"During the final ten days, from 21 to 30 April 1975, South Vietnam was like a headless chicken. President Nguyen Van Thieu suddenly abandoned his post at the last minute. New president Tran Van Huong, who was not protected by the constitution of the Republic of Vietnam, did nothing during the few days he was in power other than argue about the powers of his presidency. The few houses of the RVN Parliament did not respect the constitution and betrayed the nation. The unconstitutional President Duong Van Minh, out of blind faith in the "Tripartite Government" solution, demanded that he be given the post of chief of state one more time. However, just like the last time he was chief of state, General Minh did not have a firm understanding of the situation and did not have the capacity to resolve major problems. Even more damaging, General Minh was tricked by the North Vietnamese communists and the VC into complete immobility at the end. Acting like a defeated general, at 1015 in the morning of 30 April 1975 General Minh ordered ARVN units to lay down their arms. After SUpreme Commander Duong Van Minh issued the order to surrender, most of the ARVN soldiers assigned to defend the capital city put down their weapons, but they refused to lower their heads and surrender to the communists. They disbanded on their own, taking off their uniforms and disguising themselves as civilians in order to escape rather than to submit to being arrested and humiliated by the communists. A number of heroic soldiers, out of anger or out of humiliation, committed suicide before the communist army entered Saigon. One shining example was Lieutenant Colonel Long, a police officer, who committed suicide in front of the South Vietnamese National Assembly building after receiving the surrender order. In IV Corps, even though our army was still in control of the situation and Major General Nguyen Khoa Nam still had three elite infantry divisions, along with navy and air force units, under his command, all of South Vietnam was delivered into the hands of the North Vietnamese communists. The North Vietnamese then disbanded the NLFSVN."