12 December 1974: On December 12, 1974, the North Vietnam launched a campaign against Phouc Long Province, only 50 miles north west of Saigon. They had three key objectives.

1) Test the reaction of the United States Government, to see if they would actually uphold former President Richard Nixon‘s promises of military retaliation against North Vietnam.

2) PAVN field commanders wanted to test the combat readiness of the ARVN.

3) The North Vietnamese wanted to solve their logistical problems once and for all, by capturing the district of Phước Long and the important transportation routes around it.

The campaign proved to be a major success for the North Vietnamese, because the fall of Phước Long showed that the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War was truly over. There was no American air attacks as in 1972 that helped to stop the North’s “Easter Offensive” and the United States Congress repeatedly voted against President Gerald Ford‘s request to give additional aid for South Vietnam