ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. After a year of inconclusive political and military struggle in Vietnam, a subtle but decisive shift in the balance of forces occurred during 1974. By the end of 1974, two developments convinced Hanoi and the Party Central Committee Office of South Vietnam (COSVN) that the time was ripe for a sharp acceleration of their plans to conclude the national democratic revolution in the South, and defeat the Saigon forces. The other major GVN vulnerability of which the Party took note in late 1974 was also related to the economic contraction and reduction in aid that followed the withdrawal of American troops. Considering the immense and tragic costs for the people of My Tho on all sides of the struggle, the price exacted for the changes by the long revolutionary struggle has cast a long shadow over the future.
