The Ho Chi Minh Campaign of April 1975 marked the end of the Republic of Vietnam with the fall of Saigon on the 30th and the beginning of Communist rule. The United States could not believe that the war they had pumped billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of soldiers into was in vain; it was truly a first in U.S. military history that the country had technically "lost a war." After almost 30 years since the end of the war, sufficient information has been compiled to allow historians and others to answer the question, "Why?"
<Tab/>North Vietnam was successful in defeating South Vietnam due to its effective leadership and organization. Ho Chi Minh was able to rally the Vietnamese (even those in the South) to join the Viet Minh by propagating nationalist, not communist, principles. …
