Honorable Exit

by Thurston Clarke

  At 4:30 a.m., after learning: TTU/OH, Richard Carey, 500.

  Knowing that his transmission: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 131–32.

  Kean walked downstairs: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 446.

  He had already received: FLOHP, Nessen, 21.

  Replying to Kean: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 446.

  Moorefield volunteered to replace him: Moorefield, interviews.

  “Mr. Ambassador, they say”: Ibid.; Snepp, Decent Interval, 559.

  “I’m not leaving”: Madison, interview; Herrington, interview; Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 185–86.

  Madison went from one man: Madison, interview; Herrington, interview; Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 185–86.

  Herrington briefly considered: Herrington, interview; Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 186.

  A plaque in the lobby: Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 186.

  Herrington saw the abandoned: Herrington, interview; Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 187.

  There was architecture student: Wallace, River of Destiny, 31.

  She had been at the top: Baker, “Remembering the Fall of Saigon and Vietnam’s Mass ‘Boat People’ Exodus.”

  Also left behind: Hoang, Boat People, 100–101.

  “You may hear after you leave”: Reporting Vietnam, 728.

  Stuart Herrington struggled to find: Herrington, Peace with Honor?, 187.

  “the faces of those”: Herrington, interview.

  EPILOGUE

  “Do you know what”: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 103.

  “They lied to us”: Reporting Vietnam, 746.

  “If I had known that”: Madison, interview.

  “The fleet thought”: LDE, “Harry Summers Remembers the Fall of Saigon.”

  “We’ve got to get this betrayal”: Madison, interview.

  In a 2003 report commissioned: “The Fight for the High Ground: The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom,” May 2003–April 2004.

  In 1996, Henry Kissinger watched: Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 552–53.

  Bill Bell was posted: Bell, interview.

  Walter Martindale spent the next seven months: Martindale, interviews and email correspondence.

  “There was so much life”: Santoli, To Bear Any Burden, 334–35.

  He wrote an account: McNamara, Escape with Honor, dedication page.

  “You know, who the hell am I”: Ryder, interview.

  After returning to Washington: Rounsevell, interview.

  Martin had interrupted and said: DBC, box 4, file 7–9.

  During a 1976 congressional hearing: VCE, Part III, 610.

  Martin told an oral historian: Willenson, Bad War, 334.

  Four months after leaving: Bong-Wright, interview; Bong-Wright, Autumn Cloud, 230.

  The Communists arrested: Truong, interview and unpublished memoir.

  According to a handsome: Wallace, River of Destiny, flap copy.

  “I still grieve over those”: Douglas Brinkley, “Of Ladders and Letters,” Time, April 24, 2000.

  Henry Kissinger held a press conference: “Excerpts from News Briefing by Kissinger,” New York Times, April 30, 1975, 17.

  A Gallup poll released: William Greider, “Enmity to Refugees Puzzling,” Washington Post, May 3, 1975, 1.

  “an extraordinary callousness”: Ibid.

  Several days after the fall: Associated Press, “Refugee Return Urged by McGovern,” Washington Post, May 4, 1975, A19.

  “a last poisonous convulsion”: Greider, “Enmity to Refugees Puzzling.”

  Nathan Glazer, the co-author: Ibid.

  “The administration believes”: Lawrence Meyer, “U.S. to Accept All 70,000 of Self-Evacuated Refugees,” Washington Post, May 2, 1975, A1.

  “What’s he studying?”: Jackie Bong-Wright, interview.

  “Henry spent twenty-five of those minutes”: DBC, box 4, files 7–9.

  Martin told a congressional committee: VCE, Part III, 544.

  “During the last couple of weeks”: Willenson, Bad War, 325.

  Twelve hours before Martin left: Sources for Martin and the Saigon embassy papers: Gregory F. Rose, “The Stolen Secrets of Vietnam,” New York, Nov. 27, 1978, 73–79; George McArthur, “Bonanza of Secrets in Files on Saigon,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17, 1978, 2; Charles R. Babcock, “Graham Martin Won’t Be Prosecuted,” Washington Post, March 31, 1979, A3.

  Martin never received: Martindale, interviews and email correspondence with author.

  Duc Van Mai was one of the news agency: Ellis, interview; Ellis, unpublished manuscript.

  Bibliography

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  ARTICLES

  Burke, Marius. “Vietnam Report: Part Two—Saigon Evacuation.” Air America Log 1, no. 1 (1996). www.air-america.org.

  Butterfield, Fox. “How Vietnam Died—by the Stab in the Front.” New York Times Magazine, May 25, 1975.

  Carey, Richard E., and D. A. Quinlan. “Frequent Wind.” Marine Corps Gazette, Feb.–April 1976.

  Fitzgerald, Frances. “Journey to North Vietnam.” New Yorker, April 28, 1979.

  Glenn, Tom. “Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon, April 1975.” Studies in Intelligence 59, no. 4 (Extracts, Dec. 2015).