LYCOS RETRIEVER 
South Vietnam: South Vietnamese
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In 1975 the communists of North Vietnam launched an offensive in the South, which became known as the Ho Chi Minh Campaign. The ARVN unsuccessfully attempted a defense and a counterattack. It had few remaining operational tanks and artillery pieces, as well as a shortage of spare parts, and ammunition. The NVA had a vastly greater supply of new equipment and ammunition. As a consequence, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu was forced to withdraw key army units from the Central Highlands, which exacerbated an already-perilous military situation and undercut the confidence of the ARVN soldiers in their leadership.
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In 1975 the North Vietnamese army overran South Vietnam and put an end to the Vietnam War. President Ford ordered U.S. armed forces to evacuate Americans and South Vietnamese allies. Seven laws prohibited the use of the armed forces in Vietnam, and Ford went before a joint session of Congress to urge their repeal. After Congress deadlocked and did nothing, Ford ordered the evacuations anyway. He asked Congress to allocate almost half a billion dollars to settle 140,000 refugees from Indochina in the United States—one of his few legislative successes. Later, he sent the military to rescue crewmen of the merchant ship Mayaguez from Cambodian custody, losing 43 servicemen in the incident.
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Between 30 January and the end of February 1968, the North Vietnamese military launched a series of devastating attacks against South Viet Nam’s major cities, extending from Khe Sanh in the north to Ca Mau on the country’s southern tip. Now known as the Tet Offensive, this operation was timed to coincide with the beginning of Tet, an annual celebration of the lunar New Year and the most festive of Vietnamese holidays. Previously, the combatants had observed a cease-fire during Tet. Hence the American forces and their South Vietnamese allies, relaxing and celebrating as in years past, were caught completely off guard. The results, writes historian George C. Herring (in America’s Longest War), were the bloodiest battles of the war: "in the first two weeks of the Tet campaigns, the United States lost 1,100 killed in action and South Vietnam 2,300. An estimated 12,500 civilians were killed, and Tet created as many as one million new refugees".
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After Diem, South Vietnamese elites were unable to formulate a government that could muster any sort of traction. It was not for lack of trying; coup followed coup until mid-1965, when VNAF General Nguyen Cao Ky and ARVN General Nguyen Van Thieu took charge as premier and president, respectively. Ky's support centered on the generals who were in charge of South Vietnam's four military regions, or corps. Due to the special circumstances of the war emergency, these men had political as well as military authority. Corps commanders ruled as virtual warlords and were well positioned to exert influence on the central government in Saigon. The corps commanders supported Ky in his political aspirations.
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The South Vietnamese government requests that Washington double U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG-Vietnam) strength from 342 to 685. The advisory group was formed on November 1, 1955 to provide military assistance to South Vietnam. It had replaced U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group Indochina (MAAG-Indochina), which had been providing military assistance to "the forces of France and the Associated States in Indochina" (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) in accordance with President Harry S. Truman's order of June 27, 1950.
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The Roman Catholic Church stated that, as of the end of 1965, 10.5% (approximately 1,600,000) of all the South Vietnamese Republic's present population are members. Therefore, the Church, influencing its people by leadership in moral, ethical, spiritual, and educational realms, constitutes a force which must be considered in the political, military, social, and economic decisions of an awakening nation. In 1966 the Roman Catholic Church of South Vietnam had two Archbishops with administrative offices at Saigon and Hue, and twenty Bishops who oversaw the pastoral work of 1,771 priests and the work of 4,026 nuns of the various orders. Across the 17th Parallel, the Roman Catholic Church has an Archbishop and an archdiocese at Hanoi, some nine dioceses and thirteen Bishops; but this study is oriented basically to South Vietnam, except where the Church's Vietnamese history requires inclusion of the north since the church early established in Tonkin a strong base. The various decrees affecting Catholicism were issued by the royal rulers dwelling at Hanoi for most of Roman Catholicism's Vietnamese history.
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