Save South Vietnam!

On May 10, 1965 two Vietcong (VC) regiments overran the provincial capital of Long Binh province, Song Be. The Battle of Song Be was the culmination of the collapse of the South Vietnamese regular army (Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or ARVN). It was the first time a South Vietnamese provincial capital had fallen and then been held by VC forces in the long-running war. To General Westmoreland, commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), the battle could not have been more ominous.

Two months earlier, on March 8, 1965, two battalions of the 9th Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, had landed at Danang to take over the large base’s defense from ARVN forces who were thereby presumably free to engage in offensive operations against the ever-growing VC forces. Later that year, regular US Army units were deployed in Bien Hoa and other strategic areas. By fall 1965, the 1st Cavalry Division was engaged in aggressive offensive military operations in the Ia Drang Valley south-west of Pleiku in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. “Americanization” of the war had begun. Before it was over 10 years later, Cambodia and Laos had been dragged into the horrific struggle as well. Despite never losing a battle, US forces left Vietnam in 1973 and South Vietnam fell to the communists after a brutal offensive in early 1975.

It is early 1965, and now YOU are in command! The ARVN has basically collapsed and watch out! North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units are infiltrating the south in large numbers even as local VC forces grow in strength. Can you, as the USA and South Vietnam, defeat the resilient communist fighters and create a stable and lasting western-aligned nation as a bastion in Southeast Asia? Or will you, like Presidents Johnson and Nixon, find the VC and NVA impossible to completely defeat?

GENERAL: REESTABLISH ORDER, CRUSH THE VIETCONG GUERILLAS AND THE NORTH VIETNAMESE ARMY REGIMENTS, AND REBUILD THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE POLICE AND ARMY!!!

“Save South Vietnam!” Game contents: 36 x 22 inches game board (14-point, which is very thick and sturdy to last a lifetime, scored for easy folding and storage), 15 page game manual, 1 player aid, 272 one- and two-sided 5/8 inches pre-punched high quality glossy counters, 2 dice.