The fall of Saigon

I was just a dumb-ass 14 year old and clueless of what was going on.

A co-worker of mine was there ( a young teenager himself) and has been telling me his experience. He blames the corrupt South Vietnamese Government as the reason they were unprepared and it fell so quickly.

that and the failure of the US congress to finish what Kennedy started and fight the damn war with the ChiComs as they were fighting us

That was my response. My co-worker said that he does not blame the US at all. He says that if we were going to get involved in a situation like that then we should go all in. He then said that they should never have reached the point to where they depended on a foreign government to fight (or lose) the war for them. He would rather everyone (Vietnamese) had prepared for the attack and fought it themselves, whether they won or lost.

PBS had a very good show on "The Last days of Vietnam" the American Experience show.

The Rand Corporation forecast the exact outcome what, 11 years in advance?  The South Vietnamese government didn't have the spine for maintaining security, and was perfectly happy with the US doing the fighting for them.  Hell, Korea fought harder for Vietnam than most ARVN soldiers ever did, not to take away from the genuine sacrifices of a few, but the ARVN weren't known for closing with and destroying.

The ROK Army and Marines were brutal and tenacious fighters in contrast.

As some VN folks (now living in America) have told me............

It was about REUNIFICATION.

Careful, it may happen again in Korea.

Aloha, Mark

We were winning when I left.

30+ years from now, they'll make a similar show about "The Last days of Iraq".  The USA pulled out and Iran marched in.  


 

Interesting fact. The last chopper at the US Embassy was not military. It was an Air America (CIA) helicopter.

Hell, Kim is missing his big chance, you know damn well the coward/traitor in chief wouldn't lift a finger if they crossed the 38th parallel tomorrow...

PBS should have a show with all the people that were killed by the Commies when they took over and started their Utopian Society that the leftist all told us they would. They could just so footage of Irag and the Stan to fill in the blank spots (yes I know it's terrorist not commies).





Ed



 

I was watching that. I was 2 when this was going on, but it is still of great interest to me. The craziest story was the SVN Chinook pilot who flew his family out to a Navy Destroyer and his family jumped out onto the flight deck and he ditched the helo off to one side and bailed out the other. Talk about nerves of steel.



 

My co-worker was telling me about Ba Van Nguyen


More pictures

That isn't the US embassy in that picture.

X2

In many places in the would today, America is mere minutes away from playing "White Christmas"  

+3

That wasn't the last chopper, in fact that wasn't the embassy either. It was the house of one of workers that had worked with/for embassy personal.





 

Well, I guess that is sorta that is true, since it actually is The Ambassador's Residence



Wiki says it was CIA deputy chief of station and personnel in an appartment

I was there 40 years ago today.  My family and I had been camping out across the fence from Air America hoping to catch a flight at the last minute.  When we woke up on the 27th, all their airplanes were gone during the night so my father turned to plan B:  make our way towards the tarmac at Ton Su Nhut by cutting fences and driving through. The attack began on the early morning of the 29th when it seemed like the whole place got lit up.  I was pulled under the cot we were sleeping on but could clearly see tracers flying back and forth right outside the front door.  At first light we piled into a jeep and slowly made our way towards the C-130 ramp.   We were met with resistance along the way but with help from above and the fact that security recognized my father, we were allowed to continue on.  Once we got to the runway, I saw rows of destroyed or burning C-130s and various other aircrafts.  They must have hit the fuel dump because black smoke was shooting straight up into the sky at one section.  We were stopped by the MPs at the last gate and while pleading with them to let us through, a mortar landed nearby and knocked us off our feet.  Finally, one of the MPs recognized my mother as his kid's school teacher and let us though.  We ran to a cement bunker right by a hangar.  There were about thirty other women and children, most were crying.  My father was standing outside the entrance to scan the area and he ducked in and told us to come out and run to a C-130 that he just saw two pilots running towards.  It was about a 500 yard dash and we were one of the first ones.  A blue pick up truck pulled along side and the driver screamed for us to jump in.  The driver somehow recognized my dad (there was a lot of that during that fateful day. Don't ask me how it happened) in the crowd.  Later my father told me the driver was one of his cadets.  The truck got to the plane and slammed on the brakes.  I was in the bed and flew forward, landing on my chin.  I nearly blacked out from the pain but dragged myself up and was grabbed and thrown into the plane.  By this time, more people were starting to pile in as the plane started up and slowly backed out.  It was rolling along the taxiway when I saw a Jeep driving along side.  People in the plane pulled the old lady on passenger side in but the plane is starting to increase speed so the jeep pulled away.  We could not take off on the main runway because it was mortared so we took off from the taxiway.  My dad made his way to the cockpit and told the pilots to rock the plane sideways once they took off to gain airspeed.  We were way overloaded with more than 200 people so it was pretty tense inside feeling like the plane was having a hard time taking off.  Once airborne, it was at least another 20-30 minutes before we felt safe.  At first we flew south to another airbase but were told not to land since they too were under attack.  The pilot then turned west towards Thailand.  We landed about an hour later at Utapao AIr Base.  When the ramp dropped, everyone inside gasped as there were a sea of airplanes outside.  F-5s, Skyraiders, Caribous, and a ton of other C-130s.  I saw some that had parts of its wing or tail shot off but somehow made it.  My father and I did a walk around our plane I we counted about 8 bullet holes but no one inside was hurt.  We were eventually told to deplane but all weapons had to remain behind.  As the last passenger got off, I saw a huge pile of small arms on the deck of the plane.  At that point, we all realized that we no longer had a country and only the unknown awaited us.  I will forever think that the C-130 Hercules is the most beautiful plane in the world and GOD BLESS THE U.S.A!!

Wow, thank you for sharing that with us. I heard some pretty bad stories about that day and the next few weeks.

Yep, watched it tonight

I DVR'd it.  Caught a few minutes of it and need to sit down and watch the whole thing.

For info, "The Last Days of Vietnam"  On PBS re-airs again Thursday and Sunday on Direct TV, I imagine it is all across PBS check local times.

It may also be listed as -----American Experience-The last Days of Vietnam

I was there.  I was 9.  My father had served 3 tours in the U.S. Army and by that point was working for a civilian company in Saigon.  He had been assured for weeks that there was nothing to worry about, the VC wasn't going to be able to take the city and we'd be safe.  We got out on a flight on the 29th.  My mom's 2 brothers, ARVN officers were captured and never seen again by any family.

Most likely true...I was a dumb 15 year old.

 

That pic has been falsely portrayed as the last chopper out. It is not that is across the street from the embassy at the CIA apartments.  The last chopper was a marine chinook on the embassy roof to pick up the marine security detail.

How crazy would it have been had the NVA not held up at the out skirts of the city and gave the US a chance to leave(don't take me wrong I am not a anti or liberal of any sort) just could have been a lot more messy.

Apr 30 1975...Ft Polk ,LA   Infantry AIT   F-2-1 ( Foxtrot Co, 2Bn, 1st Trng Bde) We were matched to the Dayroom ,  which we never saw   . Took seats on the floor and the Drills proceeded to make us watch the Saigon pullout ! After an hour it was back to training ! Every Drill in the unit had a "combat " patch on....Some had been back less than a yr.
  Made an impression that day...that scene did.

And after 40 years they have come completely around and embraced capitalism. its easy grab a gun and fight for independence.  The hard part comes after in governing a society in peace.

The guy was on PBS this week and he said they were picking up someone not CIA (IE South Vietnamese) at an apartment that they were trying to get out.



 

They couldn't possibly have been back from Vietnam "less than a year" because the last U.S. ground forces were "officially" pulled out of Vietnam in late 1972, though it is fairly certain some didn't actually leave until early 1973.

 

Even more interesting that is not the embassy, and the last chopper was not an Air America helocopter. By the time the last helocopter left Saigon the  Air America aircraft were sitting aboard the USS Hancock CVA-19.

There's a LOT of misinformation about the fall of South Vietnam, a lot of it originating in U.S. college classrooms (with a healthy helping of bullshit heaped on by the "news" media through the years). University leftists like to create the perception that the U.S. military was pretty much pushed into the sea by the North Vietnamese in 1975 (). That's how you get - carefully crafted - bullshit popular mythology like the "last chopper out of Vietnam" photo, which, you know, just happened to be oh so symbolically sitting on top of the "U.S. embassy" like some scrawny city slicker chased up a tree by a grizzly bear.

The U.S. military did not "lose" Vietnam war.

That wasn't the "last chopper out of Vietnam."

That wasn't the U.S. embassy.

There have probably been more lies told about the Vietnam War than any other event of the 20th century.

OP, take it from an old retired military vet who was there.  

The South Vietnamese people out in the villages did not give a shit about who was or was not sitting in the presidential palace in Saigon.  

All they cared about was their mama-san and their water buffalo and and their little rice paddy and village.  

That was the extent of their world view.

So, little surprise the entire structure collapsed like a house of cards after our grunts left.  

If you watch that show, they will tell you that the North Vietnamese were somewhat afraid of Tricky Dick Nixon but, when he resigned, they were encouraged to "go for broke" and they sure did.

I have had  more than one retired military officer tell me that Tricky Dick Nixon had plans drawn up to use tactical nukes on the trail and Hanoi's military targets.  Perhaps the North Vietnamese knew this too and that may have been why they were afraid of Tricky Dick.

The little fuckers must have rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they saw Trick get on the helicopter and leave D.C. after resigning.

And not long afterward, my dad (finally) came home... I remember that day.

Remember watching that on the TV with my dad. I remember hearing something about VC guerrillas and kept thinking real gorillas were attacking people and I was terrified. Pardon me but I was 6 in 1975 but I remember the helicopter and the roof and my uncle who was there in 70 or 71 swearing and saying "what a fucking waste".

Thank you for sharing your amazing personal stories with us, gentlemen.

Nearly everything you posted here is incorrect.

Most definitely not the last chopper.  And not the embassy.  

The last chopper was a Marine CH46.  It carried the last 11 Marines from the embassy detail.

We didn't loose ....we quit packed up our marbles and went home..

My wife and her family were there on the grounds at 22 Gia Long Street that day. They didn't get out until 1993. Yes it was a horrible mess. I should really write it all down but I hate making her talk about it, 40 years on she will still break into tears.

My coworker/boss was in Siagon when it feel.  His father was ARVN.  They stayed until the late 70s when they got word the communists were coming to take his father.

I'm 3/4 Korean and 1/4 Vietnamese.  My mother is 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Vietnamese and my father is 100% Korean.  Dad was a ROK sergeant in the Tiger Division stationed in Vietnam and he met my mother who was teaching Vietnamese to Korean soldiers through the Korean Embassy there in Saigon.  They married in December of 1974.

My mother, aunt, and uncle got out two weeks before the country fell through the ROK Embassy.  They boarded a ROK warship with Korean Citizens and Vietnamese refugees then sailed to an nearby island offshore.  The ROK gov't thought that the ARVN forces would be able to repel the NVA forces and eventually they would return the Vietnamese citizens to the mainland.  Apparently, this was not the case and after April 30th they set sail for Korea.  

My father was with two uncles, an aunt, and my maternal grandmother and they left on April 28th via Tan Son Nhat airport on a C-130 that flew them to the Philippines, then to Midway Island, and eventually to Camp Pendleton, San Diego.  My dad however being a Korean citizen and not a refugee was shipped to Guam to be sent back to Korea.

One of the uncles who was 8 at the time recalls that he was let out of school on the 28th at noon.  He rushed home and my grandmother told him to pack a suitcase of clothes.  He comes down with the suitcase and a ROK jeep is out front with my father driving.  They drove through crowds of people who begged them for a ride offering jewelry and cash to the airport.  Dad used his credentials and was able to get everyone through security and onto the tarmac into a waiting C-130.

I was born in Korea December of 1975 (my mother did not find out that she was pregnant with me until she was on the ship sailing for Korea).  We were eventually reunited with my father and immigrated to the U.S. to meet up with the rest of the family in 1976.  

My entire family hates commies to this day.

You Sir are very wrong. The last chopper was US military.

The image you have posted is an Air America heli, but that isn't even the US Embassy, it is an apartment block in a residential area of Saigon.

Thank you everyone for your personal experiences.