The 1975 spring offensive (Vietnamese: chiến dịch mùa Xuân 1975), officially known as the general offensive and uprising of spring 1975 (Vietnamese: Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy mùa Xuân 1975) was the final North Vietnamese campaign in the Vietnam War that led to the capitulation of Republic of Vietnam. After the initial success capturing Phước Long Province, the North Vietnamese leadership increased the scope of the People's Army of Vietnam's (PAVN) offensive and captured and held the key Central Highlands city of Buôn Ma Thuột between 10 and 18 March. These operations were intended to be preparatory to launching a general offensive in 1976.

Following the attack on Buôn Ma Thuôt, the Republic of Vietnam realized they were no longer able to defend the entire country and ordered a strategic withdrawal from the Central Highlands. The retreat from the Central Highlands, however, was a debacle as civilian refugees fled under fire with soldiers, mostly along a single highway reaching from the highlands to the coast. This situation was exacerbated by confusing orders, lack of command and control, and a well-led and aggressive enemy, which led to the utter rout and destruction of the bulk of South Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands. A similar collapse occurred in the northern provinces.

Surprised by the rapidity of the ARVN collapse, North Vietnam transferred the bulk of its northern forces more than 350 miles (560 km) to the south in order to capture the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon in time to celebrate their late President Ho Chi Minh's birthday and end the war. South Vietnamese forces regrouped around the capital and defended the key transportation hubs at Phan Rang and Xuân Lộc, but a loss of political and military will to continue the fight became ever more manifest. Under political pressure, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on 21 April, in hopes that a new leader that was more amenable to the North Vietnamese could reopen negotiations with them. It was, however, too late. Southwest of Saigon IV Corps, meanwhile, remained relatively stable with its forces aggressively preventing VC units from taking over any provincial capitals. With PAVN spearheads already entering Saigon, the South Vietnamese government, then under the leadership of Dương Văn Minh, capitulated on 30 April 1975.

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  • SadStruggle92 [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Goddammit. Two years ago I would've known what that meant, now it's all sluiced out my brain like every other skill I stopped being able to use.

    • forcequit [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      OK so there's a battery and a... capacitor? in parallel with a resistor on the... positive? side of the open circuit, with some... diodes? equalising the voltage drop between the bat/cap when the circuit is closed by the heart. Don't quote me on most of this

      It's a defibrillator.

      • SadStruggle92 [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It’s a defibrillator.

        I did figure that that was what it was, because I have no idea why else you would include a heart shape in an electrical circuit.

        So the thing you're calling a "battery" is a genericized power-source logo. Like you can use a battery for that, but it's just representing where the current originates from/returns to upon completing the circuit. There are no diodes in this diagram; one thing that I had actually correctly guessed about this is that it's got a bunch of switches in it, & those things that I think you're calling diodes are actually push-button switches (I did have to look that up again though).

        So the way this seems to work, is that you hit the first two switches in the circuit (the ones on the top & bottom of the capacitor) to build up capacitance in the circuit between it & the heart to a certain level; presumably you want to induce a specific amount of voltage at a specific time, rather than running the entire capacity of the power-source through the organ. Then you flip the switch that activates the leg of the circuit that passes through the heart. This circuit has an inductor, because when you combine an inductor & a capacitor in a circuit, it filters out Alternating Current, or transforms it into Direct Current.

        You probably don't want alternating current to go through somebodies heart because it constantly flips the direction the electrons are travelling in from the source to the ground. You would be, to speak on it with a bit of artistic license, essentially electronically sawing through the organ if you had it run as AC. So, not something you want here, presumably.

        • forcequit [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Rip my electrical knowledge lmao, thanks for the clarification!

          Kinda incredible we can just restart de-febrile a heart like that. Sometimes.