Honorable Exit
Page 43
Soon after Phuoc Long fell: Gembara, interview.
After he struggled: McBride, interview.
While McBride was revisiting: Moorefield, interviews; Santoli, To Bear Any Burden, 113–15, 189–92, 229–32.
He had recently sent: CIA, 155.
“I want you to know”: DeForest and Chanoff, Slow Burn, 249.
“If you attend”: Parker, Last Man Out, 253–54.
CIA agent James Parker: Parker, interview; Parker, Last Man Out, 252–53.
CHAPTER 2: WALTER MARTINDALE’S CONVOY
Consular officer Walter Martindale: Martindale material in this chapter from Martindale, interviews and email correspondence with the author.
Tom Glenn, who headed: Glenn, interview.
Thompson had just returned: FLEAP, box 12.
In his memoir: Dung, Our Great Spring Victory, 16–21.
U.S. secretary of defense: James Cannon Papers, box 4, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
In September 1973: CIA, 141.
A March 12 memorandum: FRUS, 185.
On March 11, he summoned: Hung, Palace File, 264–65; Vien, Final Collapse, 77–78; Todd, Cruel April, 140; Veith, Black April, 172–73.
On March 14, Thieu flew: Snepp, Decent Interval, 194–95; Veith, Black April, 176–78; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 75–77; Isaacs, Without Honor, 348–49; Todd, Cruel April, 142–43.
During the flight back to Pleiku: Veith, Black April, 178.
The next day, March 15: Ibid., 184; FLMF, box 8.
General Vien also neglected: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 88.
Phu also followed Thieu’s order: Ibid.
U.S. provincial representative: Snepp, Decent Interval, 199–203.
Reporter Nguyen Tu called: Veith, Black April, 211–12.
While this tragedy was unfolding: Erich von Marbod, interview.
According to a Vietnamese woman: Jackie Bong-Wright, interview.
American generals had praised: Veith, Black April, 92.
Norman Schwarzkopf: Norman Schwarzkopf, It Doesn’t Take a Hero (New York: Bantam, 1992), 140.
She had grown up in New Jersey: Sources for Tull and Truong material in this chapter: Tull, interview; Tull, Long Way from Runnemede, 51–60, 96–102.
CHAPTER 3: WHO LOST VIETNAM?
“Between you and me”: Kissinger, Crisis, 449.
The night before leaving: LDE, George McArthur.
“he’s a patriot”: DBC, box 3, folder 80.
Despite Ban Me Thuot: FRUS, 191.
On this day, he told Ford: FLNSA-Meet, March 25, 1975.
“This is one of the most”: Ibid.
“If we are not legalistic”: Ibid.
“Fred, be careful”: Hung, Palace File, 302.
Kissinger would later claim: Kissinger, Crisis, 425.
Years later, Kissinger would write: Ibid.
“I’m glad you’re going”: FLNSA-Meet, March 25, 1975.
He considered Martin: ADST, Habib, 57; LDE, Habib.
“I’ve been in this business”: LDE, Habib.
There had been a testy: FRUS, 191.
“Remember, the one thing”: FLNSA-Meet, March 25, 1975.
Earlier that year: DBC, box 4, folder 8.
He also told friends: Ibid.
He told his daughter: Janet Martin, interview.
“If the President”: Ibid.; VCE, Part III, 537.
He made the request: FLMF, box 8.
“For more than 40 years”: RSP, 12.
“nothing happened in Vietnam”: DBC, box 4, folder 8.
“The one asset”: FLNSA-Meet, March 25, 1975.
“the familiar profile”: Utley, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, 165–66.
But instead of a silver spoon: Sources for Martin’s early life and career: Janet Martin, interview; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 145–49; Snepp, Decent Interval, 67–72; DBC, box 4, folder 8.
“I felt then”: RSP, 7.
It was believed in Vietnam: Hung, Palace File, 316.
Mann’s death had been: Janet Martin, interview.
Martin would acknowledge: VCE, Part III, 536.
He told friends: Dawson, 55 Days, 100.
As Humphrey was preparing: Janet Martin, interview; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 145–49; Snepp, Decent Interval, 67–72.
Without hesitation Martin said: Lacy Wright, interview.
During World War II: Janet Martin, interview.
In a letter: RSP, 21.
“the most Machiavellian mind”: LDE, McArthur.
“tended to consider”: Kissinger, Crisis, 441.
“a man with a mission”: Dan Oberdorfer, “America’s Man in Saigon,” Washington Post, April 13, 1975, A1.
Martin compared himself: DBC, box 4, folder 8.
Still, he was the only one: FLNSA-Meet: March 25, 1975.
His concern might have been: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 53–54.
“Mr. President, I really”: Ford, Time to Heal, 251; Kennerly, interview.
“Sure, David, I understand”: Kennerly, Shooter, 168.
Ford asked if he could: Ibid.; Ford, Time to Heal, 251; Kennerly, interview.
Kennerly’s black-and-white photographs: Kennerly.com.
“worked in the deep”: Ibid.
“You mean that division”: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 143; CIA, 169–70.
They might have been: Lewis Sorley, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), 154.
“Unless a more positive”: R. W. Apple, “Vietnam: The Signs of Stalemate,” New York Times, Aug. 7, 1967, 1.
“deteriorated considerably in the past”: FRUS, 194.
Ford and Kissinger received: Ibid., 195.
Three days before: Dung, Palace File, 120.
And while Weyand was: FRUS, 196.
Kissinger meanwhile told reporters: John W. Finney, “Kissinger Revives a Vietnam Aid Plan,” New York Times, March 27, 1975, 1.
Quinn was currently serving: Sources for Quinn material: Quinn, interview; Quinn, “Integrity and Openness.”
“He was a friend”: Von Marbod, interview.
CHAPTER 4: DESIGNATED FALL GUY
As passengers lined up: Snepp, Decent Interval, 281.
The week before: CIA, 161–62.
Polgar pulled Quinn aside: Quinn, interview.
He told a CIA officer: CIA, 169–70.
Theresa Tull had been sleeping: Tull, interview; Tull, Long Way from Runnemede, 104.
NSA chief Tom Glenn: Source for Glenn material: Glenn, interview.
Fred Thomas was serving: ADST, Fred Charles Thomas.
During a meeting of the National Security Council: FLNSA-Meet: March 28, 1975.
That same afternoon: Sources for Hays material: Hays, interviews; DBC, box 3, folder 48.
Martin did not suspect: Hays, interviews.
He told chamber members: Brian Ellis, interview; Isaacs, Without Honor, 373; Dawson, 55 Days, 171–73.
“I can get in”: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 13.
“Wyatt Earp with airplanes”: LDE, “Homesick Angel.”
“Give the gun”: Sources for Martin-Daly exchange: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 54; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 155; DBC, box 4, folders 7, 8; Dawson, 55 Days, 156.
Jacobson would later condemn: LDE, Jacobson.
He joined the first flight: Sources for Daly flight to Da Nang: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 162–70; LDE, “Homesick Angel”; Isaacs, Without Honor, 360–71.
“That’s it. It’s time”: Bissell, Father of All Things, 39.
While Daly was barely: Snepp, Decent Interval, 256.
UP
I reporter Paul Vogle: Willenson, Bad War, 299.
“felt a specific obligation”: CIA, 167.
“one of the most tragic”: USMC, 128.
During a State Department staff: FRUS, 198.
They talked late: Kennerly, interview.
Kennerly’s Vietnamese and American: Ibid.
After New York Times correspondent: Cong. Rec., March 21, 1974, S4187-94.
He suspected his secretary: Gembara, interview.
“You guys [the press]”: Kennerly, interview.
Martin was more guarded: Sources for Quinn material: Quinn, interview; Wright, interview.
Martin’s third houseguest: Von Marbod, interview.
On March 27, Hung: Hung, Palace File, 375.
Hung and Thieu hoped: Ibid.; von Marbod, interview.
CHAPTER 5: “I’D TELL THE PRESIDENT THAT!”
“What’s he going to do”: Martindale, interviews.
The highway from Nha Trang: Ibid.; Kennerly, interview.
Two barefoot girls: Martindale, interviews.
They flew over: Kennerly, interview.
Kennerly asked the Air America pilot: Ibid.
“You tell the president”: Martindale, interviews.
General Weyand arrived: Dawson, 55 Days, 191–92.
Despite Al Francis’s warning: Maurer, Strange Ground, 590; LDE, “Moncrieff Spear’s Vietnam.”
Instead of leaving: Martindale, interviews.
Military intelligence agent: Kieff, interview.
Kieff and Martindale cut a hole: Ibid.; Martindale, interviews.
“Get the hell out”: Sources for evacuation from Nha Trang: Snepp, Decent Interval, 267–72; Maurer, Strange Ground, 590–93; ADST, Moncrieff Spear, 20–21.
As Martindale disembarked: Martindale, interviews.
Spear then turned: Kieff, interview.
Spear would say that leaving: Maurer, Strange Ground, 593.
“I’m so ashamed”: Isaacs, Without Honor, 381.
Air America had placed: Sources for Burke material: Burke, interview; Burke, “Vietnam Report, Part One.”
After reaching Saigon: Maurer, Strange Ground, 593.
McNamara had been planning to send: Sources for McNamara’s background and planning for the consulate’s evacuation down the Bassac River: McNamara, interview; ADST, McNamara interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 28–76; ADST, Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History, “Apocalypse Not—the Evacuation from Can Tho—April 1975,” adst.org.
Still, he argued: Kassebaum, interview; McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 99–100; DBC, box 4, folder 3.
His staff was an unconventional bunch: Kassebaum and McNamara, interviews; Kassebaum, I Never Pushed a Cookie, 126.
They all knew that although McNamara: Kassebaum, interview; McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 28–59, 71–76.
After his staff agreed: McNamara, interview; DBC, box 4, folder 3; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 101–2; ADST, McNamara interview.
Whereas McNamara’s staff saw: Rounsevell, Parker, McNamara, and Kassebaum, interviews.
McNamara and his staff believed: McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 48–49.
Their dispute escalated: McNamara, Escape with Honor, 106–8.
Following the shelling: McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 119–21.
CHAPTER 6: “IN THE SHADOW OF A CORKSCREW”
At a State Department staff meeting: FRUS, 201.
Several hours later, Kissinger chaired: Ibid., 202.
According to the meeting’s: Ibid.
Kissinger followed up with: Ibid., 203.
He responded to Kissinger’s demands: Ibid., 204.
“for planning purposes”: Ibid.
“I knew very well”: Kissinger, Crisis, 441.
“What worries me”: Ibid., 450.
Martin responded to the WSAG request: FRUS, 205.
“I am not at all pleased”: Ibid., 206.
After reading the official: Richard Baughn, interview.
His deputy, air force: Ibid.; LDE, “And the Edsel Genius,” General Richard Baughn, 1, 2.
In mid-March, Smith: Sources for SPG and ECC material: Sabater, interview; USMC, 155–59 USDAO, III 16-B9-11, 16-C-2.
Sabater considered Smith’s assignment: Sabater, interview.
Hanoi was on a “blood scent”: Corn, Blond Ghost, 285.
This contravened the immigration laws: USDAO, III, 16-B-12.
Baughn believed that Americans: Sources for Baughn material: Baughn, interview; LDE, “And the Edsel Genius,” General Richard Baughn, 1, 2.
“I have now met”: Baughn, interview.
CHAPTER 7: PALPABLE FEAR
Former Da Nang: Moorefield, interviews.
Moorefield’s father had been: Sources for Moorefield’s background: Ibid.; DBC, box 4, folders 7, 8.
Still, he wondered: DBC, box 4, folders 7, 8.
Moorefield spent a month: Moorefield, interviews.
Moorefield’s two tours: Ibid.
Moorefield’s dispiriting conversation: Ibid.
The day before he left: Hays, interviews.
Theresa Tull refused to leave: Tull, interview; Tull, Long Way from Runnemede, 104–7.
Stephen Hosmer, a Rand Corporation: Samuel Adams, “Signing 100,000 Death Warrants,” Wall Street Journal, March 26, 1975, 1.
Secretary of Defense Schlesinger: Isaacs, Without Honor, 393.
Two days later: John W. Finney, “Humanitarian Aid to South Vietnam Gains in Senate,” New York Times, April 18, 1975, 1.
Kissinger informed the House: United Press International, “Communists Accused of Atrocities in Vietnam,” New York Times, April 19, 1975, 12.
A January 5, 1975, memorandum: Veith, Black April, 473.
Under the heading: FLNSA-Mem: April 9, 1975.
A Buddhist monk: Michael Getler and Marilyn Berger, “Bloodbath: A Theory Becomes a Fear,” Washington Post, April 19, 1975, A1.
“too many honest people”: Howard Langer, The Vietnam War: An Encyclopedia of Quotations (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005), 52.
They knew that mass graves: Oberdorfer, Tet!, 201.
when Colonel Tran Van Doc defected: William Tuohy, “Saigon Fears Blood Bath Under Reds,” Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1975, 1.
“We will treat humanely”: Peter Arnett, “After the Fall: Blood Bath or Love Bath?,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1975, 9.
After a defector: Herrington, “Third Indochina War,” 277.
After capturing Ban Me Thuot: The Reverend Tom Stebbins, interview.
In Hue, they had executed: Oberdorfer, Tet!, 211; Dawson, 55 Days, 92; Stebbins, interview.
An order issued: TTU/ARC, Douglas Pike Collection, folder 14, box 13.
An American tugboat captain: Ryder, interview; Lee and Haynsworth, White Christmas in April, 179.
U.S. military intelligence intercepted: FLEAP, box 13.
A captured Khmer Rouge document: Lee and Haynsworth, White Christmas in April, 179.
A Khmer Rouge radio station: UPI, “Khmer Reds Start Killing Foes,” Saigon Post, April 21, 1975.
In a Wall Street Journal essay: Adams, “Signing 100,000 Death Warrants.”
USIA country directors: Sources for Alan Carter material: Carter, interview; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 216–18; DBC, box 3, folder 25; Maurer, Strange Ground, 594–606; Willenson, Bad War, 305–6.
The undercurrent of fear: Carter, interview.
He sensed the “suppressed hysteria”: Carter, interview; Maurer, Strange Ground, 599; Willenson, Bad War, 306.
The “palpable fear”: William Tuohy, “Saigon Swims on at Cercle Sport
if but Gaiety’s Gone,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1975, 1.
“It’s harder for a South Vietnamese”: Malcolm W. Browne, “Tensions Grow in Saigon,” New York Times, April 4, 1975, 1.
While flying home with the Weyand mission: FLEAP, box 13.
In a second memorandum: Ibid.
Weyand’s written report: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 235; Snepp, Decent Interval, 306; Lou Cannon, “Ford Gets Pessimistic Report,” Washington Post, April 6, 1975, A1.
His verbal report was more: FRUS, 208.
“Why don’t these people”: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 98.
David Kennerly arrived: Kennerly, interview.
He struck Betty Ford’s private secretary: Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, First Lady’s Lady: With the Fords at the White House (New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1979), 110.
“the worst thing”: Kennerly, interview.
When he met with Ford: Ibid.
“This is what’s going on”: Ibid.
Ford ordered them reinstated: Ibid.
While flying back to Washington: Richard H. Growald, “Kennerly Says His Vietnamese Friends Are Terrified,” Washington Post, April 8, 1975, A10; Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 98–99.
CHAPTER 8: OPERATION BABYLIFT
Major General Smith supported: Snepp, Decent Interval, 302.
Ambassador Martin called: Fox Butterfield, “Orphans of Vietnam: One Last Agonizing Issue,” New York Times, April 13, 1975, 199.
Twenty-year-old Ross Meador: Sources for Meador material: Meador, interview; Cherie Clark, After Sorrow Comes Joy, 68–71; Peck-Barnes, War Cradle, 110–14.
On the morning of April 2: Meador, interview.
At 9:00 p.m., Tom Clark: Ibid.; Cherie Clark, After Sorrow Comes Joy, 130–35.
Ed Daly stood: Cherie Clark, After Sorrow Comes Joy, 130–35.
Daly ripped the bill in two: Bob Shane, “Courage Revisited,” www.vietnambabylift.org.
An air traffic controller: “Orphans of the Storm,” Newsweek, April 14, 1975, 14.
Meador thought he had demonstrated: Meador, interview.