Sincerely, Gerald R. Ford”, Diplomat Evacuates Hundreds of Vietnamese Refugees in Cần Thơ. “Remember, this is not Saigon. Evacuation helicopters wait on the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon as the city falls to the North Vietnamese April, 1975. The building is 22 Gia Long Street near Tu Do, in Vietnam during the Cold War. Americans and Vietnamese run for a U.S. Marine helicopter in Saigon during the evacuation of the city, April 29, 1975. Others found the Vietnam vibes of the ongoing retreat even more embarrassing, however, given that Biden had explicitly promised that the withdrawal from Afghanistan would not turn into another fall of Saigon. Found insideUnited States Air Force in Southeast Asia. Documents the Air Force's support of the ground war in South Vietnam from 1965 to early 1968. Patti Morton, a trailblazing Diplomatic Security Special Agent serving as a Regional Security Officer in Saigon — the first woman in such a role — documented the scene on the embassy grounds in the footage below, taken on an unknown day in April. Helicopter pilot in iconic Vietnam photo says full story still unfolding. Near Vung Tau Harbor, where the river opens to the Pacific Ocean, we came under rocket fire. McNamara donated the flag to the National Museum of American Diplomacy. One such story is that of Anne D. Pham, now a U.S. Foreign Service officer who was evacuated from Vietnam as a small child. The U.S. Navy was supposed to meet them at the mouth of the South China Sea, but a ship never arrived. Meanwhile, 10,000 South Vietnamese waited at the embassy gates, hoping to make it onto a helicopter. , approximately 5,000 Americans remained–including diplomats still working in the U.S. embassy in Saigon. They commandeered military transport barges that had been used to carry supplies during the war…That was how my parents left their homeland with their six young children. Air assault operations in Southeast Asia would not have been possible without certain key decisions a decade earlier. This book traces the most important milestones which led to the eventual formation of airmobile divisions. This volume will be critically important to both policymakers and physicians in the federal government, Vietnam veterans and their families, veterans organizations, researchers, and health professionals. Lehmann kept and framed a copy of this personal message sent on May 5, 1975 from President Ford to Ambassador Graham Martin, thanking him and the entire embassy staff for the successful evacuation effort. The Chinook helicopter was seen in the skies above the city like in 1975 when a US Marine helicopter was seen evacuating embassy staff from the South Vietnam capital. Found inside – Page 1This is the fourth volume in an operational and chronological series covering the U.S. Marine Corps’ participation in the Vietnam War. In 2019, Ambassador McNamara donated the U.S. flag and the Consular flags, taken from the consulate building as they evacuated and then subsequently flown on the barge he commanded during the evacuation. They had turned down all offers to be evacuated and decided to see the end of the war that had overturned their lives. Only in America can a former refugee child become a senior adviser working for the same agency as do the Foreign Service officers who saved her.”, Finding My Heroes, Finding Myself: From Refugee Child to State Department Official | The Foreign Service Journal – April 2015, Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam, Oral History of Wolfgang J. Lehmann | The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Oral History of Ambassador Francis Terry McNamara | The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. All rights reserved. With some pilots flying for 19 hours straight, over 7,000 people were evacuated, including 5,500 Vietnamese, in less than 24 hours. A helicopter lifts off from the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Vietnam during last minute evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians, April 29, 1975. Thankfully, as I was only 3 years old, I have only faint memories of the journey. However, they had no idea who McNamara and his band of about 300 Vietnamese and Americans were. It convinced many Americans that the war could not be won. In this book, readers will learn about the different factions of the war: the North Vietnamese Army, the Viet Cong, the South Vietnamese, and the American military forces. Your courage and steadiness at this critical period enabled us to evacuate our own citizens and a very large number of endangered Vietnamese. © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP, President Ghani leaves Afghanistan, top official confirms, as US-backed govt relinquishes power to Taliban, Oscars favorite ‘1917’ is touted as a stirring masterpiece about horrors of war. Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon.It was carried out on 29-30 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War.More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various . Soldiers tell of their experiences during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, the siege of Khe Sanh, the Tet Offensive, the Fall of Saigon and at other times during the war. (AP Photo/File). [4] The helicopter is a famous "Huey" UH-1, working for Air America, a CIA front company. Close-up images of the consular flag from the U.S. Consulate in Cần Thơ that flew on the evacuation barge in April 1975. Biden is suffering one of the worst embarrassments in presidential history as every claim he has made about Afghanistan has been wrong. One of the Marine Corps helicopter pilots engaged in this operation was Capt. (Both made it out that evening.). Breitbart provided this excerpt from a news conference Biden held in July in regards to . McNamara donated the flags pictured here to the museum, which were from the consulate building and which he subsequently flew on the barge. Consul General Francis Terry McNamara (behind the two armed guards) captains a barge of American and Vietnamese refugees out of Cần Thơ. compound was attacked, the U.S. embassy became the sole departure point for helicopters. Helicopters busily rescued personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, just weeks after President Joe Biden promised that there was "no circumstance" in which that spectacle, remembered from Vietnam, would recur. In this April 29, 1975 file photo, South Vietnamese civilians scale the 14-foot wall of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters as the last Americans depart from Vietnam. And now, it seems, similar helicopters, or maybe even some of the same ones, are evacuating Americans and allies from the current disaster in Kabul, Afghanistan. )" Gift of the estate of Wolfgang O. Lehmann. In the hectic days prior to the final pull-out, McNamara’s orders from the U.S. Embassy were to evacuate only the Americans; they were only going to provide helicopters with enough room to evacuate the 18 or so American employees — for expediency and security reasons. As a Dutch citizen, I was probably taking less of a risk than the others. Utilizing his skills as a former sailor, McNamara commandeered some barges with help from a USAID colleague and quickly loaded the remaining Americans, Vietnamese employees, and their families for evacuation. The tireless dedication of your mission and its skillful performance under the most severe pressure was vital to the accomplishment of this most difficult and delicate operation. Jake Tapper to Blinken: "President Biden is intent on avoiding a Saigon moment... but with this troop surge to air lift Americans out of Afghanistan, aren’t we already in the midst of a Saigon moment?" In 1975, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese faster than expected, leading to chaos and to the largest helicopter airlift ever attempted to rescue hundreds of Americans and South Vietnamese, who . They had decided to skip the morning evacuation and try their luck in the early evening at the United States Embassy, where big Chinook helicopters were lifting evacuees off the roof to waiting Navy ships off the coast. We hope the transition goes smoothly for all of you. THIRTY years ago I was fortunate enough to take a photograph that has become perhaps the most recognizable image of the fall of Saigon - you know it, the one that is always described as showing an American helicopter evacuating people from the roof of the United States Embassy. Traces the development of helicopters in the Marine Corps from 1962 to 1973. There were no reports of . The Afghan government seemed to have effectively collapsed on Sunday, when Taliban forces entered the outskirts of Kabul. In 2019, Ambassador McNamara donated the U.S. flag and the. I hope you will convey to your entire staff my deep gratitude and that of the American people for a job well done. 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We are working on restoring them, and hoping to see you fill up the comment section with new ones. Some diplomats showed exceptional bravery saving Vietnamese citizens who would have faced persecution under the new regime. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people. Breitbart reports, Helicopters busily rescued personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, just weeks after President Joe Biden promised that there was "no circumstance" in which that spectacle, remembered from Vietnam, would recur. The captured pictures that are now doing the rounds on the internet depict a US military helicopter flying above the US embassy in Kabul, where a hasty evacuation effort was underway. The planner was donated to the museum in 2019 by Wolfgang’s nephew, Walter Lehmann. As the barge drifted out to sea, crammed with refugees, my father held me close and solemnly said to my eldest brother: “Take a good look at your country. South Vietnamese citizens began to flee in mass numbers. staffers, Bert Okuley and Ken Englade, were still at the bureau. He also provides a historical record about the strategic decisions made during the war's end game and the intelligence failure that led Americans and their Southeast Asian allies to underestimate the strength and perseverance of the enemy. Ambassador Graham Martin then ordered the evacuation of Saigon. The Lucky Few recounts the role of the USS Kirk in the rescue of remnants of the South Vietnamese fleet and the refugees on board. The story of the Kirk reflects one of America's few shining moments at the end of the Vietnam War. The footage invoked striking similarities with the 1975 retreat from Vietnam's Saigon. U.S. then ordered the evacuation of Saigon. Why did Jefferson change "property" to the "pursuit of happiness"? 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