Daklak Province consists of 18 districts and the Buon Ma Thuot City; 27 administrative units at communal level (13 wards, 18 townships and 177 communes) and 2,308 hamlets, highland villages, street bocks.

2- Population and ethnic groups

There are about 1,882,221 people inhabiting in Daklak that include 44 brothers’


ethnic groups. In there:

Native inhabitants in Daklak consist mainly of Ede, M’nong people with people of other ethnic majorities such as Ba Na, Gia Rai, Se Dang in small quantity. At present, local ethnic groups have 355,266 people, among them 70.1% of Êđê origin, 17% of Mnong and 18.5% of other ethnic groups of Ba Na, Gia Rai, Se Dăng.

During the time of the war against American aggressors, particularly after Liberation of the South Vietnam (1975), a number of people of ethnic majorities from Central Part and the North have come to Daklak for their new life that has made population structure of Daklak changed rapidly. Among 44 brother’s ethnic groups in territory of Đăk Lăk Province, groups with large number of inhabitants are:

• Kinh’s people occupy 70.65% total population
• E depeople occupy 13.69 %,
• Nung people – 3.9%,
• Mnong – 3.51%,
• Tay people – 3.03%
• Thai people – 1.04%
• Dao people – 0.86%

Although each ethnic group in Daklak has their own tradition and identity, all of them always unite to build their common fatherland and create a plentiful and rich of national identity culture

       
1- Geographical location:

Daklak is located in southwest of Truong Son mountains with 11030’–13025’ North

latitude and 107030’–109030 East longitude.

The province borders to Gia Lai Province to the North, Lam Dong and Binh Phuoc Provinces to the South, Khanh Hoa and Phu Yen Provinces to the East and Cambodia to the West with 240km of common frontier.

2 - Terrains:

Daklak province has relative flat terrains with average altitude 500 – 800 meters above the sea level lowering from the Southeast to the Northwest.

The terrains of the province are divided into 04 main types:

• Mountains
• Plateau
• Ea Sup plain
• Delta Krong Păk Lăk

Battle of Ban Me Thuot
The Battle of Buon Me Thuot was part of North Vietnam's Campaign 275 to capture


 the Central Highlands following the victory at Phuoc Long on January 6, 1975.

Buon Me Thuot was selected as the first objective during the Central Military Party Committee session on January 9. In order to achieve their objectives, General Vo Nguyen Giap put emphasis on secrecy and surprise to force the South Vietnamese army to defend the northern areas of the Central Highlands, as major North Vietnamese units would launch diversionery attacks elsewhere.

Campaign 275

To keep all upcoming military operations secret, radio signals were kept silent and the only radio broadcasts made were misleading messages intended to suggest that General Van Tien Dung would attack Pleiku. The beginning of Campaign 275 was signalled by North Vietnamese attacks in Binh Dinh and Pleiku Provinces on March 4. In Binh Dinh the ARVN 47th Regiment struggled against the ever growing strength of North Vietnamese artillery and rocket strikes, the artillery positions supporting the 47th Regiment were overrun and destroyed. ARVN Fire Support Bases 93 and 94 were heavily bombaraded before the 4th Ranger Group and the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Brigade were able to conduct clearing operations along Route 19.

On March 8 the 9th Regiment of the VPA 320th Division battled with the ARVN 45th Regiment at Thuan Man, resulting in the permanent blockage of Route 14 by the VPA 320th Division. On the next day another North Vietnamese attack was launched in Quang Duc Province, where the ARVN 53rd Infantry Regiment was overrun. The diversionary attacks in Quang Duc convinced Major General Pham Van Phu that the main battle would take place in Dac Lac Province, so the 72nd and the 96th Ranger Battalions as well as the 21st Ranger Group were sent to Ban Don.

The Battle

Finally at 1:55AM on March 10, the Vietnam People's Army launched a violent artillery barrage on the city of Buon Me Thuot and Phung Duc airfield.

By morning the 320th VPA Division had penetrated the city and the ARVN managed to throw back Communist assaults on Hill-559 and Phung Duc airfield. At around mid-day North Vietnamese infantry supported by armour had moved into the southern sector of Buon Me Thuot, where heavy fighting took place resulting in the loss of five North Vietnamese tanks. General Phu's attempt to reinforce Buon Me Thuot with two Regional Force Battalions from Ban Don failed under heavy enemy fire. Fighting at the airfield destroyed twelve aircraft belonging to the 2nd and 6th Air Divisions, and only three helicopters were managed to be piloted out.

The 23rd ARVN Division continued their resistance around Buon Me Thuot along with the 2nd Company, 4th Company, 8th Armoured Cavalry, 1st Battalion, 53rd Infantry, 243rd and 242nd Regional Forces. On March 11, the North Vietnamese consolidated their control over the city. On March 12 the worn down ARVN soldiers and their families were evacuated.

Major General Pham Van Phu were ordered to Cam Ranh on March 14 to meet President Nguyen Van Thieu. During the meeting President Thieu revealed and outlined his plans to retake Buon Me Thuot, under this plan Phu would make use of what is left of his units from Kontum and Pleiku Province, and the 22nd Division from Binh Dinh Province. However, due to the deteriorating stength of the South Vietnamese military, Buon Me Thuot was never retaken as the Communists continued their push south.

Aftermath

The Central Highlands consists of Dac Lac, Gia Lai, Kontum and Lam Dong Provinces


has always been an important strategic military staging area and whoever control the Central Highlands will have the advantage. For that reason, the South Vietnamese military had always maintained a heavy military presence there. After the fall of Buon Me Thuot, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered the northern provinces to be abandoned to 'lighten the top and keep the bottom'. The South Vietnamese army went into panic as soldiers and their families flooded the main roads in a mass exodus towards the coast. There was total collapse of South Vietnamese morale.
Vietnam airlines timetable to Buon Me Thuot - click here
Natural resources    
 
1. Land Resources:

Daklak has natural area of 1,959,950 hectares divided into 11 different soil groups, among them the most important one is basalt soil with 704,494 hectares that are advantageous for developing agriculture, forestry, particularly for cultivating long-term industrial crops such as coffee, rubber, pepper, tea... with high productivity.

2- Water resources

- Superficial water: Annually Daklak receives about 38 billions cubic meters of water. In there about 15 billions from rain. However, because rains distribute unevenly by seasons, there are local floods in rainy season and drought in dry season. - Underground water: Underground water is located mainly in basalt tectonics and Neogene sediments. These are water supply sources for superficial water in dry season.

3- Forest resources
   
a- Floristic composition:

Total forest area of Daklak is 1,017,955 hectares, in there natural forest occupies 1,008,265.5 hectares and artificial forest – 9,689.5 hectares. Because Daklak’s forest is located in region of advantageous climatic, land and hydrographic conditions, forest floristic composition develops plentifully in many different forms and includes various species. Natural floristic composition occupies most of natural area of land of the province and evenly distributes through all districts and towns, including five main types:

• Tropical evergreen forest
• Defoliating thin forest
• Mixing forest with bamboo, Neohouzeaua and wood trees
• Sapling regenerating forest with shrubs

- Natural grasses Cultivated floristic composition is diversified with many typical tropical trees such as coffee, rubber, cashew, bean, peas, cotton, fruit-trees... and other food trees. This kind occupies near 30% natural area of the province and arranges through almost all region in the province.

b- Forest animals:

According to statistics, Daklak’s forest animals comprise 93 races of mammals, 197 kinds of birds, in there many valuable and rare kinds such as elephants, tigers, jaguars, forest bulls, gayals, bears, deer, stags, flying squirrels, pheinardia ocellata, red-face grey peacock pheasants...

4- Minerals

Daklak has many kinds of minerals with different reserves, including many valuable minerals such as bauxite, lead, gold, feldspar, peat, granite, mineral water etc...

http://www.daklak.gov.vn/