Phước Long: 5,400 Surrounding areas: 2,400 Total: 7,800 soldiers
Casualties and losses
1,300 killed or wounded.	1,160 killed, 2,000+ wounded 2,444 captured

The Battle of Phước Long was a decisive battle of the Vietnam War which began on December 12, 1974, and concluded on January 6, 1975. The battle involved the deployment of North Vietnam's 4th Army Corps for the first time, against determined units of the South Vietnamese Army in Phước Long in Bình Phước Province near the Cambodian border (to be distinguished from the other Phước Long in Bạc Liêu Province, south of Saigon), under the command of Lieutenant General Dư Quốc Đống.

On December 12, 1974, the North Vietnamese 4th Army Corps launched their campaign against Phước Long aiming to achieve three key objectives. Firstly, North Vietnamese leaders wanted to test the reaction of the United States Government, to see if they would actually uphold former President Richard Nixon's promises of military retaliation against North Vietnam. Secondly, North Vietnamese field commanders wanted to test the combat readiness of the South Vietnamese Army. And thirdly, the North Vietnamese wanted to solve their logistical problems once and for all, by capturing the district of Phước Long and the important transportation routes around it.

The North Vietnamese campaign proved to be a major success, because the fall of Phước Long showed that the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War was truly over, especially when the United States Congress repeatedly voted against additional aid for South Vietnam. Militarily, the victory at Phước Long also enabled the North Vietnamese to expand their logistical routes from the Central Highlands of South Vietnam to the Mekong Delta, which placed enormous pressure on the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War, the district of Phước Long played an important role in the defensive posture of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Phước Long is about 120 km north of Saigon; it shared a border with the South Vietnamese districts of Bình Long in the west, Quảng Đức in the east, and Long Khánh District in the south. Phước Long also shares an international border with Cambodia. The district of Phước Long and the military zones of Bố Đức, Đôn Luân, Đức Phong, the administrative centre of Phước Bình, and Bà Rá mountain lies at the centre of South Vietnam's defensive line in III Corps, which served to defend Saigon and the populous southern provinces.

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