Probably the most iconic photo of the US evacuation from Saigon, South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. The last helicopter to leave the roof of the US embassy, as embassy staff and their families as well as South Vietnamese employees and their families desperately try to escape the city before North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces capture it:
Another of the more iconic photos depicting the US evacuation from Saigon. Already full US Navy flight decks on carriers and other ships had no space to accommodate the seemingly endless helicopters packed with people, so a solution to make space was devised:
The same scene played out on several more occasions:
Though not widely known or appreciated, some US troops did lose their lives as Saigon fell. Below, a memorial to two US Marines who were killed in action on April 29, 1975:
Those hoping to escape the city however they could also headed to the wharves along the Saigon River, packing fleeing ships to the gunwales:
Elements of the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN, or the “Army of the Republic of Vietnam”) fought the NVA outside the city, hoping to slow the enemy advance long enough to complete the evacuation. As they fell back into the city proper, fighting raged in some neighborhoods. Once ARVN morale collapsed a general rout ensued and NVA tanks and troops would capture the presidential palace, rolling through the shattered gates and into the compound:
No other way to describe the end but as what it was:
Interesting to speculate how something like this would be perceived today.
“After all the time, money, and American lives that have been lost in Vietnam, the President doesn’t do anything to stop this takeover!”
But Ford did about as well as anyone could have done. It was a mess.
And today, I’m wearing shorts and shoes that were made in Vietnam.
Congress had no patience for the idea of providing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to South Vietnam , nor was it in any way amenable to providing the resources necessary to get American airpower on station to push back the advancing North Vietnamese.
Ford and his people gave it a try, but I suspect that their hearts weren’t in it either.
Congress had no patience for the idea of providing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to South Vietnam , nor was it in any way amenable to providing the resources necessary to get American airpower on station to push back the advancing North Vietnamese.
I really don’t see any form of tactical endgame in your post. Are you trying to say that we should have won? (“so much winning”) Flush more money and lives down that toilet? Sadly, the very best thing we did was end that clusterfuck, and we should have done it sooner. Then sit back, rebuild, and wait for the USSR to get stuck in their own “Vietnam” and collapse.
It’s good to remember it. It would also be good to learn from it.
Congress had no patience for the idea of providing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to South Vietnam , nor was it in any way amenable to providing the resources necessary to get American airpower on station to push back the advancing North Vietnamese.
I really don’t see any form of tactical endgame in your post. Are you trying to say that we should have won? (“so much winning”) Flush more money and lives down that toilet? Sadly, the very best thing we did was end that clusterfuck, and we should have done it sooner. Then sit back, rebuild, and wait for the USSR to get stuck in their own “Vietnam” and collapse.
It’s good to remember it. It would also be good to learn from it.
You’re reading too much into my post. Saigon fell 43 years ago today. That’s about the extent of any tactical end game that you think I might be hinting at, which isn’t the point of the OP or my discussion with Mr Alvin.
I was a USMC officer from 1976 to 1979, so a little too young to see action in Vietnam. But, one of my buddies a couple of years older had his platoon dug in in the soccer field across from the embassy during the evacuation. He described the NVA tanks sitting in the tree line across the field, revving their engines and waiting for the US to withdraw. Once his platoon was in the helos, the tanks came out and that was all she wrote.
I was a USMC officer from 1976 to 1979, so a little too young to see action in Vietnam. But, one of my buddies a couple of years older had his platoon dug in in the soccer field across from the embassy during the evacuation. He described the NVA tanks sitting in the tree line across the field, revving their engines and waiting for the US to withdraw. Once his platoon was in the helos, the tanks came out and that was all she wrote.
