"It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Martin pleaded with Washington to dispatch $700 million in emergency aid to bolster the regime and help it mobilize fresh military reserves, but American public opinion had soured on the conflict. President Gerald Ford had given a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. aid. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as North Vietnamese tanks breached defenses on the outskirts of Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S."
"Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S., and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Schlesinger announced early in the morning of 29 April 1975 the evacuation from Saigon by helicopter of the last U.S. diplomatic, military, and civilian personnel. Frequent Wind was arguably the largest helicopter evacuation in history."
"However, despite all efforts, a loose combination of troops either wanting to flee or wanting to kill as many communists as possible before their deaths, mostly leaderless and cut off from supplies, could not hope to stand against a disciplined army with artillery and armored support. At 4:58 a.m on 30 April, U.S. Ambassador Martin boarded a helicopter and departed from the US Embassy, Saigon on one of the last American evacuation flights. At 07:53 the last U.S. Marines were lifted from the roof of the U.S. Embassy. At 10:24 a.m. President Minh ordered all South Vietnamese forces to cease"
"Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds. Many of them had been employed by the Americans and were left to their fate. On 30 April 1975, NVA troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations. A tank from the 324th Division crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace at 11:30 am local time and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it. President Dương Văn Minh, who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered to Colonel Bùi Tín. During the course of"
"Schlesinger announced early in the morning of 29 April 1975 the evacuation from Saigon by helicopter of the last U.S. diplomatic, military, and civilian personnel. Only one other notable event remained in the Indochina drama. In May 1975 Khmer Rouge forces boarded and captured the crew of the ""Mayaguez"", an unarmed U.S.-registered freighter. The United States bombarded military and fuel installations on the Cambodian mainland while Marines landed by helicopter on an offshore island to rescue the crew. The 39 captives were retrieved, but the operation cost the lives of 41 U.S. military personnel. Nevertheless, the majority of the American"
"1979. On April 23, 1975, President Gerald Ford gave a televised speech declaring an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. aid. North Vietnamese tanks breached defenses on the outskirts of Saigon and the song ""White Christmas"" was broadcast, as the final signal for U.S. withdrawal. Master Sergeant Juan J. Valdez was the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Marine security guard detachment stationed at the US Embassy, Saigon. He had previously served from 1965 to 1967 with Company B, 3d Amphibian Tractor Battalion, attached to 2d Bn, Fourth Marine Regiment and was now on his second tour. On"
"proposal by a wide margin. Senator Jacob K. Javits offered ""...large sums for evacuation, but not one nickel for military aid"". President Thieu resigned on April 21, 1975, publicly blaming the lack of support from the United States for the fall of his country. Two days later, on April 23, Ford gave a speech at Tulane University, announcin that the Vietnam War was over ""...as far as America is concerned"". With the North Vietnamese forces advancing on the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, Ford ordered the evacuation of U.S. personnel, while also allowing U.S. forces to aid others who wished"
"aggressive, the South Vietnamese military had virtually ceased to exist. Just before 05:00 on 30 April, U.S. Ambassador Martin boarded a helicopter and departed and at 07:53 the last Marines were evacuated from the U.S. Embassy rooftop. At 10:24, being advised by General Nguyễn Hữu Hạnh, President Minh went on radio and ordered all South Vietnamese forces to cease fighting and later declared an unconditional surrender. He announced, ""The Republic of Vietnam policy is the policy of peace and reconciliation, aimed at saving the blood of our people. We are here waiting for the Provisional Revolutionary Government to hand over"
"The North, however, was not interested in negotiations, and its tanks rolled into Saigon largely unopposed which led to the Fall of Saigon. Acting President Minh unconditionally surrendered the capital city of Saigon and the rest of South Vietnam to North Vietnam on 30 April 1975. During the hours leading up to the surrender, the United States undertook a massive evacuation of its embassy in Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind. The evacuees included US government personnel as well as high-ranking members of the ARVN and other South Vietnamese who were seen as potential targets for persecution by the Communists. Many of"
"the proposal by a wide margin. Senator Jacob K. Javits offered ""...large sums for evacuation, but not one nickel for military aid"". President Thieu resigned on April 21, 1975, publicly blaming the lack of support from the United States for the fall of his country. Two days later, on April 23, Ford gave a speech at Tulane University. In that speech, he announced that the Vietnam War was over ""...as far as America is concerned"". The announcement was met with thunderous applause. 1,373 U.S. citizens and 5,595 Vietnamese and third country nationals were evacuated from the South Vietnamese capital of"
"part of Khánh Hòa Province. Hubert van Es was a Dutch photographer and photojournalist who took the well-known photo on 29 April 1975, which shows South Vietnamese civilians scrambling to board a CIA Air America helicopter during the U.S. evacuation of Saigon. The last diplomatic outpost of the U.S. outside Saigon was Cần Thơ in the Mekong Delta. At noon, despairing of other options for evacuation, Consul General Francis Terry McNamara assembled more than 300 U.S. Filipino, and Vietnamese employees of the U.S. government and loaded them on a barge and two landing craft and, under fire, set off down"
"supplies to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. 1974: Evacuation from Cyprus: United States naval forces evacuated U.S. civilians during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. 1975: Evacuation from Vietnam: Operation Frequent Wind, On April 3, 1975, President Ford reported U.S. naval vessels, helicopters, and Marines had been sent to assist in evacuation of refugees and US nationals from Vietnam. 1975: Evacuation from Cambodia: Operation Eagle Pull, On April 12, 1975, President Ford reported that he had ordered U.S. military forces to proceed with the planned evacuation of U.S. citizens from Cambodia. 1975: South Vietnam: On April 30, 1975, President Ford"
"a conventional invasion of South Vietnam. On 29 April, Operation Frequent Wind was carried out by U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps helicopters from the 7th Fleet. The Operation involved the evacuation of American citizens and ""at-risk"" Vietnamese from Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam under heavy attack from the invading forces of North Vietnam. President Gerald Ford ordered helicopter evacuation when PAVN shelling forced the cessation of fixed-wing evacuation from Tan Son Nhut Airport. With fighter cover provided by carrier aircraft, the helicopters landed at the US Embassy, Saigon and the DAO Compound to pick up evacuees. The last"
"Operation Frequent Wind Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and ""at-risk"" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam prior to the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese Army (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 points in Saigon. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images. Evacuation plans already existed as a standard procedure for American embassies. At the beginning of March, fixed-wing aircraft began evacuating civilians"
"South Vietnam and worked for the Rand organisation, Hudson Institute and other corporations, preparing strategic analyses. He was also a consultant to the Pentagon and the policy planning teams of several US presidents, including the Nixon administration. In 1971, Serong declared that South Vietnam had essentially won the war. Remaining long after the withdrawal of Australian forces, He continued to serve in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon. Serong departed Saigon the day prior to its capture, leaving by helicopter in the final airlift from the US embassy on 29 April 1975. He received several US and South Vietnamese awards,"
"as a go-between for the US Embassy and the South Vietnamese Government during the Fall of Saigon and was instrumental in facilitating the resignation of President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu on 21 April and the ascent of Dương Văn Minh to the presidency on 27 April in the hope that he would be able to negotiate a ceasefire with the North Vietnamese. On 25 April 1975 Timmes and fellow CIA agent Frank Snepp escorted former President Thiệu to Tan Son Nhat International Airport where Thiệu boarded a plane that would take him into exile. On 29 April, Timmes was evacuated from"
"morale of the military and the population by reporting on the corruption and setbacks of his government. Immediately following the speech, Vice President Trần Văn Hương took the presidency, but the tide could not be stopped, and the communists overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, ending the war. In his farewell speech, Thiệu said, ""I resign, but I do not desert"", but he fled to Taiwan on a C-118 transport plane five days later. According to Morley Safer, the CIA was involved in the flight of Thiệu, his aides, and a ""planeload of suitcases containing heavy metal"", though it was"
"retreating Southern forces. Thiệu subsequently resigned, accusing the U.S. of betrayal in a TV and radio address: Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese army supported by Viet Cong units on April 30, 1975. Schlesinger had announced early in the morning of April 29 the beginning of Operation Frequent Wind, which entailed the evacuation of the last U.S. diplomatic, military and civilian personnel from Saigon via helicopter, which was completed in the early morning hours of April 30. Not only did North Vietnam conquer South Vietnam, but the communists were also victorious in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh"
"Vietnam. On March 29, 1973, the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam. On 30 April 1975, Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops. While Nixon's campaign used the phrase, as a rhetorical trope it has a very long pedigree of use by politicians as can be seen by the list below. Peace with Honor ""Peace with Honor"" was a phrase U.S. President Richard M. Nixon used in a speech on January 23, 1973 to describe the Paris Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War. The phrase is a variation on a campaign promise Nixon made in 1968: ""I pledge to you that"
"on the second helicopter. Additional helicopters were then sent to evacuate the Marine guards, under the command of Major James Kean, with the last eleven leaving the Embassy at 0753 hours. Master Sergeant Juan Valdez was the last Marine to board the last helicopter out of Saigon. The 420 people awaiting evacuation were abandoned. Twenty-five years of U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam had ended. South Vietnamese air force Major Buang landed a small Cessna airplane on the landing deck of the . His wife and five children were aboard. American crew members applauded and took up a collection to"
"reported that a force of 70 evacuation helicopters and 865 Marines had evacuated about 1,400 U.S. citizens and 5,500 third country nationals and South Vietnamese from landing zones in and around the U.S. Embassy, Saigon and Tan Son Nhut Airport. 1975: Cambodia: ""Mayaguez"" incident, On May 15, 1975, President Ford reported he had ordered military forces to retake the , a merchant vessel which was seized from Cambodian naval patrol boats in international waters and forced to proceed to a nearby island. 1976: Lebanon: On July 22 and 23, 1976, helicopters from five U.S. naval vessels evacuated approximately 250 Americans"
"America, it was due in large part to him. Four days before the Fall of Saigon, the friend offered Do commercial airline tickets he had purchased for Do and his family. They had mere hours to pack. By this time, the U.S. military had become firmly ensconced in Vietnam. The French war had turned into the American war. Like the French, the Americans, too, would be defeated. Indeed, on April 30, 1975, the communist North Vietnamese Army defeated the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Saigon fell to communist control. Americans were evacuating everywhere—the photographs of them jumping into"
"fact the bodies were left behind. Operation Frequent Wind, the American evacuation of Saigon, was completed the following day, April 30, 1975. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, through diplomatic channels, secured the return of the bodies the following year. Lance Corporal Darwin L Judge was buried with full military honors in March 1976 in Marshalltown, Iowa. There was a flag draped coffin, a Marine Honor Guard, and a rifle firing salute. The flag that covered his coffin was folded and presented to his parents. His funeral was so ignored that major and minor media did not attend the event."
"other US prisoners captured during the 1975 Spring Offensive were transported by a UN-chartered C-47 from Hanoi to Vientiane, Laos and then on to Bangkok, Thailand. The Lao People's Democratic Republic was officially established. 1975 in the Vietnam War 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War, sometimes called the Second Indochina War or the American War. The North Vietnamese army (PAVN) launched the Spring Offensive in March, the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) was quickly defeated. The communist North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam. In the final days of the war, the United"
"by North Vietnam subjected to three million tons of bombing, representing the heaviest U.S.-led bombing campaign since World War II. The United States ended its involvement in Southeast Asia by treaty and disengagement rather than by military victory. After the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, relations between Washington and Bangkok turned sour. In May 1975, the Royal Thai Government asked the United States to remove all of its combat forces (27,000 troops, 300 aircraft) by 1976. The USAF bases were closed and the last USAF personnel left Thailand in June 1976. The removal of U.S. military forces was"
"to escape from the Communist advance. Forty-thousand U.S. citizens and South Vietnamese were evacuated by plane until enemy attacks made further evacuations by plane impossible. In the final phase of the evacuation, known as Operation Frequent Wind, military and Air America helicopters took evacuees to off-shore U.S. Navy ships during an approximately 24-hour period immediately preceding the fall of Saigon on April 30. During the operation, so many South Vietnamese helicopters landed on the vessels taking the evacuees that some were pushed overboard to make room for more people. The Vietnam War, which had raged since the 1950s, finally came"
"the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The war had cost the lives of 58,000 American troops. Nixon manipulated the fierce distrust between the Soviet Union and China to the advantage of the United States, achieving ""détente"" (relaxation; ease of tension) with both parties. The Watergate scandal, involving Nixon's cover-up of his operatives' break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex destroyed his political base, sent many aides to prison, and forced Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford. The Fall of Saigon ended the Vietnam War and resulted in North"
"agreed with. In April 1975, as South Vietnam was on the verge of being overrun, Thieu resigned. A week later, Minh was chosen by the legislature and became president on 28 April 1975. It was thought that Minh would be able to negotiate a cease-fire due to his policy stance, but the communists were on the verge of gaining absolute power, so they pushed on. Saigon fell two days later on 30 April, and Minh ordered the surrender to prevent bloody urban street fighting. Minh was spared the lengthy incarceration meted out to South Vietnamese military personnel and civil servants,"
"1975 in the Vietnam War 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War, sometimes called the Second Indochina War or the American War. The North Vietnamese army (PAVN) launched the Spring Offensive in March, the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) was quickly defeated. The communist North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam. In the final days of the war, the United States, which had supported South Vietnam for many years, carried out an emergency evacuation of its civilian and military personnel and more than 130,000 Vietnamese. At the beginning of the Spring Offensive the balance"
"Saigon during Operation Frequent Wind. In that operation, military and Air America helicopters took evacuees to U.S. Navy ships off-shore during an approximately 24-hour period on April 29 to 30, 1975, immediately preceding the fall of Saigon. During the operation, so many South Vietnamese helicopters landed on the vessels taking the evacuees that some were pushed overboard to make room for more people. Other helicopters, having nowhere to land, were deliberately crash landed into the sea after dropping off their passengers, close to the ships, their pilots bailing out at the last moment to be picked up by rescue boats."
"on April 18, 1975 when U.S. President Gerald Ford created an inter-agency task force headed by Julia Taft to ""coordinate...evacuation of U.S. citizens, Vietnamese citizens, and third-country nationals from Vietnam."" By that time the military forces of North Vietnam were nearly in the outskirts of Saigon and the population of the city was swelled by hundreds of thousands of people displaced from areas already overrun by the communist armies. The large-scale evacuation of Vietnamese by American military transport aircraft began on April 23 from Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon. North Vietnamese rockets were fired at Tan Son Nhut on"
"and facilities to carry out resettlement included the Orderly Departure Program, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, and the Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army and the subsequent evacuation of more than 130,000 Vietnamese closely associated with the United States or the former government of South Vietnam. Most of the evacuees were resettled in the United States in Operation New Life and Operation New Arrivals. Within the same year, the countries of Cambodia and Laos also fell to communist forces, thus engendering a steady flow"
"On 21 April 1975, Thiệu, under intense political pressure, resigned as president when his closest domestic allies began losing confidence over his handling of the war. In his televised farewell speech, Thiệu admitted, for the first time, having ordered the evacuation of the Central Highlands and the north that led to debacle. He then stated that it was the inevitable course of action in the situation – but also insisted it was the generals who failed him. He went on to excoriate the U.S., attacking ""our great ally...the leader of the free world ... The United States has not respected"