Fifty years ago the US made its final, humiliating exit from Vietnam
Why was the city’s fall significant?
The capture of Saigon – the capital of America's ally South Vietnam – by communist North Vietnamese forces on 30 April 1975, marked the end of the Vietnam War. The war had been fought between the two halves of the former French colony since 1955. The US had been deeply involved since 1965; almost three million Americans, mostly young conscripts, had fought against North Vietnam, which was backed by Russia and China, and the Viet Cong, the communist guerillas in the south. The US had spent billions of dollars – and 58,220 of its own soldiers' lives – to block the emergence of another communist regime in Asia. Vietnamese losses were vastly larger: about two million civilians and perhaps 1.3 million soldiers were killed on both sides during the conflict. But the departure of the last helicopters from the rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon has gone down in history as a symbol of American hubris and defeat.
How had the war reached this point?
America's direct military involvement had ended in 1973, with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Washington knew that the peace wouldn't hold and the North was likely to win the war, but wanted, in the words of national security adviser Henry Kissinger, a "decent interval" between the US departure and the South's defeat. So the US continued to give financial and military aid. But involvement in Vietnam was by that time extremely unpopular in the US, and President Nixon's political career was soon to be ended by the Watergate scandal. By late summer 1974, Nixon had resigned, and Congress had cut military and economic aid to South Vietnam by 30%. The South Vietnamese government, led by President Nguyen Van Thieu, was corrupt and inefficient; it was struggling with runaway inflation, unemployment and rising rates of desertion from the army, as well as a heroin addiction epidemic. The North duly pressed home its advantage.
How did the North Vietnamese army take advantage?
In March 1975, it launched what was expected to be a two-year offensive to conquer South Vietnam. In the event, the South Vietnamese army soon crumbled. After capturing the central highlands, the North Vietnamese took Hue, about halfway between Saigon and the northern capital, Hanoi, and then Da Nang, the South's second-largest city, sparking a refugee exodus. Its forces pushed on to Saigon, a city largely untouched by the war until then. Realising the imminent danger, President Thieu resigned on 21 April, delivering a furious televised speech in which he accused Washington of having "sold" its ally to the communists. He fled to Taiwan, taking 15 tonnes of luggage, and later lived for a time in Surrey.
What was America's reaction?
President Ford, who had succeeded Nixon, had pleaded with Congress to release additional military aid, to no avail. On 23 April, Ford delivered a speech in New Orleans, in which he declared that America's involvement in Vietnam was now "finished". Four days later, Saigon was encircled by 100,000 North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong. By now, America had evacuated some of its citizens from Saigon; but about 6,000 remained, along with large numbers of South Vietnamese closely associated with the US, to whom Ford said it owed a "profound moral obligation". On the morning of 29 April 1975, US forces launched "Operation Frequent Wind" to extract them. The code for the operation's launch was the declaration on US Armed Forces Radio that "the temperature in Saigon is 105 degrees and rising", followed by the playing of the song "White Christmas".
How did the operation play out?
On 28 April, North Vietnamese artillery had shut down Tan Son Nhut Air Base, from which 50,493 people had been evacuated. The only option available, therefore, was to use US military helicopters to ferry evacuees from the embassy in Saigon to 26 US Navy vessels stationed about a 30-minute flight away in the South China Sea. A crowd of some 10,000 Vietnamese gathered outside the embassy, desperate for a flight out; some 2,500 more would-be evacuees were in the embassy compound. Marines guarded the embassy, lifting US citizens and a lucky few Vietnamese over the walls. As flights began taking off, the scenes were chaotic. Keyes Beech, an American war reporter, described being caught in the "seething mass" of bodies outside the embassy, "fighting for our lives, scratching, clawing, pushing ever closer to the wall".
Why was it so chaotic?
The military collapse had been rapid; by the morning of 29 April, North Vietnamese tanks were rolling through Saigon. And the US ambassador to Vietnam, Graham Martin, had deludedly believed that South Vietnam would cut a deal with Hanoi, so had ignored advice to expedite the evacuation. In light of this, Operation Frequent Wind was a remarkable feat: in less than 24 hours, the US evacuated more than 7,000 people, including more than 5,500 South Vietnamese. Some pilots flew for 19 hours straight. South Vietnamese helicopters carrying refugees joined US aircraft on the US Navy carriers; about 45 military helicopters were reportedly pushed overboard to clear space for new arrivals. The last helicopter out of Saigon, just before 8am on 30 April, evacuated the Marine guards.
What happened to those left?
Thousands of South Vietnamese – intelligence officers, special police – were left behind at the embassy. Although surprisingly few were executed, more than 200,000 South Vietnamese spent between three and 18 years in labour and re-education camps. Many more fled the country. By 30 April, Saigon, soon to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City, was under full North Vietnamese control. By the end of 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were all under communist rule – which in Vietnam has endured to this day.
The Vietnamese "boat people"
In the 20 years that followed the fall of Saigon, about 800,000 Vietnamese refugees safely fled the communist regime, in one of the largest mass exoduses in modern history. Escaping over land was extremely difficult: Vietnam is bordered only by Cambodia (where the Khmer Rouge had taken control), China and Laos (both allies of Vietnam). So most refugees fled in small boats over the South China Sea – becoming known as the "boat people". Many made their way to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong; some reached Japan, or even Australia. Journeys were fraught with risk: boats were often unseaworthy and sank, or ran out of food and water; many were raided by pirates, mainly from Thailand, who raped women and killed those on board. It is estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 Vietnamese died at sea. In 1979, the UN declared a "grave crisis", and urged countries to take in refugees. Some 402,000 were eventually settled in the US; Australia and Canada also welcomed substantial numbers; about 19,000 came to the UK. Despite US public opinion initially being opposed to accepting refugees from Vietnam, 2.3 million people of Vietnamese extraction were living in the US by 2023.
