From the moment the last U.S. helicopter departed the Saigon embassy in April 1975, the fall of South Vietnam has figured prominently in American debates over the Vietnam War. Doves attribute South Vietnam's defeat to governmental weakness and illegitimacyâ??reinforcing their argument that America's ally had always been unworthy of support. Hawks blame the country's loss on a cut-off in U.S. aidâ??a view in line with the hawks' belief that American politicians foolishly squandered what nearly 60,000 U.S. soldiers had died to preserve.
Yet unlike the war's earlier episodes, the final act has received only cursory treatment from historians. Authors of supposedly comprehensive histories of the war tend to speed through the period 1973-75. During that time, Vietnam was devoid of U.S. combat forces and was of scant interest to American journalists and civilian officials; scholars thus had few English-language sources to consult.
George J. Veith's "Black April" fills the gaping historical void, and in extraordinary fashion. Mr. Veith has tapped deeply into previously neglected Vietnamese sources, including North Vietnamese histories, and he has interviewed commanders of numerous South Vietnamese units. In a blow-by-blow account, he presents mountains of new details that enable him to answer the principal historical questions.
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