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"South Vietnam's fate appears to be sealed" : en studie om Vietnamkrigets slutskede utifrån CIA:s perspektiv

Hjorth, Olof LU (2022) HISK37 20221
History
Abstract
This paper investigates the last two months of the Vietnam War, March and April 1975, from the CIA:s perspective. During the last two decades, the CIA have declassified many documents about the Vietnam war, thus making new source material available. The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban conquest, has also sparked a renewed interest in the Vietnam war. Hence, the time is ripe for a “revisit” to this conflict. The sources for this paper consists of a selection of CIA intelligence-reports, briefings and memorandums that were published in March and April 1975. The aim and scope is to illuminate the reasons the CIA saw behind the collapse of South Vietnam and how they assessed the survival chances of this... (More)
This paper investigates the last two months of the Vietnam War, March and April 1975, from the CIA:s perspective. During the last two decades, the CIA have declassified many documents about the Vietnam war, thus making new source material available. The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban conquest, has also sparked a renewed interest in the Vietnam war. Hence, the time is ripe for a “revisit” to this conflict. The sources for this paper consists of a selection of CIA intelligence-reports, briefings and memorandums that were published in March and April 1975. The aim and scope is to illuminate the reasons the CIA saw behind the collapse of South Vietnam and how they assessed the survival chances of this state during its final months. I argue that the CIA did not consider South Vietnam to be doomed in the beginning of March. Their assessment quickly changed however, in light of the rapid North Vietnamese advance and the South Vietnamese collapse in military region one and two. At the end of March they believed that South Vietnam would fall in 1976, in April they correctly concluded that Saigon would fall within a matter of weeks. The main reason they saw behind the collapse was the South Vietnamese army's catastrophic retreat from the Central Highlands and the subsequent morale collapse within its ranks. This was in turn caused by the dwindling prospects of receiving US aid, which also had a direct moral impact on the South Vietnamese and furthermore, encouraged the North Vietnamese to go on an all out offensive. (Less)
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author
Hjorth, Olof LU
supervisor
organization
course
HISK37 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Vietnam War, South Vietnam, CIA
language
Swedish
id
9089419
date added to LUP
2023-09-14 09:22:24
date last changed
2023-09-14 09:22:24
@misc{9089419,
  abstract     = {{This paper investigates the last two months of the Vietnam War, March and April 1975, from the CIA:s perspective. During the last two decades, the CIA have declassified many documents about the Vietnam war, thus making new source material available. The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban conquest, has also sparked a renewed interest in the Vietnam war. Hence, the time is ripe for a “revisit” to this conflict. The sources for this paper consists of a selection of CIA intelligence-reports, briefings and memorandums that were published in March and April 1975. The aim and scope is to illuminate the reasons the CIA saw behind the collapse of South Vietnam and how they assessed the survival chances of this state during its final months. I argue that the CIA did not consider South Vietnam to be doomed in the beginning of March. Their assessment quickly changed however, in light of the rapid North Vietnamese advance and the South Vietnamese collapse in military region one and two. At the end of March they believed that South Vietnam would fall in 1976, in April they correctly concluded that Saigon would fall within a matter of weeks. The main reason they saw behind the collapse was the South Vietnamese army's catastrophic retreat from the Central Highlands and the subsequent morale collapse within its ranks. This was in turn caused by the dwindling prospects of receiving US aid, which also had a direct moral impact on the South Vietnamese and furthermore, encouraged the North Vietnamese to go on an all out offensive.}},
  author       = {{Hjorth, Olof}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{"South Vietnam's fate appears to be sealed" : en studie om Vietnamkrigets slutskede utifrån CIA:s perspektiv}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}