"Chaos and Tragedy in a “Post-War” Zone: Last Days in Vietnam" Topic

"Standing on the flight deck of the USS Midway (CV-41) in late April 1975 amongst the 10 heavy-lift helicopters of USAF 56th Special Operations Wing and the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, the sailors could see the fireworks of the rockets launched by the North Vietnamese Army in the area of Vung Tau, Republic of Vietnam. Amassed off the coast was the largest naval armada since the 1964 escalation of the war after the Gulf of Tonkin incident as the carriers launched aircraft from Yankee and Dixie Station to bomb targets in North Vietnam and support U.S. and South Vietnam forces fighting in the south. Operation Frequent Wind, as the Pentagon would name it, followed a smaller evacuation, Operation Eagle Pull, of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 12, 1975.

As 1975 opened, the Vietnam War had slipped from the memory of many Americans as an era of history to be forgotten. The war was over, the POWs were home and President Ford had offered amnesty to draft dodgers. As the USS Midway headed south from Japan, the movements of the Regular Army of North Vietnam were plotted on large wall maps as more and more of South Vietnam, the towns and cities that were once the headlines in U.S. newspapers, fell to the communist forces. Would the bombing resume? Would the United States send the Marines back? These questions ran through the minds of the sailors, airmen and Marines onboard the ships of the amassing armada as well as the policymakers in Washington and Saigon.

This is the complex backdrop behind the events depicted in the recently released film, Last Days in Vietnam. Director Rory Kennedy opens the film by setting the stage for what would occur in the spring of 1975. Politically, President Nixon, whose administration had ended the war in 1973, was out of office and in disgrace, Congress and the White House were at odds because Congress refused President Ford's request for funds to rearm South Vietnam and the majority of Americans were happy the war was over. In Saigon, while U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin operated as if the cavalry was on the horizon, State Department officers, defense attachés and C.I.A officers conducted an unofficial "black operation" to get their South Vietnam partners and their families out of the country. Their lives would be in peril if they fell into the North's hands…"
full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks heaps Tango01. I will have to go see it even though right now it looks like it will be an hour and half one way drive for me.

Tom

"the majority of Americans were happy the war was over."

I really have to question that statement. To the vast "majority" of American Nam vets, both remf's and grunts, the "war" never really ended. If it "ended" it was because our leaders caved into the left wingers and threw in the towel. I just feel sorry for all the South Viet's whom the NVA slaughtered after we abandoned them.

"…it was because our leaders caved into the left wingers and threw in the towel"

Look, we have our very own version of the "stab in the back" legend. Just as blinded and clueless as the German militaristic class who believed their own stab in the back myth to explain away inconvenient truths in 1918.

"Look, we have our very own version of the "stab in the back" legend"

Except our "version" isn't legend. We did indeed abandon the South Viet's. There were large numbers who'd dedicated their lives to the fight against the North Viet communists. Folks who'd literally laid their lives on the line in that fight. Then our spineless Congress decides to not even give them the logistical and weapons support to sustain that fight.

When the VC took Hue, earlier in the war, they came to town with a hit list of teachers, civil government leaders and any others they thought might be sympathetic to the South Vietnamese / US regime. It must have been a lot worse after the country fell. Towns were over run before secret police archives could be destroyed. What a screw up! I met a Vietnamese woman who's husband, a Colonel in the South Vietnamese army, was killed by the VC when they took over.

Glad you enjoyed the article my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

And if the south had won, they'd have been executing communists instead.

In the end, this all comes down to the same old thing:

We live in a democracy. This means that the military must always, at all times and without fail, be subject to civilian control.
If the civilian government and by extention, the population, decides they don't want to fight, you pack up your toys and go home.
After all, the civvies are the ones footing the bill.

If you feel that a military regime is better, there's a lot of countries in the world that can accommodate your desires.
I hear it went pretty well in Egypt.

I have never read about wholesale executions of communists in Malaysia after they were defeated. Maybe it happened. But I doubt if any in post WWII SE Asia outperformed the communists in this.

Remember Pol Pot in Cambodia.

I do agree that the military must be subject to the civilians. It is just too bad that most elected legislators and executives know so little about fighting the wars that they send the young men off to die for. The only reason to fight a war is to win. Otherwise, stay home.

Tom

"The only reason to fight a war is to win. Otherwise, stay home." Exactly.

RIP to all who gave their all in Nam. Especially those in Alpha, 1/46th, 196th LIB, 23rd ID, 1970-71.