History of South America

What happened to South Vietnam soon after the U.S. troops moved out of region?

Fall of Saigon

- Communist North Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion by taking the provincial capital of Phuoc Binh with a tank division.

- U.S. President Gerald Ford authorized Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Americans and some South Vietnamese from Saigon.

- North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon on April 30 and the war effectively ended as President Duong Van Minh announced South Vietnam's unconditional surrender

- Some 130,000 Vietnamese fled the country for asylum

- Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. North and South Vietnam were then officially unified following national reunification elections a year later on July 2, 1976.