Goodnight Saigon

by Charles Henderson

  1 JULY—New fiscal year begins with a reduction from $2.2 billion to $1.1 billion dollars in United States assistance to South Vietnam.

  15 DECEMBER—Communist troops ambush a JMC-sanctioned MIA recovery mission, killing a United States Army officer and wounding four American and several South Vietnamese soldiers.

  1974

  JUNE—Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Lukeman replaces Lieutenant Colonel George E. Strickland as chief, United States-Vietnamese Marine Corps Logistics Support Branch, Navy Division, DAO.

  1 JULY—Fiscal year 1975 begins with funding for South Vietnamese military forces set at $700 million, down from $1.1 billion.

  DECEMBER—The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) 968th Division (later the 968th Corps, which merged the 10th, 316th, and 320th NVA divisions under command of Lieutenant General Hoang Minh Thoa) moves into South Vietnam’s Central Highlands from Laos, the first overt deployment of a North Vietnamese division into the south since the cease-fire agreement.

  31 DECEMBER—NVA units encircle Phuoc Long City (Song Be), capital of Phuoc Long Province, near the Cambodian border in Military Region 3 (MR 3).

  1975

  7 JANUARY—The NVA captures Phuoc Long Province.

  27 JANUARY—The last allied Mekong River convoy from South Vietnam enters Phnom Penh. The Cambodian Communist Khmer Rouge have successfully halted resupply to the embattled Cambodian capital, threatening the downfall of the non-Communist Cambodian government.

  10 MARCH—The NVA attacks Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands, marking the start of its Spring Offensive of 1975.

  19 MARCH—The South Vietnamese abandon Quang Tri City and Province.

  24 MARCH—Quang Ngai City and Tam Ky in I Corps fall to the advancing NVA.

  25 MARCH—Hue falls to the Communists.

  26 MARCH—The NVA captures the former United States Marine Corps base at Chu Lai.

  30 MARCH—The NVA enters the major port city of Da Nang and captures Da Nang Air Base.

  12 APRIL—Marines of the Ninth Marine Amphibious Brigade execute Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of American and other foreign nationals from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, just before the city falls to the Khmer Rouge.

  21 APRIL—Nguyen Van Thieu resigns as president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and departs Saigon four days later for Taiwan, leaving the control of the government in the hands of his vice president, Tran Van Huong.

  28 APRIL—General Duong Van “Big” Minh becomes the new president of the Republic of Vietnam.

  29 APRIL—Marines of the Ninth Marine Amphibious Brigade execute Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Americans, foreign nationals, and various Vietnamese officials and citizens associated with Americans from Saigon to ships of the Seventh Fleet.

  30 APRIL—The North Vietnamese Army enters Saigon and places General Minh and his cabinet under arrest. Organized South Vietnamese resistance to the NVA has collapsed.

  12 MAY—A gunboat of the new Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime seizes an American ship, the SS Mayaguez, in the Gulf of Thailand.

  14 MAY—Marines of Battalion Landing Team 2/9 (Second Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment), in United States Air Force helicopters, make a helicopter assault on Koh Tang Island, off the Cambodian mainland where the crew of the Mayaguez is believed to be held. At the same time, Marines from Company D, First Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment board the Mayaguez only to find it deserted. The Cambodians in the meantime release the crew of the Mayaguez, who later are recovered at sea by the United States destroyer Wilson.

  15 MAY—With the recovery of both the Mayaguez and its crew, the Marines withdraw from Koh Tang Island. The American forces sustained total casualties of fifteen killed, three missing in action (later declared dead), forty-nine wounded, and twenty-three other personnel killed in a related helicopter crash. United States forces inflict an unknown number of enemy casualties.

  INTERVIEW NOTESAND BIBLIOGRAPHY

  PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

  Arnett, Peter—Correspondent, Associated Press, Saigon Bureau. Arnett remained in Saigon after the Americans left and witnessed the ensuing chaos of Saigon during and after the evacuation and during the Communist takeover of the city. His photographer was Ky Wahn, who turned out to be a Viet Cong. (Also CBS cameraman, Ha Thue Can, who worked with Morley Safer, turned out to be Viet Cong.) When confronted by NVA and Viet Cong, Ky Wahn saved Arnett by telling the Communists that the Western journalists with him were his friends. Multiple interviews in person—Los Angeles, California; Bangkok, Thailand; and various locations in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and surrounding areas, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Babel, Philip A.—Sergeant, United States Marine Corps. Babel was one of the last eleven Marines on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. Interview in person, Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Bauer, Stephen Q.—Corporal, United States Marine Corps. Bauer was one of the last eleven Marines on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. Interview in person, Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Bennington, Terry J.—Sergeant Major, United States Marine Corps. As a sergeant, he was one of the last eleven Marines on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. During evacuation he told Captain Kean, in reaction to their inability to identify evacuees from infiltrators, “I think we just sent four NVA corporals to Guam.” Interview in person, Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Berry, Gerald L. “Gerry”—Major, United States Marine Corps. Berry piloted the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter that flew Ambassador Graham Martin from Saigon and made the call via radio that the ambassador was successfully aboard the helicopter and outbound to the ship. Call sign for Martin was “Tiger.” Berry radioed, “Tiger, tiger, tiger. The tiger is out of his cage.” As Berry departed, he could see the last eleven Marines on the embassy roof. He advised General Carey that eleven Americans still remained behind. Berry recalled, “You could see the end coming. We made the next to the last pass and left the last eleven. There was no doubt in my mind that the Marines would be left. If I was one of those Marines, I would have had all the anxiety in the world, not knowing how much time remained before the North Vietnamese overran me.” Interview in person, Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Carey, Richard E.—Lieutenant General, United States Marine Corps. In 1975, while a brigadier general, Carey served as commanding general of the Ninth Marine Amphibious Brigade and operational commander of the evacuation of South Vietnam, dubbed Operation Frequent Wind. Carey spent much of his time during the war’s final hours fighting with Navy, Defense Department, and State Department officials who wanted to call an end to the evacuation flights. Navy officials claimed the pilots had flown too many hours and this presented too great a risk for the Americans who remained to be evacuated. State Department and Defense Department officials echoed these feelings, asking for a halt until daylight.

  Carey and his boss—Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, commander, then-Lieutenant General Louis H. Wilson (later Commandant of the Marine Corps)—went to quarters. Wilson, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, told General Carey that he would personally write charges against any officer who halted those flights before “his” Marines were evacuated, and that they would continue until that time or until the president ordered them halted. Interview by telephone, Dallas, Texas, August 1994.

  Chinh, Kieu—Vietnamese actress, the most popular motion picture star of that time in South Vietnam. In America in the 1990s, she won acclaim in the motion picture, The Joy Luck Club. Chinh was closely associated with South Vietnam leaders such as Nguyen Cao Ky, Nguyen Van Thieu, and General Duong Van “Big” Minh. Her escape from Saigon required clandestine maneuvering and cloak-and-dagger tactics simply for her to get out of the country. Then once out, she had no place to go, and no country would accept her since she had no money or passport (con
fiscated by the crumbling South Vietnamese regime along with all her bank holdings). Kieu Chinh’s odyssey took her literally around the world.

  In mid-April, she was in Singapore making a motion picture. When she heard that it would be a matter of days before her country fell, she hurried home to Saigon. Upon her arrival, police took her passport. She then discovered that the government had frozen her assets and had taken all her money. Stranded in Saigon with no money, except for the few Vietnam piasters in her purse, she sought out friends to help her. One, a vice president of Air Vietnam, put her on a plane to Singapore—no money, no passport. Police there arrested her and held her in jail, giving her an option of either leaving the country or returning to Vietnam. Friends from her film company, still on location in Singapore, bought her an around-the-world plane ticket. She flew to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and then to Paris, where she saw her sister through a glass wall, but could not make contact with her. No country would allow her entrance.

  Finally, she landed in Montreal, Canada, the day Saigon fell and was then allowed entrance as a refugee. She called every American film star she knew, and they turned their backs on her. She left messages for Burt Reynolds, but got no response from him. Glenn Ford said he did not remember her. Robert Weiss was never available and would not return her calls. William Holden had gone to play golf. Finally, she dialed Tippi Hedren’s number, a woman she had met only once, but who represented her final resort, and used the last of her money to pay for the call. Ms. Hedren, instead of sending Kieu away, said, “Stop crying. Of course I will help you.” Hedren sent Kieu money and a plane ticket to Los Angeles, sponsored the Vietnamese actress for citizenship, and shared her Hollywood home with her, putting Kieu on her feet. Multiple interviews, telephone interviews by the author, and an in-person interview on videotape conducted for the author by photojournalist Dirck Halstead, Chinh home in Studio City, California, January 1995.

  Cui, Nguyen Duc—Communications Officer, 320th NVA Division. Cui joined the NVA in 1968 with a school classmate, and both were immediately sent to the Da Nang area. The two young men began their military service as line soldiers in the infantry. In 1968, his classmate was killed by a B-52 strike. He describes in vivid detail the experience of the attack. Cui’s friend had bought a pair of new shoes in Hanoi when the two of them had joined the army. He kept them in his pack so that he could wear them as they marched victoriously through the streets of Saigon at the war’s end. As he died, he made Cui promise to take the shoes from his pack and keep them until he reached Saigon, and there to put them on his feet and wear them in the victory parade.

  In December 1974, Cui’s unit at that time, the 559th Division, moved from Da Nang westward into Cambodia and linked up with the 320th Division. After the probe on Phuoc Long, they quietly awaited orders in bivouac. In February, they positioned themselves for the March 10 attack on Ban Me Thuot. With Ban Me Thuot secure, his units then marched from Ban Me Thuot, crossed the Saigon River, and overtook Cu Chi Base. His units faced South Vietnamese tanks while on the attack of Saigon, armed with rifles and artillery such as RPGs and B-51s. He had to keep communications open in the face of South Vietnamese constantly cutting his lines.

  He explained that most of the attacks his forces used involved three prongs, one to set up a base of fire and the other prongs to attack on the flanks. His unit’s mission was to take over Cu Chi and use the road to Saigon to advance the division into the South Vietnamese capital.

  Before daylight on the morning of April 30, 1975, Nguyen Duc Cui stopped and washed his feet in an irrigation canal, then took out the shoes from his pack, wrapped in an oil cloth for seven years, and reverently put them on his feet. He then wore the shoes into Saigon, marching with them to the gates of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace. There his longtime friend, documentary photographer Nguyen Sinh Tuan photographed Cui. Interview in person, Cui home, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Dang, Tra Bach—Communist Party Leader, Saigon. He participated in planning the final offensive launched against Saigon. He commented that the Paris Accord represented an impediment to their ultimate goal of total unification of Vietnam under Communist authority. He said that since the Saigon government violated the agreement first, that opened their opportunity to strike. Violations he cited are highly disputed by both the South Vietnamese and the American leaders. He observed much of the collapse from his villa in Saigon where he held secret meetings with Communist military leaders and other political leaders. He had a reputation as a very nasty and cold-blooded man. Interview in person, Dang villa, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Dawson, Alan—Bureau Chief, United Press International, for both Vietnam and Cambodia. Remaining in Saigon after the evacuation ended, he wrote a book of his observations and experiences during the fall of Vietnam, 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam (published by Prentice Hall, 1977, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 366 p. DS552D3). He made many firsthand observations of President Nguyen Van Thieu, noting that the president was a chronic micromanager. After witnessing the fall of Da Nang, he made his way by hook and crook back to Saigon, hitchhiking, grabbing chopper rides, and walking.

  Dawson accompanied Time magazine photojournalist Dirck Halstead to Xuan Loc, where he recognized Xuan Loc as an effective last stand, and the valiantness of the South Vietnamese soldiers who stood their ground there. He observed that once Xuan Loc fell, it spelled rapid doom for Saigon, and that the importance of the stand made at Xuan Loc, buying time for Saigon, could not be overstated. Dawson lost his car at the embassy on the last night, so he mingled with the crowds. He fully expected anti-American sentiment, but was surprised at how little it existed. He noted that always in Vietnam there was noise, but the last night in Saigon, there was no noise, only haunting quiet.

  From the roof of the Caravel Hotel, he and other journalists could see the rim of the city in flames. However, for the first time in his eight years of covering Vietnam, Saigon was quiet. On the morning of April 30, he was on the roof when he watched the last helicopter lift from the embassy with the last Marines. He recalled he was astonished because the city was full of NVA by then, tanks even rolling down the street in front of the embassy.

  Dawson had an excellent Vietnamese interpreter and covered the formal surrender of South Vietnam for UPI. He remained in Saigon four months after the Communist takeover and was the last Western journalist expelled from Vietnam after the war. Unlike Peter Arnett, Dawson did not want to remain in Vietnam after the Communist victory. An evacuation bus that was supposed to have picked him up, along with several other western journalists, as well as thirty-seven Japanese correspondents, but the bus never arrived at their rendezvous point. Once he had adjusted to operating under the Communist regime in Vietnam, he dickered with the NVA to let him stay. Interview in person, Intercontinental Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, November 1994.

  Ford, Gerald R.—President of the United States. President Ford oversaw and directed all American activities relative to Vietnam in 1975. In that respect, he sought from Congress last-minute aid to South Vietnam in an effort to reassure Nguyen Van Thieu and prevent panic. Congress turned him down flatly. President Ford said that he agreed with military leaders’ contingency planning and preparation of American military forces, should they be required to land in Vietnam.

  Ford personally monitored the entire evacuation with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at his side during much of that time. President Ford said, “It was a very difficult thing to be President of the United States and watch South Vietnam fall.” When aides advised him that infiltrators were getting inside the embassy walls and mixingwith legitimate evacuees, that numbers were not going down appreciably, he cut off flights and ordered Ambassador Graham Martin out. He said, “I want the ambassador on the next flight.” Doctor Kissinger passed down this order, saying, “That’s it, no more flights.”

  The orders confounded Navy and Defense Department officials who interpreted that President Ford meant all f
lights; thus they stopped all traffic once the helicopter carrying the ambassador had launched. This accounts for the more than two-hour delay between the flights bringing out Ambassador Martin and his staff and the final flights that retrieved the remaining Americans. At that time, seventy-nine Marines and four Navy Seabees remained on the embassy roof. Three helicopters were finally dispatched, contrary to President Ford’s orders. When the third helicopter radioed eleven Marines still on the roof, Brigadier General Richard Carey ordered Swift Two-Two on the mission, the final helicopter. It is at least a forty-minute flight from the USS Hancock (the ship from which Swift Two-Two launched) to the embassy, accounting for the final delay for the last eleven men. Swift Two-Two had just completed a run from Vung Tao, and had no time to refuel, so they made the last flight dangerously low on fuel.

  President Ford said of David Hume Kennerly, his photographer, that he had “a tendency to embellish his stories for dramatic effect,” such as his going to Vietnam with General Frederick Weyand’s fact-finding mission in late March/early April 1975. Ford said that Kennerly asked if he could go with the assessment team, and the President approved it, but he did not specifically send Kennerly other than for Kennerly’s purposes. Interview in person, Waldorf Towers, New York, New York, December 1994.

  Gevers, Duane R.—Sergeant, United States Marine Corps. Gevers was one of the last eleven Marines on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. Interview in person, Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.

  Giang, Vo Dong (Colonel Ba)—Colonel, Army of the Provisional Revolutionary Government and National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), and Colonel, North Vietnamese Army; Deputy Foreign Minister, Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a regimental commander near Da Nang in the mid-1960s and mentioned in the book, Silent Warrior, relative to his experiences while commanding forces in the field there. Giang sat with General Tran Van Tra as the North Vietnamese representatives to the Joint Military Commission and International Oversight Committee, formed by the Paris Accords in June of 1974. Giang provided a perspective of the Communist view in Saigon during the final campaign, especially during the final days and hours of the war. Interview in person, Giang home, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, October 1994.