Battle of Saigon (1955)

A square mile of the city, around the densely populated inner-city Chinese district of Chợ Lớn where the Bình Xuyên had a stronghold, became a free-fire zone.

One of the few maneuvers that was considered tactical was an attempt by the VNA to cut off Bình Xuyên reinforcements by demolishing the bridge across the Saigon–Chợ Lớn canal.

On the morning of April 28 in Washington, John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State phoned J. Lawton Collins to suspend moves aimed at replacing Diệm.

Le Grand Monde, previously Bảy Viễn’s largest gambling establishment, and temporarily serving as a Bình Xuyên citadel, was overrun by Diệm’s paratroopers after a struggle which caused heavy losses on both sides.

The VNA then stormed one of the Bình Xuyên’s most heavily fortified strongholds, the Petrus Ký High School in Chợ Lớn.

Bảy Viễn escaped to Paris to live out his life on the profits of his criminal ventures, and the VNA pursued the Bình Xuyên remnants into the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border.