The Battle of Xuân Lộc was the last major battle of the Vietnam War that took place at Xuân Lộc, Đồng Nai Province. Over a period of twelve days between 9 and 21 April 1975, the outnumbered South Vietnamese reserves attempted to stop the North Vietnamese forces from overrunning the town and breaking through towards South Vietnam's capital, Saigon. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) committed almost all their remaining mobile forces, especially the 18th Division, under Brigadier General Lê Minh Đảo, to the defence of the strategic crossroads town of Xuân Lộc, hoping to stall the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) advance. The battle ended when the town of Xuân Lộc was captured by the PAVN 4th Army Corps led by Major General Hoàng Cầm.
Movement of North and South Vietnamese forces
The Xuân Lộc victory monument dedicated to the People's Army of Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam, was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the capitalist southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of the Cold War after the 1954 division of Vietnam. It first received international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the French Union, with its capital at Saigon, before becoming a republic in 1955. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. Its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and 87 other nations, though it failed to gain admission into the United Nations as a result of a Soviet veto in 1957. It was succeeded by the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975. In 1976, the Republic of South Vietnam and North Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
About 1 million North Vietnamese refugees left the newly created communist North Vietnam during Operation Passage to Freedom.
US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greeting President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam in Washington DC, 8 May 1957
A woman casting her ballot in the 1967 elections
An empty Huey helicopter is jettisoned over the side of a carrier to provide room on the ship's deck for more evacuees to land.