ABSTRACT
By April 1, 1973, the only US military personnel remaining in South Vietnam were 159 Marines, who were serving as embassy guards, and another 50 people, who were serving in the Defense Attache Office as permitted by the provisions of the Paris agreement. Hanoi, needing a respite from war to rebuild its shattered military forces, confined its activities in South Vietnam largely to politics during most of 1973. One of the causes of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Force's decline in 1974 was the reduction in the amount of US military assistance going to South Vietnam. Systemic corruption, the decline of the army, and the reductions in the US aid combined to undermine the fragile South Vietnamese political structure. By the fall of 1974, Hanoi had placed an estimated 285,000 troops into South Vietnam, far in excess of what they were allowed under the Paris Accords.
