White Christmas: The Fall of Saigon, April 1975

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. –Song played on Radio Saigon to signal Americans to assemble for an evacuation of South Vietnam. White Christmas is moderate level complexity game on the battle for Saigon in April 1975. After President Nixon’s sudden resignation in August 1974, the leaders of North Vietnam realized that the timetable and “Blooming Lotus” plan set for late 1976 or early 1977 for invading South Vietnam to reunite all of Vietnam could be advanced. The invasion began with a series of Communist attacks in the Central Highlands on March 8th, 1975. This led to the capture of several ARVN positions that prompted South Vietnamese President, Nguyen Van Thieu to order an evacuation, which was soon counter-manded and then reordered again. The South Vietnamese command indecision led to confusion and then panic when Communist forces crossed the DMZ (de-militarized zone) that separated North and South Vietnam a week later with a massive conventional invasion bolstered by tanks, artillery and mobile anti-aircraft batteries. The northern-most city in South Vietnam of Quang Tri fell quickly in a night time assault with Communist troops and tanks, with head lights blazing, herded more than attacked their foes into flight and captivity. The Imperial City of Hue was soon cut off from direct communications with Saigon to the south, and this prompted a complete breakdown of ARVN troops in I Corps (northern most command in South Vietnam) with many fleeing to Danang and any other ports or roads south to escape the Communist onslaught. Viewing their foe’s growing collapse, the North Vietnamese High Command issued new orders to capture Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the anniversary of Ho Chi Minh’s birth on May 9th. The final battle of the thirty-year long war was now set. -description from designer