» FALL OF SAIGON: On April 30, 1975 the Vietnam War hit its bitter end

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“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.” — Former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon

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The photos and footage of the bitter end are among the most heart-wrenching of our time.

Hundreds of people wearing masks of panic and fear scrambled to the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, trying to escape the vengeful hordes of the North Vietnamese Army.

For many, capture meant certain death.

On April 30, 1975 — 50 years ago Wednesday — the capital of South Vietnam fell to the communists, ending America’s long nightmare in Southeast Asia.

More than 58,000 Americans died fighting in Vietnam — along with an estimated 150 Canadians — with tens of thousands more maimed for life, mentally and physically.

All U.S. combat activities ended on Jan. 15, 1973. It did not take long for the fighting to start up again.

This story is about the last days of South Vietnam and the fall of Saigon.

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By the spring of 1975, the situation in South Vietnam was critical. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong were rolling over opposition forces. A strategic retreat was hampered by tens of thousands of refugees clogging the two-lane road.

“The fall of Danang late in the month [March 1975] produced scenes of horror that appeared to foreshadow what might happen later in Saigon: panic-maddened South Vietnamese soldiers trampling women and children to get aboard the last American 727 to fly out; desperate soldiers clinging to the landing gear of that plane only to fall off into the South China Sea or be crushed against the undercarriage.” — George Church, Time Magazine

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The North Vietnamese Politburo demanded that its generals use “unremitting vigour in the attack to the heart of Saigon.”

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As communist forces pummelled the South Vietnamese in their rapid attack across the south, Danang and other strategic cities fell. At the same time, the U.S. Congress torpedoed a $722-million aid package for Saigon.

“South Vietnam faces total defeat, and soon.” CIA Director William Colby to U.S. President Gerald Ford.

In Saigon, the CIA had begun secret flights rescuing Vietnamese collaborators and Americans still in country. At the American embassy, employees were frantically burning files.

Ambassador Graham Martin was ordered to begin evacuating the last Americans in Saigon along with sympathetic Vietnamese. But, according to later reports, he did little, and it was left to two mid-level State Department officers to get people out of Saigon.

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By April 20, 1975, the North Vietnamese juggernaut was just 60 kilometres from Saigon. The end was near.

The next day, President Nguyen Van Thieu, who historians agree bears much of the blame for the catastrophic debacle, resigned.

“The key was April 21, when Thieu resigned. Then I knew, we all agreed, we had to attack immediately, seize the initiative.” — North Vietnamese commander Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.

U.S. defence attache Maj.-Gen. Homer Smith was organizing the evacuation of thousands out of the massive Tan Son Nhut air base outside Saigon. But he said April 20, “was when we really started to pick up the pace and started moving people out.”

Over the following week, miles-long lines of Vietnamese (and some Americans) snaked through the airport to waiting U.S. C-130s and C-141s leaving around the clock. Some Vietnamese women who married U.S. citizens were in line.

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By April 26, Saigon was surrounded and being shelled. Deposed President Thieu had fled the country the same day. With the NVA entering the city, the runways at Tan Son Nhut were pulverized, and only helicopters could get in; the last plane departed on April 29.

“I was studying the base through binoculars, trying to find troop placements. And you could see it was just chaos. People running back and forth. Some people — mostly women and children, no men — just waiting, with bags and suitcases. I guess they were hoping to get out, but the airport was already blocked.” —  Bao Ninh, NVA Third Army.

At 10:51 a.m., on April 29, Armed Forces Radio played White Christmas — the signalled that Option IV, the helicopter lift, was on. Forty U.S. warships waited off the coast.

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Civilians lined the banks of the Saigon River, cramming aboard barges and boats and making their way to the fleet “packed like animals,” one U.S. Marine said, adding that “most were frightened to death.”

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Now, the action moved to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, where thousands fought to get aboard one of the precious choppers that would take them to safety.

For 21 hours, helicopters swooped into embattled Saigon to rescue people, each trip taking 40 minutes.

“My troops couldn’t believe the scene. People were climbing fences. It was bedlam. The Vietnamese I saw, I remember looking at them and they were just confused — how I’d feel if I’d just left my home forever.” — U.S. Marine Capt. Glynn Hodges

At 4:58 a.m. on April 30, Ambassador Martin boarded a chopper and departed from the US Embassy, Saigon.

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“About that time, we noticed that the flow of choppers had decreased. Prior to that, we were getting choppers at 10-minute intervals. There had been waves of choppers.” — Gunnery Sgt. John J. Valdez, U.S. Marines

And then there were none.

Now, the only remaining Americans were Valdez and his 10 Marines, whose selfless heroism saved countless lives. It wasn’t clear whether they would get out.

Suddenly, the Leathernecks saw a dot in the sky and heard the chopper in the distance.

At 7:50 a.m., Gunnery Sgt. John J. Valdez ensured his people were all on board and stepped onto the chopper.

He was the last American in Vietnam.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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