Pham Van Phu

Major General Phạm Văn Phú (16 October 1928 – 30 April 1975) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

Military service Vietnamese National Army Phú began his military career as an interpreter for the French Army. He was then selected to attend the Dalat Military Academy, graduating in July 1953. He was appointed as a company commander in the 5th Vietnamese Parachute Battalion of the Vietnamese National Army. During the battle of Dien Bien Phu he was captured with the remainder of the French garrison when it was overrun by the Viet Minh on 7 May 1954. He was held prisoner for 16 months and contracted tuberculosis.

Army of the Republic of Vietnam Upon his release he continued to serve with the new Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), becoming one of the first ARVN Special Forces commanders.

After suffering exhaustion during the 1972 Easter Offensive, he was relieved of command and hospitalized. Following his recuperation, he served as director of the Quang Trung National Training Center from early 1973. When the initial PAVN attacks began in the Central Highlands Phú received conflicting reports on the PAVN objectives and believed that either Pleiku or Kontum were the intended targets rather than Ban Me Thuot, leading to a delayed response to the PAVN attack.

Phú hoped that surprise would make it possible to reach Tuy Hòa within three days before the PAVN could discover and react to the movement. However the poor condition of Route 7B prevented quick movement and the withdrawal of ARVN forces led to a mass exodus of civilians who soon became entangled in combat formations, impeding their movement and ability to deploy and fight. The PAVN moved to intercept the withdrawal and by 18 March was attacking the column. The vanguard of the "convoy of tears" eventually reached Tuy Hòa on 25 March. Only an estimated 20,000 of the 60,000 troops reached Tuy Hòa and they were no longer fit for combat.

On 29 March Phú issued new command responsibilities for what was left of II Corps, however the momentum of the PAVN advance was such that a defense at Cam Ranh was no longer feasible. Phú met with General Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, the deputy commander of III Corps near Phan Thiết on the morning of 2 April, Hiếu informed Phú that II Corps had been dissolved and the remaining provinces and forces would be incorporated into III Corps. On hearing this Phú attempted suicide with his pistol but was stopped by one of his officers, he was then put on a helicopter and flown to Saigon.

He committed suicide in Saigon on 30 April 1975, the day of the fall of Saigon.

Assessments In postwar interviews conducted by the RAND Corporation with senior South Vietnamese military and civilian officials on the causes of the collapse of South Vietnam, the interviewees were all highly critical of the withdrawal from the Central Highlands with one saying "it must rank as one of the worst planned and the worst executed withdrawal operations in the annals of military history." Phú was widely blamed for the disaster with interviewees saying that while he had been a "good division commander" he was "unfit" for Corps command with "poor intellectual and professional capability." Ly described him as "the type of person who acts according to his sentiment rather than his logic". One interviewee suggested that Phú failed to stay and command the withdrawal himself due to fear of being captured by the PAVN as he had at Dien Bien Phu.

Awards and decorations