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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:01:10,850 --> 00:01:14,520 (BLOWING WHISTLE) 2 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:34,120 STUART HERRINGTON: As we began to contemplate evacuation, 3 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,500 the question, the burning question was, 4 00:01:37,500 --> 00:01:39,210 "Who goes, 5 00:01:39,210 --> 00:01:41,090 and who gets left behind?" 6 00:01:54,730 --> 00:01:57,640 I borrowed a truck 7 00:01:57,650 --> 00:02:00,730 and I basically sent the signal to my folks, 8 00:02:00,730 --> 00:02:03,860 and this meant a group of South Vietnamese majors, 9 00:02:03,860 --> 00:02:07,030 lieutenant colonels, colonels and their families 10 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:10,990 to muster at an address in downtown Saigon. 11 00:02:10,990 --> 00:02:15,080 I drove down there, they loaded up onto the truck, 12 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:20,080 and I drove them to the airbase. 13 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,260 And I had told them, "When you hear three thumps, 14 00:02:22,260 --> 00:02:24,880 "that means hold the babies' mouths. 15 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,550 "Don't breathe, don't talk, don't make any noise 16 00:02:28,550 --> 00:02:30,970 because we're going through the gatepost." 17 00:02:30,980 --> 00:02:33,220 I saluted in uniform 18 00:02:33,220 --> 00:02:36,890 as a captain of the United States Army. 19 00:02:36,890 --> 00:02:38,560 The guard waved me through, 20 00:02:38,570 --> 00:02:40,910 and I drove straight out to the flight line 21 00:02:40,910 --> 00:02:44,780 to an aircraft that was awaiting. 22 00:02:44,780 --> 00:02:49,080 One Vietnamese colonel that was putting his family on the plane, 23 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:54,120 he had wanted to stay in Vietnam to defend the country. 24 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:58,330 And this full colonel had, like, eight kids and a wife. 25 00:02:58,330 --> 00:03:01,680 And he was in tears, the family... 26 00:03:06,460 --> 00:03:09,010 The family were in tears, 27 00:03:09,010 --> 00:03:12,930 and I said to him, "Get on the plane. 28 00:03:12,930 --> 00:03:15,640 "Just... go. 29 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:16,640 Go." 30 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,480 It was a terrible, terrible, terrible moral dilemma 31 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,160 for everybody. 32 00:03:36,740 --> 00:03:41,370 We today have concluded an agreement to end the war 33 00:03:41,370 --> 00:03:43,800 and bring peace with honor in Vietnam. 34 00:03:50,930 --> 00:03:54,850 NIXON: We have adopted a plan for the complete withdrawal 35 00:03:54,850 --> 00:03:58,560 of all U.S. combat ground forces. 36 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,860 We are finally bringing American men home. 37 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,940 HENRY KISSINGER: We who made the agreement 38 00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:11,360 thought that it would be the beginning 39 00:04:11,370 --> 00:04:13,360 not of peace in the American sense, 40 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,620 but the beginning of a period of coexistence 41 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:22,870 which might evolve as it did in Korea into two states. 42 00:04:22,870 --> 00:04:26,670 Reconciliation between North and South Vietnam 43 00:04:26,670 --> 00:04:29,550 we knew would be extremely difficult. 44 00:04:29,550 --> 00:04:33,520 But I was hopeful. 45 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:38,220 HERRINGTON: Because of the Paris Agreement, 46 00:04:38,220 --> 00:04:40,980 American soldiers were going home. 47 00:04:42,270 --> 00:04:45,190 But I was on my way back to Vietnam. 48 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:50,990 I was assigned to Saigon 49 00:04:50,990 --> 00:04:53,950 in the first week of August 1973, 50 00:04:53,950 --> 00:04:56,290 so about six months after the ceasefire. 51 00:05:06,580 --> 00:05:09,260 I would say that between the State Department people 52 00:05:09,260 --> 00:05:11,380 and CIA people, 53 00:05:11,380 --> 00:05:14,260 the contractors who were there to maintain infrastructure, 54 00:05:14,260 --> 00:05:15,510 maintain aircraft, 55 00:05:15,510 --> 00:05:18,260 as well as people like me, 56 00:05:18,260 --> 00:05:22,610 we had 5,000 to 7,000 Americans in country. 57 00:05:24,770 --> 00:05:29,060 A lot of the guys had Vietnamese girlfriends and wives, 58 00:05:29,070 --> 00:05:32,780 in many cases with children. 59 00:05:32,780 --> 00:05:37,410 In general, things were eerily calm 60 00:05:37,410 --> 00:05:42,120 and in many ways normal in Saigon. 61 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,620 My sense was that we were gonna be there, 62 00:05:44,620 --> 00:05:47,800 you know, pretty much for a long time to come. 63 00:05:49,790 --> 00:05:54,090 I was assigned to the American embassy in Saigon. 64 00:05:54,090 --> 00:05:56,880 I was in charge 65 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,260 of the 84 Marine security guards that were there, 66 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:03,060 making sure that they kept up 67 00:06:03,060 --> 00:06:04,530 with their physical fitness training. 68 00:06:06,270 --> 00:06:10,020 We were there to protect American lives 69 00:06:10,020 --> 00:06:12,480 as well as American property. 70 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,360 It was just a day-to-day job. 71 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:22,950 FRANK SNEPP: The Ambassador there was a guy named Graham Martin, 72 00:06:22,950 --> 00:06:25,500 a North Carolinian, just as I was. 73 00:06:25,500 --> 00:06:28,330 He spoke with a slow Southern drawl. 74 00:06:28,330 --> 00:06:29,930 He was a great gentleman. 75 00:06:29,930 --> 00:06:33,500 He was a cold warrior in the old stripe. 76 00:06:33,500 --> 00:06:37,920 He'd lost an adopted son in Vietnam to combat. 77 00:06:37,930 --> 00:06:41,930 And he was not gonna give up South Vietnam to the Communists. 78 00:06:41,930 --> 00:06:45,930 He was determined to keep U.S. aid 79 00:06:45,930 --> 00:06:47,780 flowing into Saigon. 80 00:06:50,690 --> 00:06:53,980 When the ceasefire occurred in 1973, 81 00:06:53,980 --> 00:06:57,030 everybody toasted it with Bloody Marys 82 00:06:57,030 --> 00:06:58,860 in the U.S. embassy. 83 00:06:58,860 --> 00:07:00,990 It was a grand party. 84 00:07:00,990 --> 00:07:04,410 We thought peace was at hand. 85 00:07:04,410 --> 00:07:09,540 But the Paris Peace Accord was a masterpiece of ambiguity. 86 00:07:13,380 --> 00:07:15,720 HERRINGTON: In order to get President Thieu and the South Vietnamese 87 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:17,710 to go along with the Paris Agreement, 88 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:20,060 President Nixon pulled out all the stops, 89 00:07:20,060 --> 00:07:22,640 and in a letter to President Thieu, 90 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,310 he promised that if the North Vietnamese 91 00:07:25,310 --> 00:07:27,350 were to substantially violate 92 00:07:27,350 --> 00:07:29,400 the terms of the Paris Agreement, 93 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,980 the United States would respond with full force. 94 00:07:32,980 --> 00:07:37,360 In other words, reenter the war. 95 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:41,990 SNEPP: The North Vietnamese viewed Nixon as a madman. 96 00:07:41,990 --> 00:07:45,910 They were terrified of him. 97 00:07:45,910 --> 00:07:49,580 They believed that Nixon, if necessary, 98 00:07:49,580 --> 00:07:51,670 would bring back American air power. 99 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:57,800 But in August 1974, he was gone. 100 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:02,090 Nixon resigned because of Watergate. 101 00:08:02,090 --> 00:08:05,470 And overnight, everything changed. 102 00:08:05,470 --> 00:08:12,310 Hanoi suddenly saw the road to Saigon as being open. 103 00:08:12,310 --> 00:08:14,110 (CHEERING) 104 00:08:22,990 --> 00:08:24,620 (GUNFIRE) 105 00:08:28,950 --> 00:08:30,500 (EXPLOSION) 106 00:08:33,460 --> 00:08:37,460 (GUNFIRE) 107 00:08:37,460 --> 00:08:38,590 (EXPLOSION) 108 00:08:41,590 --> 00:08:44,140 HERRINGTON: The South Vietnamese population 109 00:08:44,140 --> 00:08:48,010 had ample reason to fear the Vietnamese Communists. 110 00:08:48,010 --> 00:08:51,730 The Communist conduct throughout the course of the war 111 00:08:51,730 --> 00:08:55,150 had been violent and unforgiving. 112 00:08:55,150 --> 00:08:57,150 For example, when the city of Hue 113 00:08:57,150 --> 00:08:59,440 was taken over by the North Vietnamese, 114 00:08:59,450 --> 00:09:02,200 several thousand people on a long blacklist 115 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:03,530 were rounded up... 116 00:09:03,530 --> 00:09:05,910 School teachers, government civil servants, 117 00:09:05,910 --> 00:09:08,080 people who were known anti-Communists... 118 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:10,910 And they were executed, 119 00:09:10,910 --> 00:09:12,910 in some cases even buried alive. 120 00:09:12,910 --> 00:09:17,460 (CRYING) 121 00:09:17,460 --> 00:09:20,260 So panic was but a millimeter away. 122 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:28,390 WALTER CRONKITE: Hundreds of thousands of refugees 123 00:09:28,390 --> 00:09:30,600 are in a blind rush to flee even further 124 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:32,730 from the rapidly advancing Communists. 125 00:09:32,730 --> 00:09:34,070 Bruce Dunning reports. 126 00:09:34,070 --> 00:09:38,400 BRUCE DUNNING: President Thieu broadcast a strong appeal 127 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,620 to the soldiers and the people of Da Nang, 128 00:09:40,620 --> 00:09:43,240 urging them to stay and fight. 129 00:10:00,710 --> 00:10:02,460 As the enemy approaches, the panic has swept 130 00:10:02,460 --> 00:10:04,720 from the coastal city's crowded backstreets and pagodas 131 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:06,430 onto runways at the airport. 132 00:10:06,430 --> 00:10:08,390 REPORTER: Our plane is surrounded here. 133 00:10:08,390 --> 00:10:11,390 I don't know how the hell we're gonna get out. 134 00:10:11,390 --> 00:10:12,890 We're racing down the runway, 135 00:10:12,890 --> 00:10:15,560 leaving behind hundreds and thousands of people. 136 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:19,730 Another dozen of them running along, 137 00:10:19,740 --> 00:10:21,860 grabbing at the air stair. 138 00:10:21,860 --> 00:10:25,030 We're pulling them on as fast as we can. 139 00:10:25,030 --> 00:10:27,570 There's a sea of humanity jamming on. 140 00:10:27,570 --> 00:10:30,660 Impossible to stop the crowd. 141 00:10:30,660 --> 00:10:32,280 We're pulling away. 142 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:33,580 We're leaving them behind. 143 00:10:33,580 --> 00:10:34,790 We're pulling up with the... 144 00:10:34,790 --> 00:10:36,920 People are falling off the air stairs! 145 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:39,460 The plane is taking off. 146 00:10:39,460 --> 00:10:43,090 HERRINGTON: It was every man for himself. 147 00:10:43,090 --> 00:10:46,090 So you saw the World Airways flight 148 00:10:46,090 --> 00:10:50,680 being mobbed by South Vietnamese soldiers. 149 00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:55,430 You saw ships with thousands of refugees, 150 00:10:55,430 --> 00:10:57,850 including lots of soldiers. 151 00:10:57,850 --> 00:10:59,600 You saw out-of-control panic. 152 00:11:01,810 --> 00:11:04,610 Basically any boats, trucks, airplanes, 153 00:11:04,610 --> 00:11:07,990 or anything going south 154 00:11:07,990 --> 00:11:11,290 were besieged by people wanting to get onboard. 155 00:11:14,660 --> 00:11:19,000 SNEPP: The Americans were gone, 156 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,590 and as a result, the house of cards began to collapse. 157 00:11:26,260 --> 00:11:31,090 The North Vietnamese decided to escalate, 158 00:11:31,090 --> 00:11:34,010 escalate, escalate, escalate at every turn 159 00:11:34,010 --> 00:11:36,110 to see if the United States would react. 160 00:11:41,690 --> 00:11:46,020 RON NESSEN: In April of '75, I was with President Gerald Ford, 161 00:11:46,030 --> 00:11:49,620 and we were flying across the country on Air Force One 162 00:11:49,620 --> 00:11:52,360 when one of the airplane's crew 163 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,620 comes and hands me a note, 164 00:11:54,620 --> 00:11:56,990 and it says, "Da Nang has fallen." 165 00:11:56,990 --> 00:12:01,080 Ford was bombarded by questions from the press 166 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:04,580 after he got off Air Force One. 167 00:12:04,590 --> 00:12:07,340 Around 150,000 to 175,000 168 00:12:07,340 --> 00:12:12,010 well-trained North Vietnamese regular forces 169 00:12:12,010 --> 00:12:14,010 in violation of the Paris Peace Accords 170 00:12:14,010 --> 00:12:16,510 moved into South Vietnam. 171 00:12:16,510 --> 00:12:20,220 We have objected to that violation. 172 00:12:20,230 --> 00:12:26,230 It's a tragedy unbelievable in its ramifications. 173 00:12:26,230 --> 00:12:31,530 SNEPP: We are now in a crisis. 174 00:12:31,530 --> 00:12:33,530 We had a wave of humanity: 175 00:12:33,530 --> 00:12:41,080 500,000 refugees rolling, rolling south towards Saigon, 176 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:47,800 and 160,000 North Vietnamese troops moving right behind them. 177 00:12:51,380 --> 00:12:55,130 I had become so concerned, 178 00:12:55,140 --> 00:12:57,810 I decided to pull our best Vietnamese agents in 179 00:12:57,810 --> 00:12:59,470 out of the woodwork 180 00:12:59,470 --> 00:13:02,060 to try to see what they could tell us 181 00:13:02,060 --> 00:13:05,980 about Communist planning, which obviously was rapidly evolving. 182 00:13:05,990 --> 00:13:09,980 On the 8th of April, 183 00:13:09,980 --> 00:13:13,070 I met with one of our best agents, 184 00:13:13,070 --> 00:13:16,570 who said, "The Communists are gonna drive on Saigon." 185 00:13:16,580 --> 00:13:19,040 They're gonna be in there by Ho Chi Minh's birthday," 186 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:23,160 which was May 19th, literally a month away. 187 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,420 Communist forces in South Vietnam, 188 00:13:25,420 --> 00:13:28,260 already solidly in control of 11 provinces, 189 00:13:28,260 --> 00:13:31,670 began working on yet another one today: Binh Dinh. 190 00:13:31,670 --> 00:13:34,630 (EXPLOSIONS) 191 00:13:34,630 --> 00:13:36,930 (GUNFIRE) 192 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:42,850 KIEM DO: 193 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:17,890 HERRINGTON: I kept a map every day 194 00:14:17,890 --> 00:14:20,890 on the progress of the North Vietnamese onslaught. 195 00:14:20,890 --> 00:14:22,930 By the 5th of April, 196 00:14:22,930 --> 00:14:26,680 the North Vietnamese had 15, even 16 divisions 197 00:14:26,690 --> 00:14:28,730 heading in the direction of Saigon. 198 00:14:28,730 --> 00:14:30,900 They were bringing SA-2 missiles down 199 00:14:30,900 --> 00:14:35,820 to provide anti-aircraft cover for their forces. 200 00:14:35,820 --> 00:14:37,320 There were people who were saying, 201 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:39,870 "Look, we've gotta do some heavy, heavy planning here 202 00:14:39,870 --> 00:14:41,540 "because depending on how this goes, 203 00:14:41,540 --> 00:14:45,000 and it doesn't look good now, we may all have to evacuate." 204 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,500 And Ambassador Martin 205 00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:49,840 wouldn't tolerate or countenance such thought. 206 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:51,290 That was defeatism. 207 00:14:51,290 --> 00:14:53,290 That was poisonous to the prospects 208 00:14:53,300 --> 00:14:56,840 of the people we're here to help. 209 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:02,180 But people could see what was going on 210 00:15:02,180 --> 00:15:07,520 and they started leaving, especially the Americans. 211 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:08,820 I'm leaving Vietnam. 212 00:15:08,820 --> 00:15:09,850 Why? 213 00:15:09,850 --> 00:15:11,570 I'm kind of scared, to be honest with you. 214 00:15:11,570 --> 00:15:13,440 To be perfectly honest with you, I'm really scared. 215 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,540 I think the situation's a lot worse than we know about. 216 00:15:18,700 --> 00:15:23,370 SNEPP: There was always a standing evacuation plan in the embassy. 217 00:15:23,370 --> 00:15:25,740 It held that in an emergency, 218 00:15:25,740 --> 00:15:28,200 all Americans still in the country, 219 00:15:28,210 --> 00:15:32,790 about 6,000 people, would be evacuated 220 00:15:32,790 --> 00:15:39,050 and that no South Vietnamese would be evacuated with them. 221 00:15:41,590 --> 00:15:43,930 BINH PHO: I was a student. 222 00:15:43,930 --> 00:15:45,680 The school's not closing, 223 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,900 but it seemed like nobody's interested in school anymore. 224 00:15:47,900 --> 00:15:51,140 You can't stay here. 225 00:15:51,150 --> 00:15:53,070 You can't live with the Communists, 226 00:15:53,070 --> 00:15:57,360 especially if you have a connection with the Americans. 227 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:00,080 Then you really gotta get out. 228 00:16:04,700 --> 00:16:09,050 HERRINGTON: If we really made up a list of endangered South Vietnamese, 229 00:16:09,050 --> 00:16:14,670 the ones who really worked closely with us during the war, 230 00:16:14,670 --> 00:16:17,800 this number could be 150,000, 200,000. 231 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:22,340 Including their families, many more than that. 232 00:16:22,340 --> 00:16:24,690 But the idea of talking about an evacuation 233 00:16:24,690 --> 00:16:28,560 and of planning for an evacuation of Americans, 234 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,310 let alone an evacuation of Vietnamese, 235 00:16:31,310 --> 00:16:35,520 was still anathema in the embassy. 236 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:37,900 If you mean, "Is South Vietnam" 237 00:16:37,900 --> 00:16:41,280 on the imminent verge of collapse?" 238 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,360 I think the answer is quite definitely no. 239 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:48,620 STEVE HASTY: We were dealing with an ambassador 240 00:16:48,620 --> 00:16:52,620 who was just convinced that somehow, 241 00:16:52,620 --> 00:16:55,540 he was going to be able to pull this out 242 00:16:55,540 --> 00:16:58,290 and that there wouldn't have to be an evacuation 243 00:16:58,300 --> 00:17:00,390 and therefore, there wouldn't have to be a concern 244 00:17:00,390 --> 00:17:02,930 about evacuating South Vietnamese. 245 00:17:05,590 --> 00:17:11,060 GERALD FORD: The situation in South Vietnam has reached a critical phase 246 00:17:11,060 --> 00:17:15,520 requiring immediate and positive decisions by this government. 247 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:19,360 There are tens of thousands 248 00:17:19,360 --> 00:17:23,490 of South Vietnamese employees of the United States government, 249 00:17:23,490 --> 00:17:26,110 of news agencies, 250 00:17:26,110 --> 00:17:30,160 of contractors and businesses for many years 251 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:34,870 whose lives, with their dependents, 252 00:17:34,870 --> 00:17:39,500 are in very grave peril. 253 00:17:39,500 --> 00:17:43,550 I'm therefore asking the Congress 254 00:17:43,550 --> 00:17:47,180 to appropriate without delay $722 million 255 00:17:47,180 --> 00:17:51,760 for emergency military assistance for South Vietnam. 256 00:17:51,770 --> 00:17:55,520 If the very worst were to happen, 257 00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:01,480 at least allow the orderly evacuation of Americans 258 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:07,570 and endangered South Vietnamese to places of safety. 259 00:18:07,570 --> 00:18:10,370 There was no way in 1975 260 00:18:10,370 --> 00:18:12,500 that the Congress was going to vote any money 261 00:18:12,500 --> 00:18:15,540 to go to the aid of South Vietnam. 262 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:18,540 We had pulled out our troops in 1973 263 00:18:18,540 --> 00:18:22,420 and public opinion at that point shifted. 264 00:18:22,420 --> 00:18:26,510 The people of the United States, having seen Watergate, 265 00:18:26,510 --> 00:18:29,590 having seen the deception of the generals, 266 00:18:29,590 --> 00:18:34,220 weren't about to give any help in Southeast Asia. 267 00:18:34,220 --> 00:18:37,730 And you know, Kissinger knew this. 268 00:18:37,730 --> 00:18:41,400 We knew we were not going to get the $722 million. 269 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,480 By that time it made no big difference, 270 00:18:45,490 --> 00:18:48,900 but President Ford said 271 00:18:48,910 --> 00:18:51,820 he owed it to Vietnam to make a request. 272 00:18:51,830 --> 00:18:55,790 We've sent, so to speak, battleship after battleship 273 00:18:55,790 --> 00:18:59,750 and bomber after bomber and 500,000 and more men 274 00:18:59,750 --> 00:19:03,420 and billions and billions of dollars. 275 00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:06,300 If billions and billions didn't do 276 00:19:06,300 --> 00:19:09,090 at a time when we had all our men there, 277 00:19:09,090 --> 00:19:12,100 how can $722 million save the day? 278 00:19:15,270 --> 00:19:19,100 HERRINGTON: This is the way my map looked in mid-April. 279 00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:23,110 The North Vietnamese just rolled down the coast. 280 00:19:23,110 --> 00:19:26,860 Saigon was clearly threatened. 281 00:19:26,860 --> 00:19:29,700 The situation was urgent. 282 00:19:29,700 --> 00:19:30,990 Urgent understates it. 283 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:38,290 SNEPP: At this time, Ambassador Martin had been back in Washington 284 00:19:38,290 --> 00:19:40,960 trying to persuade Congress to vote additional aid. 285 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,130 REPORTER: Do you have anything to say on your arrival? 286 00:19:44,130 --> 00:19:46,300 He has no statement to make. 287 00:19:46,300 --> 00:19:49,880 SNEPP: He came back to Saigon, 288 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,010 and my boss, the CIA station chief, said, 289 00:19:52,010 --> 00:19:54,480 "Go down and tell the old man what's happening." 290 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:56,820 I went and I said, "Mr. Ambassador, 291 00:19:56,820 --> 00:20:00,940 "half of the South Vietnamese Army has disintegrated. 292 00:20:00,940 --> 00:20:03,100 "We're in grave trouble. 293 00:20:03,110 --> 00:20:05,770 "Please, sir, plan for an evacuation. 294 00:20:05,770 --> 00:20:08,610 "At least allow us to begin putting together 295 00:20:08,620 --> 00:20:11,330 lists of South Vietnamese we should rescue." 296 00:20:11,330 --> 00:20:15,870 And he saw, "No, Frank. 297 00:20:15,870 --> 00:20:18,330 "It's not so bleak. 298 00:20:18,330 --> 00:20:23,210 And I won't have this negative talk." 299 00:20:23,210 --> 00:20:26,340 Young officers in the embassy 300 00:20:26,340 --> 00:20:30,510 began to mobilize a black operation, 301 00:20:30,510 --> 00:20:36,430 meaning a makeshift underground railway evacuation 302 00:20:36,430 --> 00:20:39,470 using outgoing cargo aircraft 303 00:20:39,470 --> 00:20:44,690 that would be totally below the radar of the Ambassador. 304 00:20:44,690 --> 00:20:46,820 HERRINGTON: People like myself and others 305 00:20:46,820 --> 00:20:50,940 took the bull by the horns and organized an evacuation. 306 00:20:50,940 --> 00:20:53,820 In my case, that meant friends of mine 307 00:20:53,820 --> 00:20:57,870 who were senior officers in the South Vietnamese military. 308 00:20:57,870 --> 00:21:03,000 As the North Vietnamese came closer and closer to Saigon, 309 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,970 these people were dead men walking. 310 00:21:09,250 --> 00:21:11,050 I had arranged a signal 311 00:21:11,050 --> 00:21:12,890 with my intelligence community friends 312 00:21:12,890 --> 00:21:15,100 that if I said, "I'm having a barbecue," 313 00:21:15,100 --> 00:21:17,770 that meant come to a certain pre-designated place 314 00:21:17,770 --> 00:21:20,230 and bring your families and only bring one suitcase 315 00:21:20,230 --> 00:21:22,390 because we're going to have a party. 316 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,390 But it was understood the party meant 317 00:21:24,390 --> 00:21:26,020 I was going to get them out. 318 00:21:29,150 --> 00:21:32,900 Black Ops were essentially violating the rules... 319 00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:34,780 In this case meaning, 320 00:21:34,780 --> 00:21:38,000 you're not allowed to bring out Vietnamese military people 321 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:42,290 who were under obligation to stand and fight. 322 00:21:42,290 --> 00:21:45,500 We were fully expecting if we got caught doing this 323 00:21:45,500 --> 00:21:47,220 that we would be run out of country. 324 00:21:47,220 --> 00:21:49,250 End of career, do not pass go. 325 00:21:49,250 --> 00:21:54,630 But sometimes there's an issue not of legal and illegal, 326 00:21:54,630 --> 00:21:56,510 but right or wrong. 327 00:21:58,300 --> 00:22:02,560 SNEPP: The deputy defense attaché moved out Vietnamese personnel 328 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:07,520 and their families to Clark Air Base in the Philippines 329 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,240 without any approval whatsoever, 330 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:11,200 without any immigration papers, anything... 331 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,780 Passports, you name it. 332 00:22:13,780 --> 00:22:16,530 And when they began showing up in the Philippines, 333 00:22:16,530 --> 00:22:18,950 Martin hit the roof and fired him! 334 00:22:18,950 --> 00:22:23,660 But that didn't stop other State Department people 335 00:22:23,660 --> 00:22:28,370 who had Vietnamese friends and family members. 336 00:22:28,380 --> 00:22:32,100 They continued to organize these makeshift airlifts. 337 00:22:43,220 --> 00:22:45,980 TERRY McNAMARA: That April, I was in Can Tho, 338 00:22:45,980 --> 00:22:49,190 which was about 100 miles from Saigon. 339 00:22:49,190 --> 00:22:50,900 And we were getting reports 340 00:22:50,900 --> 00:22:54,490 of this town falling and that province falling and so on. 341 00:22:54,490 --> 00:22:58,450 And then we were attacked. 342 00:22:58,450 --> 00:23:03,620 Sergeant Hasty came by to give me a report on the damage. 343 00:23:03,620 --> 00:23:07,620 Can Tho came under pretty intense artillery bombardment. 344 00:23:07,620 --> 00:23:10,500 The North Vietnamese had overrun 345 00:23:10,500 --> 00:23:15,000 some South Vietnamese artillery batteries 346 00:23:15,010 --> 00:23:20,180 and managed to turn those around and shell the center of Can Tho. 347 00:23:24,350 --> 00:23:26,570 TERRY MCNAMARA: I was in regular contact with the embassy, 348 00:23:26,570 --> 00:23:29,310 and I was told that when the time came, 349 00:23:29,310 --> 00:23:31,810 I should be ready to evacuate, 350 00:23:31,810 --> 00:23:35,110 and that I should not try to take any Vietnamese out 351 00:23:35,110 --> 00:23:37,110 because it was too dangerous, 352 00:23:37,110 --> 00:23:38,990 and I should only restrict myself 353 00:23:38,990 --> 00:23:45,080 to evacuating Americans using my three helicopters. 354 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,500 Well, I'd been there for almost five years at this point, 355 00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:52,290 and I was committed to the Vietnamese. 356 00:23:52,290 --> 00:23:54,800 I did have a responsibility, I thought, 357 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,720 for the people who had worked for us 358 00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:00,510 and who had given their loyal service to us over many years. 359 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,220 So I decided that despite the order from Saigon, 360 00:24:06,220 --> 00:24:08,400 we're gonna really make an effort 361 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,270 to evacuate the people in Can Tho 362 00:24:11,270 --> 00:24:14,690 who I thought might be in mortal danger. 363 00:24:14,690 --> 00:24:18,400 This could be hundreds of people. 364 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:23,200 So I spent one sleepless night worrying about this. 365 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:24,700 "How am I going to do this?" 366 00:24:24,700 --> 00:24:28,870 And then I thought, "Hell, we're on a river. 367 00:24:28,870 --> 00:24:30,700 "We don't need helicopters. 368 00:24:30,710 --> 00:24:33,250 We can go down the river." 369 00:24:33,250 --> 00:24:37,170 It's 70 miles from Can Tho down to the mouth of the river. 370 00:24:39,590 --> 00:24:46,270 So I found two invasion barges and got them ready to go. 371 00:24:48,970 --> 00:24:53,270 We knew that the situation was bad. 372 00:24:53,270 --> 00:24:59,020 We could see that the South Vietnamese Army was eroding. 373 00:24:59,030 --> 00:25:01,440 Supplies had been cutoff 374 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,660 and you could see the armaments dwindling. 375 00:25:08,790 --> 00:25:12,670 MCNAMARA: We were, under the terms of the Paris Agreement, 376 00:25:12,670 --> 00:25:16,630 committed to resupplying the South Vietnamese. 377 00:25:16,630 --> 00:25:19,550 They lacked simple things, like barbed wire 378 00:25:19,550 --> 00:25:21,800 and bags for sand bags. 379 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,090 (ARTILLERY FIRE) 380 00:25:24,090 --> 00:25:27,680 They were rationing their artillery shells 381 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,310 because they were running out. 382 00:25:30,310 --> 00:25:32,600 The military support, the material support, 383 00:25:32,610 --> 00:25:34,640 was not coming. 384 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:39,650 HENRY KISSINGER: When President Ford went before the Congress, 385 00:25:39,650 --> 00:25:44,820 he had two major concerns. 386 00:25:44,820 --> 00:25:51,740 The first was to save as many people as we could. 387 00:25:51,750 --> 00:25:54,340 He cared for the human beings involved; 388 00:25:54,340 --> 00:25:56,420 They were not just pawns 389 00:25:56,420 --> 00:26:01,250 that once they had lost their military power were abandoned. 390 00:26:01,250 --> 00:26:06,380 The second was the honor of America, 391 00:26:06,380 --> 00:26:12,890 that we would not be seen at the final agony of South Vietnam 392 00:26:12,890 --> 00:26:16,490 as having stabbed it in the back. 393 00:26:21,020 --> 00:26:24,150 RON NESSEN: Congress wouldn't pass it. 394 00:26:24,150 --> 00:26:26,570 They said, "No more." 395 00:26:26,570 --> 00:26:31,700 No more troops, no more money, no more aid to the Vietnamese." 396 00:26:31,700 --> 00:26:39,630 Well, I had to go into President Ford's office to tell him. 397 00:26:39,630 --> 00:26:42,880 I had never heard Ford use a curse word 398 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:44,760 in all the time I'd known him. 399 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:49,260 But when I showed him this story, he said, 400 00:26:49,260 --> 00:26:51,140 "Those sons of bitches." 401 00:27:08,740 --> 00:27:10,910 I think there were a total of 50 ships that were there. 402 00:27:10,910 --> 00:27:12,910 I mean, it wasn’t just us; It was a whole bunch of ships. 403 00:27:12,910 --> 00:27:18,460 We were standing by for the evacuation of Americans. 404 00:27:21,580 --> 00:27:23,920 I was a terrible letter writer. 405 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,510 I would write one letter for my wife's ten letters, 406 00:27:26,510 --> 00:27:28,220 and she didn't like that, so she said, 407 00:27:28,220 --> 00:27:30,140 "We're going to exchange tapes." 408 00:27:30,140 --> 00:27:32,220 So I would run into my stateroom, 409 00:27:32,230 --> 00:27:34,310 turn the tape recorder on for a couple of minutes 410 00:27:34,310 --> 00:27:35,680 and tell her what's happening. 411 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:37,980 DOYLE (ON TAPE): I really don‘t know where to start. 412 00:27:37,980 --> 00:27:41,810 It's been such an unusual couple days for us. 413 00:27:41,810 --> 00:27:46,780 We went with the rest of this huge task force of ours 414 00:27:46,780 --> 00:27:51,070 up into about, oh, 20 miles off the coast, 415 00:27:51,070 --> 00:27:52,420 basically east of Saigon. 416 00:27:56,830 --> 00:28:01,620 As most Navy operations are, it was very carefully planned. 417 00:28:01,620 --> 00:28:03,300 We planned it to death. 418 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,380 The chain of command, as I understood it 419 00:28:09,380 --> 00:28:11,810 as a captain of the United States Marine Corps, 420 00:28:11,810 --> 00:28:14,720 and I think I got it right, 421 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,100 is that for any evacuation, 422 00:28:17,100 --> 00:28:19,600 that decision is the Ambassador's decision. 423 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:25,480 Graham Martin is the responsible guy. 424 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,150 But the military is responsible 425 00:28:27,150 --> 00:28:28,780 forgiving him all kinds of plans. 426 00:28:28,780 --> 00:28:32,740 And this is how we got into the four options. 427 00:28:32,740 --> 00:28:35,740 The first option was 428 00:28:35,740 --> 00:28:38,960 you would take commercial ships right up the Saigon River 429 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,370 to a couple blocks from the embassy. 430 00:28:41,380 --> 00:28:42,870 You would load whoever you wanted 431 00:28:42,870 --> 00:28:49,090 to bring out on these ships and you'd be done with it. 432 00:28:49,090 --> 00:28:50,840 The second option was, you know, 433 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,930 United and Continental and Flying Tiger Airlines 434 00:28:54,930 --> 00:28:57,680 were still using Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base at the time, 435 00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,980 and you could've brought anybody you wanted out 436 00:28:59,980 --> 00:29:03,850 by commercial aviation. 437 00:29:03,850 --> 00:29:06,610 The third option was military fixed-wing aviation... 438 00:29:06,610 --> 00:29:10,190 The C5As, the C-141s, which carry a lot of people. 439 00:29:10,190 --> 00:29:13,040 You could've brought them out of Tan Son Nhut on those. 440 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,870 The very last option, the very last option, 441 00:29:18,870 --> 00:29:20,710 was helicopters off the carriers 442 00:29:20,710 --> 00:29:22,880 in the Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base. 443 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,540 We had 75 Marine Corps helicopters out there. 444 00:29:26,540 --> 00:29:27,920 The helicopter option, 445 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:29,800 that was absolutely the last resort. 446 00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:31,340 You know, they don't go very fast, 447 00:29:31,340 --> 00:29:33,260 they don't carry that many people. 448 00:29:33,260 --> 00:29:35,100 That was if everything else failed. 449 00:29:45,980 --> 00:29:51,400 RICHARD ARMITAGE: I got into Vietnam late on the 24th of April, 1975. 450 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:56,950 Saigon was full of rumor, of false stories, 451 00:29:56,950 --> 00:29:59,540 whether we were going to have a last attempt 452 00:29:59,540 --> 00:30:02,450 to draw a line across the country, 453 00:30:02,450 --> 00:30:05,250 that Saigon and the south would remain a free republic, 454 00:30:05,250 --> 00:30:06,460 all of these things, 455 00:30:06,460 --> 00:30:08,000 and it was all churning all around. 456 00:30:08,010 --> 00:30:11,960 The fighting was close to Saigon 457 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:16,510 but hadn't shown up in the streets of Saigon. 458 00:30:16,510 --> 00:30:18,720 I served as a naval officer 459 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,260 in three and a half tours in Vietnam, 460 00:30:21,260 --> 00:30:23,730 two of those years as a Special Forces advisor 461 00:30:23,730 --> 00:30:28,270 with a 20-boat River Division, all Vietnamese. 462 00:30:28,270 --> 00:30:32,020 I could tell jokes and hear jokes in Vietnamese. 463 00:30:32,030 --> 00:30:33,900 And once you start off like that, 464 00:30:33,900 --> 00:30:39,030 you eventually end up being able to dream in Vietnamese. 465 00:30:39,030 --> 00:30:43,950 In 1975, my mission was to remove or destroy 466 00:30:43,950 --> 00:30:46,290 as many ships, swift boats, 467 00:30:46,290 --> 00:30:50,420 anything that I considered to be a benefit to the enemy. 468 00:30:50,420 --> 00:30:53,300 I met with Captain Do Kiem, 469 00:30:53,300 --> 00:30:56,800 who was the operations officer of the Vietnamese Navy. 470 00:31:13,820 --> 00:31:16,230 ARMITAGE: The plan was to sail 471 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,330 all the large ships of the South Vietnamese Navy 472 00:31:19,330 --> 00:31:22,620 down the Saigon River to the sea 473 00:31:22,620 --> 00:31:26,700 and rendezvous at Con Son Island. 474 00:31:26,700 --> 00:31:29,750 We had to keep this secret. 475 00:31:29,750 --> 00:31:33,340 If word got out, it would have had an effect 476 00:31:33,340 --> 00:31:35,050 on the morale of the people in the street. 477 00:31:41,180 --> 00:31:45,180 JOE MCBRIDE: We knew that there were roughly 5,000 Americans 478 00:31:45,180 --> 00:31:48,060 still in the country. 479 00:31:48,060 --> 00:31:52,350 Many of them had Vietnamese wives, mistresses, whatever. 480 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,690 Just hadn't left. 481 00:31:55,690 --> 00:31:57,820 And they were basically letting us know, 482 00:31:57,820 --> 00:32:00,490 "We're not leaving without our families." 483 00:32:00,490 --> 00:32:05,200 Finally, we were given authority by the Ambassador 484 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,870 to bypass the immigration laws 485 00:32:08,870 --> 00:32:11,550 and send these Vietnamese out of the country. 486 00:32:14,380 --> 00:32:16,300 So then we started an operation 487 00:32:16,300 --> 00:32:20,260 basically to get out the Americans 488 00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:22,100 and their Vietnamese dependents. 489 00:32:27,140 --> 00:32:28,860 SNEPP: It was not an official evacuation. 490 00:32:28,860 --> 00:32:33,400 We still had no organized plan 491 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,690 for evacuating high-risk South Vietnamese 492 00:32:37,690 --> 00:32:39,240 because we had an ambassador 493 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:41,070 who was making up his mind on the wing. 494 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,410 GARRICK UTLEY: The President also asked Congress 495 00:32:43,410 --> 00:32:45,330 for authorization to use American troops here 496 00:32:45,330 --> 00:32:46,660 to evacuate Americans 497 00:32:46,660 --> 00:32:48,250 and Vietnamese who worked for Americans. 498 00:32:48,250 --> 00:32:49,790 If it were necessary. 499 00:32:49,790 --> 00:32:51,380 Do you have plans for that? 500 00:32:51,380 --> 00:32:54,210 Well, of course, every embassy in the world has plans for it. 501 00:32:54,210 --> 00:32:55,930 Do you think it will be necessary? 502 00:32:55,930 --> 00:32:59,210 That again, you see, is a judgment 503 00:32:59,210 --> 00:33:04,090 that I can’t possibly make at this time. 504 00:33:04,090 --> 00:33:07,100 We have been reducing the population here 505 00:33:07,100 --> 00:33:09,260 as measure of prudency 506 00:33:09,270 --> 00:33:11,310 and will take measures to reduce it further 507 00:33:11,310 --> 00:33:14,560 as a question of prudence. 508 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,900 The Ambassador was extremely skittish, 509 00:33:17,900 --> 00:33:21,870 and I guess understandably so, about talking about evacuation, 510 00:33:21,870 --> 00:33:24,160 about sending signals that an evacuation 511 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,160 was being planned or even executed. 512 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,790 He feared it would trigger a panic. 513 00:33:34,670 --> 00:33:37,130 BINH PHO: It time to get out. 514 00:33:37,130 --> 00:33:42,260 And in Saigon at that time, it was like, "Who do you know?" 515 00:33:42,260 --> 00:33:44,100 The the key word would be "connection." 516 00:33:46,300 --> 00:33:50,140 There's a lot of people, they try to get their money 517 00:33:50,140 --> 00:33:52,600 because if the people have money, 518 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,650 maybe they will find a connection to get out. 519 00:33:56,650 --> 00:33:59,310 You know, and so, "You want to go? 520 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,160 Give me this kind of money." 521 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,150 One guy said to me, 522 00:34:04,150 --> 00:34:06,410 "Your family, tell them to come to the boat dock. 523 00:34:06,410 --> 00:34:08,530 I'll be waiting for them." 524 00:34:08,530 --> 00:34:12,500 Of course they took the money, but they never got us. 525 00:34:15,670 --> 00:34:19,830 DAM PHAM: There was chaos in Saigon at that time. 526 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:25,670 Everybody was looking for ways to get out as soon as possible. 527 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,220 Of course, the Americans we worked with 528 00:34:29,220 --> 00:34:31,890 had a plan in place for us. 529 00:34:31,890 --> 00:34:37,230 They told us to get to the meeting place, 530 00:34:37,230 --> 00:34:44,650 which was a safe house near the American embassy, 531 00:34:44,650 --> 00:34:48,530 and to wait for buses to come to pick us up. 532 00:34:57,790 --> 00:34:59,380 If we were gonna get people out, 533 00:34:59,380 --> 00:35:01,000 we were gonna have to make it happen 534 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,050 and deliver the Vietnamese to the big airplanes 535 00:35:04,050 --> 00:35:07,800 in some form or fashion. 536 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,640 And the only way we could do that 537 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,190 was keeping the airport open as long as we could. 538 00:35:29,410 --> 00:35:33,410 HERRINGTON: Ambassador Martin still hoped that somehow, 539 00:35:33,410 --> 00:35:37,330 this thing would not end with the North Vietnamese 540 00:35:37,330 --> 00:35:42,580 humiliating the United States by attacking Saigon. 541 00:35:42,590 --> 00:35:47,510 But it seemed like the North Vietnamese had other ideas. 542 00:35:52,430 --> 00:35:54,310 (EXPLOSIONS) 543 00:35:58,930 --> 00:36:02,730 (EXPLOSIONS) 544 00:36:09,950 --> 00:36:13,120 What may be the final battle of Saigon has begun. 545 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,990 Communist ground forces have started moving in 546 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,210 on Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport. 547 00:36:18,210 --> 00:36:20,830 REPORTER: Rockets exploded all over the base, 548 00:36:20,830 --> 00:36:23,800 touching off three major fires. 549 00:36:25,340 --> 00:36:27,840 HERRINGTON: The air base was under continuous artillery fire. 550 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:29,840 I felt the rounds. 551 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,470 They were so close, 552 00:36:32,470 --> 00:36:35,970 the shrapnel was plinking against the fence behind us. 553 00:36:35,970 --> 00:36:41,520 It was abundantly clear that it was a whole new ball game. 554 00:36:47,780 --> 00:36:50,780 JUAN VALDEZ: We never expected any trouble out there. 555 00:36:50,780 --> 00:36:55,120 And then, of course, fear a little bit set in 556 00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,340 because now we knew that it really meant business, you know? 557 00:36:58,340 --> 00:37:02,000 Were they gonna continue shelling Tan Son Nhut? 558 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,960 They had given us a warning, you know? 559 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:07,680 "Get out." 560 00:37:10,380 --> 00:37:14,300 HERRINGTON: As the sun came up, General Smith, 561 00:37:14,300 --> 00:37:17,390 who was our defense attaché out at Tan Son Nhut, 562 00:37:17,390 --> 00:37:19,520 contacted the Ambassador and said, 563 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,190 "The plan to use the fixed-wing 564 00:37:21,190 --> 00:37:22,810 "to get a few thousand people out today 565 00:37:22,810 --> 00:37:25,020 "isn't gonna work. 566 00:37:25,020 --> 00:37:28,860 "And we need to consider that this is it. 567 00:37:28,860 --> 00:37:30,190 "Option 4: 568 00:37:30,190 --> 00:37:33,820 A heavy-lift helicopter evacuation." 569 00:37:33,820 --> 00:37:38,580 And Ambassador Martin wouldn’t hear of it. 570 00:37:38,580 --> 00:37:40,200 He said, "l want to come out there. 571 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:42,130 I want to see it," and which he did. 572 00:37:42,130 --> 00:37:44,040 He got in a sedan. 573 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:45,790 He didn't lack for guts. 574 00:37:45,790 --> 00:37:49,500 There were still rounds coming in... 575 00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:52,050 Sporadic, but there was still artillery fire. 576 00:37:54,590 --> 00:37:57,680 And he could see that the main runway 577 00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,600 was full of craters from North Vietnamese artillery. 578 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:04,560 And it was understood that General Smith 579 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:09,070 was not being premature with the recommendation for Option 4. 580 00:38:12,190 --> 00:38:16,240 MCBRIDE: Ambassador Martin's concern very clearly up to now 581 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,910 was that once we started an official evacuation, 582 00:38:19,910 --> 00:38:25,410 it's pretty obvious that the game is over. 583 00:38:25,410 --> 00:38:27,590 You've got to remember, this is an ambassador 584 00:38:27,590 --> 00:38:32,920 who had lost his only son in combat in Vietnam. 585 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,220 One becomes pretty invested in that country. 586 00:38:37,220 --> 00:38:40,050 He had been holding out hope 587 00:38:40,050 --> 00:38:44,770 that some kind of third-party solution could be worked out 588 00:38:44,770 --> 00:38:48,100 so that South Vietnam could continue 589 00:38:48,100 --> 00:38:52,730 with some form of independence or autonomy. 590 00:38:52,730 --> 00:38:55,110 And he was being encouraged 591 00:38:55,110 --> 00:38:58,740 to think that this might be possible. 592 00:38:58,740 --> 00:39:01,320 But the morning of the 29th, 593 00:39:01,330 --> 00:39:06,050 he came to accept the fact that that wasn’t going to happen. 594 00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:12,170 And I picked up the phone 595 00:39:12,170 --> 00:39:16,970 and told Secretary Kissinger to inform the President 596 00:39:16,970 --> 00:39:20,390 that I had decided we would have to go to Option 4. 597 00:39:22,890 --> 00:39:27,190 HENRY KISSINGER: When I tell President Ford the airport is being shelled 598 00:39:27,190 --> 00:39:31,310 and that it's now time to pull the plug, 599 00:39:31,310 --> 00:39:34,480 he keeps coming back time and again, 600 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:36,990 "You really think we have to do it?" 601 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:42,990 That's how heartbreaking it was for him. 602 00:39:42,990 --> 00:39:49,500 He finally reluctantly gave the go-ahead 603 00:39:49,500 --> 00:39:51,880 for the final evacuation. 604 00:39:55,090 --> 00:39:59,510 RADIO DJ: This is the American Forces Vietnam Network. 605 00:39:59,510 --> 00:40:03,510 SNEPP: The prearranged signal for the evacuation 606 00:40:03,510 --> 00:40:06,930 was broadcast on American radio in Saigon. 607 00:40:06,930 --> 00:40:08,890 The message was, 608 00:40:08,890 --> 00:40:12,270 "The temperature is 105 and rising," 609 00:40:12,270 --> 00:40:16,940 and then Bing Crosby's "White Christmas.“" 610 00:40:16,940 --> 00:40:20,450 And sure enough, about 10:00 in the morning, 611 00:40:20,450 --> 00:40:23,070 I believe, on the 29th, 612 00:40:23,070 --> 00:40:28,040 there was Bing Crosby on the airwaves. 613 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:36,040 CROSBY: ♪ I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ♪ 614 00:40:37,380 --> 00:40:42,380 ♪ Just like the ones I used to know ♪ 615 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:52,640 ♪ Where the treetops glisten and children listen ♪ 616 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:06,400 ♪ To hear sleigh bells in the snow... ♪ 617 00:41:06,830 --> 00:41:10,790 HERRINGTON: The plan was when the signal was given, 618 00:41:10,790 --> 00:41:14,080 Americans still in Saigon 619 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:16,800 would immediately go to pick-up zones around the city 620 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:21,090 so that buses could then come to these 13 locations 621 00:41:21,090 --> 00:41:23,590 and get everybody out to the airbase, 622 00:41:23,590 --> 00:41:27,680 where they would be helicoptered to the fleet. 623 00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:31,430 We had prepared three or four landing zones 624 00:41:31,430 --> 00:41:33,430 right across the street from the main runway 625 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,560 of Tan Son Nhut airbase... 626 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,520 Areas which had not been under artillery fire, 627 00:41:39,530 --> 00:41:43,320 where heavy lift helicopters could come in. 628 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,660 It was a good plan, 629 00:41:45,660 --> 00:41:49,700 they had good facilities, they had good security. 630 00:41:49,700 --> 00:41:52,000 Now that Option 4 had been declared, 631 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:53,540 I don't think anyone said, 632 00:41:53,540 --> 00:41:58,420 "Okay, we have 7,000, 6,000, 5,000," or what have you 633 00:41:58,420 --> 00:41:59,750 left to evacuate. 634 00:41:59,750 --> 00:42:02,050 I think it was, "We are going to bring out 635 00:42:02,050 --> 00:42:05,800 "everybody we have left at the airport 636 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,220 "and everybody who might show up, 637 00:42:09,220 --> 00:42:10,970 "and at a point in time, 638 00:42:10,970 --> 00:42:14,150 "the embassy will evacuate its few hundred by buses to us 639 00:42:14,150 --> 00:42:15,640 and it'll be over." 640 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:21,320 But unfortunately, the plan was compromised. 641 00:42:23,150 --> 00:42:26,700 JIM LAURIE: Vietnamese would come up to these pick-up points 642 00:42:26,700 --> 00:42:31,280 and just my to get on the buses. 643 00:42:31,290 --> 00:42:33,660 It was word of mouth. 644 00:42:41,590 --> 00:42:45,840 Everybody in Saigon that day seemed to want to leave. 645 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:49,560 And by the time I got to my pick-up point, it was chaos. 646 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:51,680 Take it easy now, one at a time! 647 00:43:14,370 --> 00:43:16,700 LAURIE: Everybody knew these buses 648 00:43:16,710 --> 00:43:20,370 were going to be going out to Tan San Nhut airbase 649 00:43:20,380 --> 00:43:24,100 and there would be an escape from Vietnam. 650 00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:45,230 MCNAMARA: I got a telephone call from Saigon 651 00:43:45,230 --> 00:43:48,200 saying that the president had given an order for us 652 00:43:48,210 --> 00:43:51,030 to evacuate all Americans. 653 00:43:51,030 --> 00:43:54,120 Everybody was alerted, 654 00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:59,370 including all the Vietnamese that l had informed. 655 00:43:59,370 --> 00:44:03,710 We got everybody down to the boats. 656 00:44:03,710 --> 00:44:07,590 Our plan was that my deputy would bring up the rear, 657 00:44:07,590 --> 00:44:10,840 and he would go through the consulate buildings 658 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,640 and make sure that we had destroyed 659 00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:16,350 all of the sensitive materials. 660 00:44:16,350 --> 00:44:20,020 Staff Sergeant Hasty stayed and helped him. 661 00:44:20,020 --> 00:44:24,150 HASTY: I made the last broadcast. 662 00:44:24,150 --> 00:44:27,200 You know, "Saigon and any monitoring station", 663 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,490 "this is Can Tho Consulate, signing off the air. 664 00:44:30,490 --> 00:44:33,990 We are evacuating." 665 00:44:33,990 --> 00:44:35,830 And then we drove down 666 00:44:35,830 --> 00:44:38,120 to where Terry McNamara was loading people 667 00:44:38,130 --> 00:44:41,830 onboard the landing craft. 668 00:44:41,830 --> 00:44:46,250 We were trying to be, um... 669 00:44:46,250 --> 00:44:49,300 as unobtrusive as possible in doing so. 670 00:44:49,300 --> 00:44:51,390 We did not want a repeat of Da Nang. 671 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:57,100 We set sail with two landing craft 672 00:44:57,100 --> 00:45:03,140 packed with 18 Americans and BOO-and-something Vietnamese. 673 00:45:03,150 --> 00:45:06,940 The biggest concern, of course, 674 00:45:06,940 --> 00:45:09,690 was basically the North Vietnamese 675 00:45:09,690 --> 00:45:11,570 or what remnants oi the VG were there 676 00:45:11,570 --> 00:45:16,030 would ambush us at the narrowest portion, 677 00:45:16,030 --> 00:45:18,000 and basically we'd get our ass handed to us. 678 00:45:23,790 --> 00:45:26,880 MCNAMARA: We got some distance from Can Tho 679 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:31,710 and suddenly, there were some boats that came along, 680 00:45:31,720 --> 00:45:34,010 and they fired across our bow. 681 00:45:34,010 --> 00:45:35,510 (GUNSHOTS) 682 00:45:35,510 --> 00:45:37,890 HASTY: They were South Vietnamese navy boats 683 00:45:37,890 --> 00:45:41,600 and they told us to heave to, 684 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:44,950 which we did because they were extremely well armed. 685 00:45:44,950 --> 00:45:48,650 Evidently, the orders had gone out from on high 686 00:45:48,650 --> 00:45:52,690 to stop, you know, anybody going out. 687 00:45:52,690 --> 00:45:57,070 MCNAMARA: They had been given orders to bring us back to Can Tho 688 00:45:57,070 --> 00:46:00,620 because they thought that we had deserters on board... 689 00:46:00,630 --> 00:46:05,040 You know, military officers and people of military age. 690 00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:06,670 There actually were a couple, 691 00:46:06,670 --> 00:46:09,710 including the deputy air force commander 692 00:46:09,710 --> 00:46:13,710 who put on civilian clothes and snuck on the boat. 693 00:46:13,720 --> 00:46:17,840 But I wasn't going to go back to Can Tho, 694 00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:21,270 so there was a standoff in the middle of the river. 695 00:46:21,270 --> 00:46:25,810 I asked the Vietnamese officer in charge 696 00:46:25,810 --> 00:46:32,610 to get in touch with the navy commander, Commodore Thang. 697 00:46:32,610 --> 00:46:37,410 I had gotten Commodore Thang's wife and children out of Saigon. 698 00:46:37,410 --> 00:46:41,580 I was hoping that he would reciprocate. 699 00:46:41,580 --> 00:46:43,450 And he did. 700 00:46:43,450 --> 00:46:47,330 He came down finally and in a very loud voice, he said, 701 00:46:47,330 --> 00:46:50,080 "You don't have any military people on here 702 00:46:50,090 --> 00:46:51,710 or people of military age?" 703 00:46:51,710 --> 00:46:53,390 And I said, "Oh no, of course not." 704 00:46:53,390 --> 00:46:58,180 Well, he told the sailors to stand down, 705 00:46:58,180 --> 00:47:03,140 and we continued down the river. 706 00:47:03,140 --> 00:47:06,110 The chances of success of going down the river 707 00:47:06,110 --> 00:47:07,890 were 50/50 at best. 708 00:47:07,890 --> 00:47:12,370 But we continued on nonetheless. 709 00:47:26,750 --> 00:47:29,670 HERRINGTON: As the morning progressed, 710 00:47:29,670 --> 00:47:34,170 the helicopter evacuation was pretty well underway. 711 00:47:34,170 --> 00:47:37,470 But the timing of when it would be over 712 00:47:37,470 --> 00:47:39,220 wasn't really our timing. 713 00:47:39,220 --> 00:47:42,310 It was, frankly, what the North Vietnamese would tolerate. 714 00:47:42,310 --> 00:47:46,810 How long would they stand by and let us do this? 715 00:47:50,810 --> 00:47:54,280 But that morning, Ambassador Martin received a message 716 00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:56,940 that said within 24 hours, 717 00:47:56,940 --> 00:47:59,740 the U.S. presence in Vietnam had to be closed out. 718 00:47:59,740 --> 00:48:02,950 Meaning, we had to be gone. 719 00:48:02,950 --> 00:48:06,910 I was part of the Four-Party Joint Military Team, 720 00:48:06,910 --> 00:48:11,210 which was stationed out at Tan Son Nhut. 721 00:48:11,210 --> 00:48:13,630 We thought, "We're going to get ordered to leave." 722 00:48:13,630 --> 00:48:18,170 But instead, we got orders from the ambassador 723 00:48:18,170 --> 00:48:20,550 to go to the embassy 724 00:48:20,550 --> 00:48:25,350 and be prepared to stay after the embassy evacuated. 725 00:48:25,350 --> 00:48:31,100 We were to be the sole U.S. military presence in Vietnam 726 00:48:31,100 --> 00:48:36,360 once the embassy evacuated and the ambassador was gone. 727 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,070 You know, lock ourselves in a room 728 00:48:38,070 --> 00:48:40,660 and then come out when the dust is settled 729 00:48:40,660 --> 00:48:43,700 and introduce ourselves to the North Vietnamese. 730 00:48:43,700 --> 00:48:46,790 This was not a popular plan. 731 00:48:48,370 --> 00:48:50,080 But we complied. 732 00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:54,920 And around 11:00, 11:30, we drove to the embassy. 733 00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:58,640 And when we got there, it was teeming with people. 734 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:08,060 MCBRIDE: That morning, there must have been, I would guess, 735 00:49:08,060 --> 00:49:12,480 at least 10,000 people literally ringing the embassy. 736 00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:16,810 The embassy compound was the size of a city block. 737 00:49:16,820 --> 00:49:18,400 It was big. 738 00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:23,820 And all sides of it were filled 200, 300 feet back. 739 00:49:23,820 --> 00:49:27,740 Fortunately, people were by and large very controlled. 740 00:49:27,740 --> 00:49:31,250 They were very patient. 741 00:49:31,250 --> 00:49:35,420 They were just hoping desperately to get in. 742 00:49:35,420 --> 00:49:38,840 PHO: It's like the whole of Saigon 743 00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:42,670 want to get inside the American embassy. 744 00:49:42,670 --> 00:49:45,720 So you have to know somebody, you know? 745 00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:49,890 If you're like me, I find my friend 746 00:49:49,890 --> 00:49:54,560 and got a little paper to ensure us to get in. 747 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,350 So several of us went to the embassy. 748 00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:59,570 Then my friend, he showed the paper to the guard, 749 00:49:59,570 --> 00:50:02,740 and he's just kind of pointing at each one of us, 750 00:50:02,740 --> 00:50:06,280 and we, one by one, could go inside of the embassy. 751 00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:10,780 When I first got in, I feel so good. 752 00:50:10,790 --> 00:50:14,750 "I'm in America... I'm almost there." 753 00:50:14,750 --> 00:50:17,880 They have a courtyard and a swimming pool, 754 00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:21,460 and we mostly gather around the swimming pool. 755 00:50:21,460 --> 00:50:26,470 And 1,000 people there, and they just keep coming in. 756 00:50:30,180 --> 00:50:34,890 SNEPP: That morning, CIA choppers began picking up evacuees 757 00:50:34,890 --> 00:50:37,650 off the roofs of buildings around the city 758 00:50:37,650 --> 00:50:40,490 and bringing them to the embassy. 759 00:50:43,150 --> 00:50:47,660 There was an old pilot named O.B. Harnage. 760 00:50:47,660 --> 00:50:51,830 He was blind in one eye and lame in one leg. 761 00:50:51,830 --> 00:50:57,080 And I said, "Harnage, we got people at 6 Gia Long." 762 00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,790 You gotta go pick them up." 763 00:51:00,790 --> 00:51:07,470 It was the deputy CIA station chief's apartment building. 764 00:51:07,470 --> 00:51:11,300 There were a number of very high-risk Vietnamese, 765 00:51:11,300 --> 00:51:14,520 including the defense minister of South Vietnam, 766 00:51:14,530 --> 00:51:17,770 all waiting to be rescued. 767 00:51:17,770 --> 00:51:21,860 As they climbed up the ladder to the roof, 768 00:51:21,860 --> 00:51:25,570 a photographer took that famous photograph. 769 00:51:25,570 --> 00:51:28,780 Many people thought that was the U.S. embassy. 770 00:51:28,780 --> 00:51:30,410 It wasn't. 771 00:51:30,410 --> 00:51:34,370 But it indicated to what extent chaos had descended 772 00:51:34,370 --> 00:51:36,870 on this entire operation. 773 00:51:41,540 --> 00:51:45,170 HERRINGTON: So the CIA choppers were bringing people to the embassy 774 00:51:45,170 --> 00:51:50,930 who where then supposed to go to Tan Son Nhut airbase by bus, 775 00:51:50,930 --> 00:51:53,060 where they would magically find their way 776 00:51:53,060 --> 00:51:54,480 to heavy lift helicopters. 777 00:51:56,640 --> 00:51:59,180 It was very clear to the citizenry 778 00:51:59,190 --> 00:52:01,900 that something was up, 779 00:52:01,900 --> 00:52:04,740 and that something was probably the Americans are leaving. 780 00:52:07,190 --> 00:52:09,610 Inside the embassy, we discovered 781 00:52:09,610 --> 00:52:12,990 as we walked through the buildings and the outbuildings 782 00:52:12,990 --> 00:52:16,290 and the swimming pool area and the social club area, 783 00:52:16,290 --> 00:52:20,210 everywhere we looked was teeming with Vietnamese. 784 00:52:20,210 --> 00:52:22,880 We counted them, and the total number 785 00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:26,340 was about 2,800. 786 00:52:26,340 --> 00:52:29,130 There was no hiding it that somehow, 787 00:52:29,130 --> 00:52:31,680 people had to have let these people into the embassy. 788 00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:33,760 Was it, you know, 789 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:36,860 Marine security guards who kind of looked the other way? 790 00:52:36,860 --> 00:52:39,600 Was it American employees in the embassy 791 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,320 who were doing kind of what we did with black ops 792 00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:45,110 and taking care of their own? 793 00:52:45,110 --> 00:52:47,520 We never got to the bottom of that 794 00:52:47,530 --> 00:52:51,610 and frankly, we never pursued it. 795 00:52:51,610 --> 00:52:53,160 One of my Marines said to me, 796 00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:54,660 "You know, we should take out the tailor." 797 00:52:54,660 --> 00:52:59,620 There was a tailor who made all our civilian clothes. 798 00:52:59,620 --> 00:53:01,410 So I said, 799 00:53:01,410 --> 00:53:03,420 "Why don't we take out the cook too?" 800 00:53:03,420 --> 00:53:05,340 He said, "Well, you should take out the cook too", 801 00:53:05,340 --> 00:53:06,680 "and all the other cooks. 802 00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,170 "They should get out. 803 00:53:08,170 --> 00:53:10,390 They had business with Americans." 804 00:53:10,390 --> 00:53:12,380 So they took the bread truck 805 00:53:12,380 --> 00:53:15,850 and they rounded up the tailor, the cooks and the dishwashers, 806 00:53:15,850 --> 00:53:17,970 a few others and their families, 807 00:53:17,970 --> 00:53:21,980 and drove them into the embassy compound. 808 00:53:24,850 --> 00:53:28,030 STUART HERRINGTON: The embassy had become a refuge. 809 00:53:28,030 --> 00:53:31,440 People were hoping to get in, 810 00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:34,820 and we were hoping to get people out 811 00:53:34,820 --> 00:53:37,200 and down to the airbase. 812 00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:39,240 (BUS HONKING) 813 00:53:39,240 --> 00:53:44,580 JOE MCBRIDE: You couldn't have gotten to the airfield if you wanted to. 814 00:53:44,580 --> 00:53:49,420 The roads were totally blocked. 815 00:53:49,420 --> 00:53:54,050 It forced the buses to come back. 816 00:53:54,050 --> 00:53:57,800 So what if the master plan 817 00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:01,680 to take people out by air from Tungshen doesn't work? 818 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:02,900 Where's our fallback? 819 00:54:02,900 --> 00:54:03,980 Where's Plan B? 820 00:54:06,230 --> 00:54:08,610 HERRINGTON: If we were going to bring out everybody 821 00:54:08,610 --> 00:54:11,860 who was inside the embassy, it was obvious 822 00:54:11,860 --> 00:54:17,410 that there was the need for a hasty plan to be developed 823 00:54:17,410 --> 00:54:21,660 for a helicopter airlift out of the embassy to the fleet. 824 00:54:21,660 --> 00:54:26,510 And we had less than 24 hours to pull it off. 825 00:54:31,670 --> 00:54:34,640 SNEPP: There was in the parking lot of the embassy 826 00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:37,220 a great tamarind tree, 827 00:54:37,220 --> 00:54:40,220 which the Ambassador had often referred to 828 00:54:40,220 --> 00:54:45,350 as "steadfast as the American commitment in Vietnam." 829 00:54:45,350 --> 00:54:47,730 The CIA station chief that last morning said, 830 00:54:47,730 --> 00:54:49,900 "Mr. Ambassador, we have to cut this tree down." 831 00:54:52,900 --> 00:54:56,910 VALDEZ: You could not land any large helicopters on the parking lot 832 00:54:56,910 --> 00:55:01,410 unless the tree and all the shrubbery was all gone. 833 00:55:01,410 --> 00:55:05,910 The Ambassador had resisted us cutting that tree 834 00:55:05,910 --> 00:55:10,250 because he did not want anybody to be alerted 835 00:55:10,250 --> 00:55:12,750 that we were doing any sort of evacuation 836 00:55:12,750 --> 00:55:14,430 or were going to do any sort of evacuation. 837 00:55:17,970 --> 00:55:20,680 SULLIVAN: He was upset. 838 00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:24,890 But finally he succumbed, you know, to just common sense 839 00:55:24,890 --> 00:55:26,770 and gave up his, uh... 840 00:55:26,770 --> 00:55:28,610 I guess you could call it a dream. 841 00:55:28,610 --> 00:55:30,810 And we cut it down. 842 00:55:30,810 --> 00:55:32,690 (CHAINSAWS BUZZING) 843 00:55:36,030 --> 00:55:38,700 SNEPP: He had also, for the past few days, 844 00:55:38,700 --> 00:55:41,910 prevented us from burning classified documents 845 00:55:41,910 --> 00:55:45,210 for fear that it would panic the South Vietnamese. 846 00:55:45,210 --> 00:55:48,120 So that morning of the 29th, 847 00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:52,250 we had thousands of pages of classified documents 848 00:55:52,250 --> 00:55:56,960 we had failed to destroy beforehand. 849 00:55:56,970 --> 00:56:00,180 Our next job was just looking at that classified document idea 850 00:56:00,180 --> 00:56:01,720 and getting rid of that. 851 00:56:01,720 --> 00:56:04,390 So we went to every office 852 00:56:04,390 --> 00:56:06,890 and told them to start pulling stuff, 853 00:56:06,890 --> 00:56:10,560 and piles and piles of paper began coming out. 854 00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:13,160 And we began shredding. 855 00:56:18,780 --> 00:56:23,570 There was a small building where we handled the pay 856 00:56:23,580 --> 00:56:27,660 for the Vietnamese who worked for the embassy. 857 00:56:27,660 --> 00:56:29,450 And in this building, 858 00:56:29,460 --> 00:56:32,330 there was over $1 million in U.S. currency. 859 00:56:32,340 --> 00:56:37,000 So we had to send a message to the Navy, 860 00:56:37,010 --> 00:56:38,680 who sent it to the Treasury Department, 861 00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:40,300 who came back and said, "Destroy it." 862 00:56:40,300 --> 00:56:45,850 Sol assigned a few Marines to get rid of the money. 863 00:56:45,850 --> 00:56:49,020 And I said, "Oh, by the way, we're gonna lock you in there." 864 00:56:49,020 --> 00:56:51,440 It took them eight hours to burn a million dollars. 865 00:56:53,770 --> 00:56:56,230 ARMITAGE: That morning, 866 00:56:56,230 --> 00:57:00,280 fear and desperation were the order of the day. 867 00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:01,740 But I had a job to do, 868 00:57:01,740 --> 00:57:04,120 and it was an important job to do, I thought, 869 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:07,710 to deny the enemy the South Vietnamese Naval ships. 870 00:57:34,100 --> 00:57:36,200 ARMITAGE: We had expected, frankly, 871 00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,730 a longer time period to get ready. 872 00:57:38,730 --> 00:57:41,820 We had been told by people in our intelligence community 873 00:57:41,830 --> 00:57:43,870 that we might have as long as the 4th of May, 874 00:57:43,870 --> 00:57:48,330 but the North Vietnamese were closing in quite tightly, 875 00:57:48,330 --> 00:57:51,300 and clearly it was time to send the signal to leave. 876 00:58:16,940 --> 00:58:19,770 ARMITAGE: I knew this, 877 00:58:19,770 --> 00:58:21,900 but I didn't know how many civilians 878 00:58:21,900 --> 00:58:23,440 were gonna be on board. 879 00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:25,450 I had no idea. 880 00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:29,200 KIEM DO: 881 00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:11,700 GERALD BERRY: I was the first one into the embassy. 882 00:59:11,700 --> 00:59:14,160 And my only mission at this time, 883 00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:16,290 this is early in the afternoon, was to bring the Ambassador out. 884 00:59:16,290 --> 00:59:20,330 It was actually a mission that was called "Embassy Snatch." 885 00:59:20,330 --> 00:59:23,500 I was just supposed to get the Ambassador. 886 00:59:23,500 --> 00:59:25,670 I land and I said to the people, 887 00:59:25,670 --> 00:59:29,130 I said, "I'm here to get the Ambassador." 888 00:59:29,140 --> 00:59:31,340 Well, not quite. 889 00:59:31,350 --> 00:59:36,180 SNEPP: The Ambassador refused to leave until he could get 890 00:59:36,180 --> 00:59:41,020 as many Vietnamese on as many choppers as possible. 891 00:59:41,020 --> 00:59:45,320 The evacuation of Vietnamese happened 892 00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:48,910 because Graham Martin wanted it to happen. 893 00:59:59,370 --> 01:00:04,170 BERRY: So they loaded some Vietnamese onto my helicopter 894 01:00:04,170 --> 01:00:06,010 and because I'm supposed to have the Ambassador on board, 895 01:00:06,010 --> 01:00:08,050 we go right to the command ship, the USS Blue Ridge. 896 01:00:10,890 --> 01:00:14,430 We land on the Blue Ridge, General Carey comes out, 897 01:00:14,430 --> 01:00:16,270 wants to know where the Ambassador is. 898 01:00:16,270 --> 01:00:18,060 I said, "Well, he didn't get on." 899 01:00:18,060 --> 01:00:19,940 I mean, I don’t know who I'm supposed to tell, 900 01:00:19,940 --> 01:00:21,860 but I told everybody I was supposed to get the Ambassador 901 01:00:21,860 --> 01:00:23,230 but the Ambassador didn't get on. 902 01:00:23,230 --> 01:00:25,070 So that starts the lift. 903 01:00:27,610 --> 01:00:32,160 Like I say, we had 75 Marine Corps helicopters. 904 01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:35,080 You and your wingman would fly into the embassy, 905 01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:38,080 get your passengers loaded, 906 01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:40,960 and fly back out to the ships. 907 01:00:49,420 --> 01:00:52,220 It was a little over an hour back and forth. 908 01:01:07,020 --> 01:01:09,700 PAUL JACOBS: On the USS Kirk, our mission was 909 01:01:09,700 --> 01:01:11,530 to protect the helicopters moving 910 01:01:11,530 --> 01:01:13,700 from the embassy out to the aircraft carriers 911 01:01:13,700 --> 01:01:15,740 and back and forth. 912 01:01:15,740 --> 01:01:17,620 We were very close to the action. 913 01:01:20,790 --> 01:01:23,210 HUGH DOYLE: You could stand there on the deck 914 01:01:23,210 --> 01:01:26,290 and you could watch it all happening. 915 01:01:26,290 --> 01:01:28,970 We thought that the USS Kirk was just going to be 916 01:01:28,970 --> 01:01:32,260 an observer to this whole thing 917 01:01:32,260 --> 01:01:33,600 and when all of a sudden 918 01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:36,140 on radar we started seeing these little blips 919 01:01:36,140 --> 01:01:38,560 coming out from the shore. 920 01:01:38,560 --> 01:01:40,810 MAN: I really don't know where to start. 921 01:01:40,810 --> 01:01:43,110 We looked up at the horizon and all you could see 922 01:01:43,110 --> 01:01:46,860 were helicopters all heading toward us. 923 01:01:46,860 --> 01:01:49,200 DOYLE: These were not Marine Corps helicopters. 924 01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:52,200 They were small helicopters, the little Hueys, 925 01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:55,990 which were never part of the evacuation plan. 926 01:01:55,990 --> 01:01:58,490 But they were flying over top of us. 927 01:01:58,490 --> 01:01:59,490 We were watching them fly 928 01:01:59,490 --> 01:02:02,120 over top over and over and over again. 929 01:02:05,460 --> 01:02:09,340 JACOBS: We viewed them as enemy until we could verify who it was. 930 01:02:11,630 --> 01:02:13,970 Then we realized that these 931 01:02:13,970 --> 01:02:18,140 were South Vietnamese trying to escape. 932 01:02:18,140 --> 01:02:19,560 I figured if we could save one, 933 01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:22,680 at least we'd save 15, 20 people. 934 01:02:22,680 --> 01:02:27,520 They were packed in there like sardines. 935 01:02:27,520 --> 01:02:29,690 Sol made the decision. 936 01:02:29,690 --> 01:02:32,900 Land the helicopter. 937 01:02:32,900 --> 01:02:35,740 DOYLE: One of our sailors could speak rudimentary Vietnamese. 938 01:02:35,740 --> 01:02:38,870 So we put him on the radio and he started broadcasting. 939 01:02:38,870 --> 01:02:40,660 "This is ship 1087. 940 01:02:40,660 --> 01:02:44,450 Land here." 941 01:02:44,460 --> 01:02:47,120 So, we got his attention. 942 01:02:47,120 --> 01:02:50,710 He came flying over and landed on our flight deck. 943 01:02:50,710 --> 01:02:53,720 And it turned out that the pilot, he was the pilot 944 01:02:53,720 --> 01:02:57,380 for the deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 945 01:02:57,390 --> 01:02:59,550 Real high up. 946 01:02:59,550 --> 01:03:02,850 And he had the general with him, who was a two-star general, 947 01:03:02,850 --> 01:03:06,520 and the two-star general's nephew, three women, 948 01:03:06,520 --> 01:03:08,900 and about four children. 949 01:03:08,900 --> 01:03:12,110 It was a big deal for us. 950 01:03:12,110 --> 01:03:14,150 When it landed, we got everything off. 951 01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,070 And I looked up because there were five, six, 952 01:03:16,080 --> 01:03:19,660 seven stacked up ready to land. 953 01:03:19,660 --> 01:03:22,910 DOYLE: Turned out all throughout the southern part of Vietnam 954 01:03:22,910 --> 01:03:27,210 there were South Vietnamese Army and Air Force installations 955 01:03:27,210 --> 01:03:29,430 with one or two or three or four helicopters. 956 01:03:29,430 --> 01:03:32,340 And those helicopters were flyable. 957 01:03:32,340 --> 01:03:34,460 Their pilots were there. 958 01:03:34,460 --> 01:03:37,550 And when they realized that the evacuation was happening 959 01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:39,800 and they weren't going to be part of it, they said, 960 01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:42,430 "Oh yeah, we are." 961 01:03:42,430 --> 01:03:45,930 JACOBS: These young Vietnamese pilots would go to their homes, 962 01:03:45,940 --> 01:03:49,360 land right in their front yards, pick up their families 963 01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:51,650 and anybody else, and head out to sea, 964 01:03:51,650 --> 01:03:53,450 hoping they can rendezvous with a ship. 965 01:03:53,450 --> 01:03:57,160 Well, we're one of the first ships they saw. 966 01:04:00,610 --> 01:04:02,620 DOYLE: Our flight deck will only take 967 01:04:02,620 --> 01:04:04,580 one helicopter at a time landing. 968 01:04:04,580 --> 01:04:06,080 There are no wheels on them. 969 01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:07,580 They just have skids. 970 01:04:07,580 --> 01:04:09,830 We couldn't think of what else to do and these other planes 971 01:04:09,830 --> 01:04:11,580 were looking for a place to land 972 01:04:11,580 --> 01:04:14,790 so we just physically pushed them. 973 01:04:14,800 --> 01:04:17,140 Of course, this was a big old helicopter, thousands of pounds, 974 01:04:17,140 --> 01:04:19,800 so we had to figure out how to get it 15 feet over 975 01:04:19,800 --> 01:04:21,550 to the edge of the flight deck. 976 01:04:25,640 --> 01:04:27,230 You don't have time to think about what you did, 977 01:04:27,230 --> 01:04:28,230 you just had to do it. 978 01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:32,820 So, we open up our flight deck and they begin to land, 979 01:04:32,820 --> 01:04:36,360 one right after the other. 980 01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:39,240 Some of them were shot at, holes in them. 981 01:04:42,490 --> 01:04:45,490 DOYLE: Most of the Vietnamese who came out, I'm talking 982 01:04:45,500 --> 01:04:49,000 about the flight crews, they were heavily armed, 983 01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:51,590 all with side arms, some with M-16 rifles. 984 01:04:51,590 --> 01:04:55,010 They had no idea what was going to happen so they came out 985 01:04:55,010 --> 01:04:57,840 ready for anything, really. 986 01:04:57,840 --> 01:05:00,680 So we had to disarm them. 987 01:05:05,260 --> 01:05:07,430 None of them had ever landed on a ship before. 988 01:05:07,430 --> 01:05:08,900 They were Vietnamese Air Force. 989 01:05:08,900 --> 01:05:11,730 Everybody had a gun and we took all the guns away from them. 990 01:05:11,730 --> 01:05:14,030 Then about five minutes later another one came in and landed. 991 01:05:14,030 --> 01:05:17,200 And we pushed his airplane over the side. 992 01:05:20,030 --> 01:05:22,360 That was the second one. 993 01:05:22,360 --> 01:05:25,120 I helped push that one over, too. 994 01:05:25,120 --> 01:05:26,710 Then the third plane came in. 995 01:05:26,710 --> 01:05:27,990 It landed also. 996 01:05:27,990 --> 01:05:29,490 We pushed it over the side. 997 01:05:29,500 --> 01:05:32,750 So meanwhile, we've thrown three helicopters in the water so far. 998 01:05:32,750 --> 01:05:34,120 This is incredible. 999 01:05:34,130 --> 01:05:36,750 I know you probably don't believe any of this, 1000 01:05:36,750 --> 01:05:37,920 but it's all true. 1001 01:05:51,770 --> 01:05:53,730 HERRINGTON: By late afternoon, 1002 01:05:53,730 --> 01:05:56,730 the chopper flow at the embassy really started. 1003 01:06:00,070 --> 01:06:01,570 And each time a bird came in, 1004 01:06:01,570 --> 01:06:03,740 here would go another 40, 50 people. 1005 01:06:03,740 --> 01:06:08,580 But did the right mix of people get out? 1006 01:06:10,330 --> 01:06:12,700 You know, who says that these were the people 1007 01:06:12,710 --> 01:06:15,080 who either deserved or should have gone out? 1008 01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:18,920 At the embassy a lot of the people who got out 1009 01:06:18,920 --> 01:06:21,970 happened to be good wall jumpers. 1010 01:06:24,260 --> 01:06:27,430 VALDEZ: The choppers started coming in at ten-minute intervals. 1011 01:06:27,430 --> 01:06:29,430 One would land on the roof 1012 01:06:29,430 --> 01:06:32,220 and one would land on the parking lot. 1013 01:06:32,220 --> 01:06:34,850 They would put all the Vietnamese in groups, 1014 01:06:34,850 --> 01:06:37,070 they would search them, and if they had any weapons 1015 01:06:37,070 --> 01:06:40,570 all those weapons were thrown into the swimming pool. 1016 01:06:40,570 --> 01:06:44,160 And as soon as the chopper would land they would be brought 1017 01:06:44,160 --> 01:06:48,780 into the restricted area where a couple of the Marines 1018 01:06:48,780 --> 01:06:50,960 would escort them into the aircraft. 1019 01:06:54,500 --> 01:06:59,630 Then they would raise the ramp up and take off. 1020 01:07:04,420 --> 01:07:06,640 BINH PHO: I remember l talked to my friend 1021 01:07:06,640 --> 01:07:08,720 and he said, "Oh, it's our turn now. 1022 01:07:08,730 --> 01:07:09,840 We're almost there." 1023 01:07:09,850 --> 01:07:11,270 You know, so we're all excited. 1024 01:07:13,430 --> 01:07:15,310 And I remember very distinctively that every time 1025 01:07:15,310 --> 01:07:17,440 the helicopter coming down it just blew us away. 1026 01:07:17,440 --> 01:07:18,900 We have to kind of duck down 1027 01:07:18,910 --> 01:07:21,780 to fight with the wind of the chopper. 1028 01:07:28,110 --> 01:07:31,290 HERRINGTON: Three of the choppers that came in each landed a platoon 1029 01:07:31,290 --> 01:07:33,830 of 40 Marines from the task force. 1030 01:07:33,830 --> 01:07:36,880 And they had to be brought in because we didn't have enough. 1031 01:07:36,880 --> 01:07:41,000 Marines in the embassy security guard to secure the walls. 1032 01:07:46,260 --> 01:07:50,480 PHAM: I went with my wife to the embassy. 1033 01:07:52,010 --> 01:07:58,230 A lot of people, they clenched to the top of the wall, 1034 01:07:58,230 --> 01:07:59,440 but they couldn't get in. 1035 01:08:09,150 --> 01:08:13,620 HERRINGTON: Each gate was besieged like that, 1036 01:08:13,620 --> 01:08:18,200 although the side gate was the principal place where they came. 1037 01:08:18,210 --> 01:08:21,040 People holding letters saying, 1038 01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:22,630 you know, "l worked for the Americans. 1039 01:08:22,630 --> 01:08:23,670 Please let me in." 1040 01:08:27,630 --> 01:08:31,630 Journalists were arriving and counting on being recognized 1041 01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:33,510 to be let in by the Marines. 1042 01:08:44,230 --> 01:08:47,070 There was a sea of people 1043 01:08:47,070 --> 01:08:51,490 wanting to get out by helicopters. 1044 01:08:51,490 --> 01:08:57,910 But, well, they looked up at the helicopters leaving 1045 01:08:57,910 --> 01:09:01,870 and I could see their eyes. 1046 01:09:01,870 --> 01:09:03,800 Desperate eyes. 1047 01:09:15,010 --> 01:09:16,980 MIKI NGUYEN: My dad flew a Chinook helicopter 1048 01:09:16,980 --> 01:09:20,350 in the South Vietnamese Air Force. 1049 01:09:20,350 --> 01:09:24,270 He had been waiting for orders but his captain had, 1050 01:09:24,270 --> 01:09:27,070 you know, basically just left. 1051 01:09:27,070 --> 01:09:29,900 So he and some other pilots 1052 01:09:29,900 --> 01:09:33,780 picked out the best Chinooks and took off. 1053 01:09:38,450 --> 01:09:41,300 He said it was the Wild West at this point. 1054 01:09:44,080 --> 01:09:47,460 Just you and your horse and you just do what you had to do 1055 01:09:47,460 --> 01:09:50,090 to survive and take care of your family. 1056 01:09:50,090 --> 01:09:53,220 He had given my mom a heads-up 1057 01:09:53,220 --> 01:09:58,300 that if she did hear a Chinook coming, to get ready. 1058 01:09:58,310 --> 01:10:01,310 I was six and a half years old. 1059 01:10:01,310 --> 01:10:03,150 I can still hear the rumbling, 1060 01:10:03,150 --> 01:10:07,360 a very, you know, familiar rumbling of a Chinook. 1061 01:10:07,360 --> 01:10:09,400 When you hear the Chinook coming, you know it's coming. 1062 01:10:09,410 --> 01:10:10,490 I knew my dad was coming. 1063 01:10:14,240 --> 01:10:16,610 In Saigon, during my childhood, 1064 01:10:16,620 --> 01:10:21,490 it was like, say, living in the middle of busy L.A. 1065 01:10:21,500 --> 01:10:26,210 So, there's really not a big area to land the Chinook. 1066 01:10:26,210 --> 01:10:32,760 So he came in and landed in a playfield. 1067 01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:36,590 Caused a lot of wind, caused a lot of commotion. 1068 01:10:36,590 --> 01:10:39,680 My mom grabbed my little sister, 1069 01:10:39,680 --> 01:10:41,980 who was about six months at that time, 1070 01:10:41,980 --> 01:10:43,850 and I have a little brother who was 1071 01:10:43,850 --> 01:10:46,730 about three or four years old, and myself. 1072 01:10:46,730 --> 01:10:53,190 We quickly ran into the Chinook and we all flew off 1073 01:10:53,190 --> 01:10:57,070 out into the Pacific Ocean. 1074 01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:02,620 My dad was afraid for not having enough fuel, 1075 01:11:02,620 --> 01:11:05,830 afraid for a lot of things. 1076 01:11:05,830 --> 01:11:08,210 He was just flying blind. 1077 01:11:08,210 --> 01:11:11,050 And then he saw a ship out there. 1078 01:11:13,380 --> 01:11:16,380 DOYLE: In the middle of the day, after we had taken 1079 01:11:16,390 --> 01:11:18,840 those first helicopters aboard, 1080 01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:22,050 this huge helicopter called a Chinook, 1081 01:11:22,060 --> 01:11:24,900 it came out and tried to land on the ship. 1082 01:11:24,900 --> 01:11:27,650 And oh, we almost... the thing almost crashed onboard our ship. 1083 01:11:27,650 --> 01:11:29,650 JACOBS: This big Chinook showed up. 1084 01:11:29,650 --> 01:11:33,400 There's no way he could land 1085 01:11:33,400 --> 01:11:35,070 on Kirk without impacting the ship. 1086 01:11:35,070 --> 01:11:39,070 He would have killed everybody on this helicopter plus my crew. 1087 01:11:39,070 --> 01:11:42,410 DOYLE: It was way too big to land. 1088 01:11:42,410 --> 01:11:46,080 We thought that the helicopter would just fly away. 1089 01:11:46,080 --> 01:11:49,550 But as the ship was moving forward probably four, five, 1090 01:11:49,550 --> 01:11:52,390 six knots, something like that, the pilot communicated 1091 01:11:52,390 --> 01:11:54,840 that he was running low on fuel. 1092 01:11:54,840 --> 01:11:58,720 JACOBS: He opened up the port side of the helicopter and he hovered 1093 01:11:58,720 --> 01:12:00,890 across the stern of the Kirk. 1094 01:12:00,890 --> 01:12:04,390 Then, all of a sudden, here comes a human. 1095 01:12:06,430 --> 01:12:09,190 NGUYEN: One by one, we jump out. 1096 01:12:09,190 --> 01:12:11,190 I jumped out, my brother jumped out. 1097 01:12:11,190 --> 01:12:17,780 My mom was holding my sister, obviously very scared. 1098 01:12:17,780 --> 01:12:23,280 And she just, you know, just trustingly, just with one hand, 1099 01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:27,040 with her right hand, holding on with her left to brace herself, 1100 01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:31,540 you know, just dropped my baby sister. 1101 01:12:31,540 --> 01:12:34,670 DOYLE: One fella is standing there and he said he looked up 1102 01:12:34,670 --> 01:12:37,140 and he saw this big bundle of stuff come flying out 1103 01:12:37,140 --> 01:12:38,670 and it was a baby. 1104 01:12:38,670 --> 01:12:39,930 It was the one-year-old baby. 1105 01:12:42,970 --> 01:12:47,310 And then the mother jumped out and he caught her, too. 1106 01:12:47,310 --> 01:12:52,440 Then the pilot flew out on our starboard, right side. 1107 01:12:52,440 --> 01:12:57,570 He hovered with his wheels in and out of the water. 1108 01:12:57,570 --> 01:12:59,660 He hovered there for like ten minutes and we couldn't 1109 01:12:59,660 --> 01:13:01,280 figure out what he was doing and it turned out 1110 01:13:01,280 --> 01:13:03,500 what he was doing was taking his flight suit off. 1111 01:13:03,500 --> 01:13:07,870 Here's a man flying a twin rotor helicopter by himself, 1112 01:13:07,870 --> 01:13:11,540 and at the same time he's taking off a flight suit. 1113 01:13:11,540 --> 01:13:13,630 How you do it, I've talked to helicopter pilots 1114 01:13:13,630 --> 01:13:16,170 and they can't figure out how he did that, you know, how... 1115 01:13:16,170 --> 01:13:18,340 like a Houdini, trying to get out of this thing. 1116 01:13:18,340 --> 01:13:21,390 And finally, he made the helicopter roll to the right 1117 01:13:21,390 --> 01:13:26,180 as he stepped out the door on the left. 1118 01:13:26,180 --> 01:13:29,970 (LOUD CRASH) 1119 01:13:29,980 --> 01:13:33,060 NGUYEN: Just thunderous loud noise. 1120 01:13:33,060 --> 01:13:38,860 The shrapnel is just blowing up. 1121 01:13:38,860 --> 01:13:40,160 And suddenly just quiet. 1122 01:13:43,570 --> 01:13:44,860 And he pops up. 1123 01:13:44,870 --> 01:13:46,200 And he's alive. 1124 01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:49,160 (APPLAUSE) 1125 01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:51,620 DOYLE: And he swam away. 1126 01:13:51,620 --> 01:13:53,340 And the helicopter was only about 20 feet from him 1127 01:13:53,340 --> 01:13:54,930 when it hit the water; It was amazing. 1128 01:13:54,930 --> 01:13:57,710 (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) 1129 01:13:57,710 --> 01:13:59,210 We went out and picked him up. 1130 01:13:59,210 --> 01:14:00,760 He was none, no worse for the wear. 1131 01:14:00,760 --> 01:14:02,840 He was a little bit wet. 1132 01:14:02,840 --> 01:14:06,100 Only one unfortunate thing is he had some small bars of gold, 1133 01:14:06,100 --> 01:14:08,020 which was all his worldly possessions, 1134 01:14:08,020 --> 01:14:11,390 that were in his shirt pocket and it sank. 1135 01:14:11,390 --> 01:14:12,810 So he lost everything. 1136 01:14:12,810 --> 01:14:14,480 He didn’t own a thing but his underwear 1137 01:14:14,480 --> 01:14:17,270 when he finally came aboard the ship. 1138 01:14:17,270 --> 01:14:21,230 He was a tremendous pilot. 1139 01:14:21,230 --> 01:14:24,950 The guy was just so cool and calm. 1140 01:14:24,950 --> 01:14:30,160 We've so far taken a total of 17 helicopters. 1141 01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:33,410 We ended up with 157 people aboard this ship. 1142 01:14:40,710 --> 01:14:43,050 JACOBS: And that crew was very special. 1143 01:14:43,050 --> 01:14:46,100 They went, they took their money, went to the Navy exchange 1144 01:14:46,100 --> 01:14:49,520 and commissary, bought all the clothes and food they could get, 1145 01:14:49,520 --> 01:14:52,640 took it up and gave it to the refugees they had befriended. 1146 01:14:52,640 --> 01:14:55,520 They were unbelievable. 1147 01:14:57,650 --> 01:15:01,110 DOYLE: We laid mats and all kinds of blankets and stuff out 1148 01:15:01,110 --> 01:15:02,690 on the deck for the babies. 1149 01:15:02,690 --> 01:15:04,620 And there were all kinds of... there were infants 1150 01:15:04,620 --> 01:15:06,780 and children and women, 1151 01:15:06,780 --> 01:15:09,950 and oh, it was a scene I'll never forget. 1152 01:15:12,410 --> 01:15:13,910 NGUYEN: We were happy. 1153 01:15:13,910 --> 01:15:17,080 My mom was just, you know, wow. 1154 01:15:17,080 --> 01:15:19,430 Symbolically, it was like, you know, the first step 1155 01:15:19,430 --> 01:15:23,800 onto not American soil, but American freedom. 1156 01:16:00,500 --> 01:16:05,840 HASTY: We continued down the river, our landing craft in the lead. 1157 01:16:05,840 --> 01:16:11,760 We were, at this point, four or five hours from Can Tho. 1158 01:16:11,760 --> 01:16:14,600 It's a metal landing craft. 1159 01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:19,440 The sun is beating down, it's hotter than hell. 1160 01:16:19,440 --> 01:16:23,980 A less than pleasant voyage. 1161 01:16:23,980 --> 01:16:27,940 When suddenly, whoosh, bam! 1162 01:16:27,940 --> 01:16:29,530 (LOUD EXPLOSION) 1163 01:16:29,530 --> 01:16:32,780 Somebody fired a B40 rocket at us. 1164 01:16:32,780 --> 01:16:36,410 We immediately started returning fire. 1165 01:16:36,410 --> 01:16:42,040 We weren't sure who the dip-wad was that was opening up on us, 1166 01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:47,000 but we continued blazing away as we got past the ambush site. 1167 01:16:47,010 --> 01:16:50,550 (GUNSHOTS CONTINUE) 1168 01:16:50,550 --> 01:16:54,600 We said, "All right, that was just a taste of what's coming." 1169 01:16:54,600 --> 01:16:57,970 "Once we hit the absolute narrowest portion, 1170 01:16:57,970 --> 01:17:02,390 "that's where we're going to really be in danger. 1171 01:17:02,400 --> 01:17:05,400 Stack the ammo because this one's gonna be ugly." 1172 01:17:08,400 --> 01:17:12,700 MCNAMARA: The people on the boat were scared. 1173 01:17:12,700 --> 01:17:16,120 We had to go through narrow channels between the islands. 1174 01:17:16,120 --> 01:17:22,330 If we're gonna really get hit, it'll be there. 1175 01:17:22,330 --> 01:17:30,090 But just at that point, dark clouds formed in the sky 1176 01:17:30,090 --> 01:17:32,590 and it started raining like hell. 1177 01:17:32,590 --> 01:17:37,140 (RAIN POURING) 1178 01:17:37,140 --> 01:17:40,980 HASTY: Could not see the bow of the landing craft from the stern, 1179 01:17:40,990 --> 01:17:42,940 and that's 60 feet. 1180 01:17:42,940 --> 01:17:49,530 The noise of the rain hitting the water on the river 1181 01:17:49,530 --> 01:17:54,410 was so loud that it muffled the sound of our engines. 1182 01:17:54,410 --> 01:17:59,160 And this continued on for about 25 minutes. 1183 01:17:59,160 --> 01:18:01,790 It was long enough to get us through 1184 01:18:01,790 --> 01:18:05,120 the most dangerous part of the trip. 1185 01:18:05,130 --> 01:18:08,630 And as the rain started to let up, 1186 01:18:08,630 --> 01:18:10,800 we had reached the area of the river past the channel, 1187 01:18:10,800 --> 01:18:12,390 past the little islands, 1188 01:18:12,390 --> 01:18:16,390 where it opened up into a broad river again. 1189 01:18:16,390 --> 01:18:19,980 So somebody was looking out for us that day. 1190 01:18:25,480 --> 01:18:28,480 MCNAMARA: I remember looking back at the sun setting 1191 01:18:28,480 --> 01:18:32,480 over the Mekong Delta, which is a beautiful place, 1192 01:18:32,490 --> 01:18:35,240 and thinking, "Well, I'll never see this again." 1193 01:18:37,410 --> 01:18:41,620 I had gotten very attached to Vietnam. 1194 01:18:41,620 --> 01:18:44,910 HASTY: As we came out into the South China Sea, 1195 01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:48,130 it got dark, and every now and then, 1196 01:18:48,130 --> 01:18:52,340 I would fire off a couple of flares, 1197 01:18:52,340 --> 01:18:57,220 just in hopes that, you know, maybe there is a ship out there. 1198 01:18:57,220 --> 01:18:58,840 Nothing. 1199 01:18:58,850 --> 01:19:01,270 And then we saw a faint light on the horizon, 1200 01:19:01,270 --> 01:19:03,230 and as we got a little bit closer, 1201 01:19:03,230 --> 01:19:06,520 we could see that they were the lights of a ship's rigging. 1202 01:19:06,520 --> 01:19:08,110 So we said, "What the heck?" 1203 01:19:08,110 --> 01:19:09,860 So we made for it. 1204 01:19:14,950 --> 01:19:17,610 We came up alongside 1205 01:19:17,610 --> 01:19:20,580 and somebody shouted, "Get rid of your weapons. 1206 01:19:20,590 --> 01:19:24,450 Nobody comes aboard with weapons." 1207 01:19:24,450 --> 01:19:26,660 Sol yelled, "We're Marines" 1208 01:19:26,670 --> 01:19:30,080 and we're coming aboard with our weapons." 1209 01:19:30,090 --> 01:19:32,710 Well, as it turned out, the guys yelling down were Marines. 1210 01:19:32,710 --> 01:19:37,930 MCNAMARA: It was an American freighter, the Pioneer Contender. 1211 01:19:37,930 --> 01:19:40,430 They took us aboard. 1212 01:19:40,430 --> 01:19:43,680 And I had 300 people with me. 1213 01:19:43,680 --> 01:19:47,860 They got them into the hold of the ship. 1214 01:19:51,770 --> 01:19:56,240 HASTY: All our Vietnamese remained on the Pioneer Con tender. 1215 01:19:56,240 --> 01:19:59,530 We made sure they were taken care of 1216 01:19:59,530 --> 01:20:03,160 and the Pioneer Contender was going to Guam. 1217 01:20:03,160 --> 01:20:05,080 We knew they were safe. 1218 01:20:26,730 --> 01:20:28,650 BERRY: When we started the evacuation 1219 01:20:28,650 --> 01:20:31,070 we were very, very excited about it. 1220 01:20:31,070 --> 01:20:33,810 Then your next emotion probably was 1221 01:20:33,820 --> 01:20:37,190 just determined to get this job done and get these people out. 1222 01:20:39,990 --> 01:20:42,910 And then, later as it went on you became fatigued 1223 01:20:42,910 --> 01:20:46,130 and frustrated that you could never make a dent in the amount 1224 01:20:46,130 --> 01:20:49,670 of people that were coming out of the embassy. 1225 01:20:52,210 --> 01:20:54,300 You’d ask questions like, was the crowd getting any smaller? 1226 01:20:54,300 --> 01:20:56,470 "When are we going to finish this?" you know. 1227 01:20:56,470 --> 01:20:57,960 And they'd say, 1228 01:20:57,960 --> 01:20:59,840 "You know, we're under orders from the Ambassador. 1229 01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:02,630 We're doing the best we can." 1230 01:21:02,640 --> 01:21:04,010 HERRINGTON: Carrier pilots were saying, 1231 01:21:04,010 --> 01:21:07,890 look, it's an uncontrollable sea of people 1232 01:21:07,890 --> 01:21:11,140 and Ambassador Martin has lost his objectivity, 1233 01:21:11,140 --> 01:21:13,270 that Ambassador Martin is trying to evacuate 1234 01:21:13,270 --> 01:21:15,520 all of Saigon through the U.S. embassy. 1235 01:21:17,980 --> 01:21:21,830 But he was doing his best under terrible circumstances. 1236 01:21:25,330 --> 01:21:27,250 JOSEPH MCBRIDE: Ambassador Martin was dragging out the evacuation 1237 01:21:27,250 --> 01:21:28,910 as long as he could 1238 01:21:28,910 --> 01:21:32,710 to get as many South Vietnamese out as possible. 1239 01:21:32,710 --> 01:21:36,760 Each helicopter took about 40 people. 1240 01:21:38,050 --> 01:21:41,260 He knew that once the Americans were gone, 1241 01:21:41,260 --> 01:21:44,140 the evacuation would be over. 1242 01:21:46,390 --> 01:21:51,230 So they just put one or two Americans on each one. 1243 01:21:58,940 --> 01:22:02,370 You're very tired and you're not seeing an end to this thing. 1244 01:22:02,370 --> 01:22:04,070 Sol got the word out, 1245 01:22:04,070 --> 01:22:07,910 "You know, we could use some help out here. 1246 01:22:07,910 --> 01:22:09,710 We only have 75 helicopters." 1247 01:22:09,710 --> 01:22:13,120 And the word comes back, "No." 1248 01:22:13,120 --> 01:22:15,380 No, Marine pilots don't get tired." 1249 01:22:22,300 --> 01:22:25,640 Back at the embassy under the Ambassador's direction, 1250 01:22:25,640 --> 01:22:28,760 we, of course, were taking advantage 1251 01:22:28,760 --> 01:22:32,230 of the presence of the aircraft to evacuate threatened folks. 1252 01:22:36,020 --> 01:22:40,240 But there were other independent efforts to get people out. 1253 01:22:42,400 --> 01:22:46,750 MCBRIDE: Several of us at the embassy agreed that we would drive vans 1254 01:22:46,750 --> 01:22:50,590 down to the docks on the Saigon River. 1255 01:22:53,120 --> 01:22:57,500 I had an assigned assembly point in the middle of Saigon, 1256 01:22:57,500 --> 01:23:01,750 and I crammed about 15 people into a nine-person van 1257 01:23:01,750 --> 01:23:05,010 and then drove through the streets of Saigon 1258 01:23:05,010 --> 01:23:11,640 through various checkpoints down to the docks. 1259 01:23:14,230 --> 01:23:16,020 People would get out 1260 01:23:16,020 --> 01:23:19,740 and go running for these commercial boats and get on. 1261 01:23:21,270 --> 01:23:25,150 I made a number of runs and there‘d just be more 1262 01:23:25,150 --> 01:23:27,250 and more and more people. 1263 01:23:36,830 --> 01:23:38,960 Finally, as the sun was going down, 1264 01:23:38,960 --> 01:23:41,170 we were running out of light. 1265 01:23:41,170 --> 01:23:45,880 Man came up to me. 1266 01:23:45,880 --> 01:23:50,840 I turned to him and said, "This is my last load. 1267 01:23:50,850 --> 01:23:52,810 L, you know, I can't take anymore." 1268 01:23:52,810 --> 01:23:54,310 I said, "Well, get your family." 1269 01:23:54,310 --> 01:23:55,520 And he said, "Can’t do it." 1270 01:23:55,530 --> 01:23:56,980 "My family's too big. 1271 01:23:56,980 --> 01:23:59,820 My family's too big." 1272 01:24:03,070 --> 01:24:08,200 And he just shook my hand and said, "Thanks for trying," 1273 01:24:08,200 --> 01:24:09,570 and walked away. 1274 01:24:09,570 --> 01:24:15,910 Sol came back to the embassy and parked the van. 1275 01:24:15,910 --> 01:24:19,790 It was already getting well into twilight. 1276 01:24:19,790 --> 01:24:21,590 Got my way through the crowd. 1277 01:24:21,590 --> 01:24:23,180 It was a big crowd. 1278 01:24:27,510 --> 01:24:29,680 I had nothing more I could do. 1279 01:24:29,680 --> 01:24:33,430 So I went to get on the helicopter 1280 01:24:33,430 --> 01:24:37,020 and Ambassador Martin pulled me out of line and he said, 1281 01:24:37,020 --> 01:24:38,810 "l know what you've been doing. 1282 01:24:38,810 --> 01:24:40,190 "l know you’ve been out there. 1283 01:24:40,190 --> 01:24:41,480 "We've been talking. 1284 01:24:41,480 --> 01:24:43,480 I want to thank you." 1285 01:24:43,480 --> 01:24:46,330 I thought that was a kind gesture. 1286 01:24:49,700 --> 01:24:51,660 By that time it was definitely dark. 1287 01:24:51,670 --> 01:24:55,990 The lights of the... of the helicopter inside 1288 01:24:55,990 --> 01:24:58,910 radiated very clearly. 1289 01:24:58,910 --> 01:25:01,250 I sat down, looked around. 1290 01:25:01,250 --> 01:25:04,840 I was one of maybe two or three Americans. 1291 01:25:04,840 --> 01:25:08,210 The rest were all Vietnamese. 1292 01:25:08,210 --> 01:25:11,060 And we flew out. 1293 01:25:13,680 --> 01:25:16,100 PHO: It was very dark. 1294 01:25:16,100 --> 01:25:17,470 I remember that. 1295 01:25:17,470 --> 01:25:19,820 And people started to elbow each other and try to get 1296 01:25:19,820 --> 01:25:22,600 in the front line. 1297 01:25:22,600 --> 01:25:25,110 And that's when the Captain Herrington started 1298 01:25:25,110 --> 01:25:27,400 speaking to us in Vietnamese. 1299 01:25:27,400 --> 01:25:29,320 (SPEAKING VIETNAMESE) 1300 01:25:29,320 --> 01:25:31,570 "Nobody is going to be left behind." 1301 01:25:31,570 --> 01:25:34,910 (SPEAKING VIETNAMESE) 1302 01:25:34,910 --> 01:25:39,290 PHO: And then he said, "when you are in American embassy", 1303 01:25:39,290 --> 01:25:41,370 "you are in American soil. 1304 01:25:41,370 --> 01:25:44,420 "l promise, me and my soldier will be the last one 1305 01:25:44,420 --> 01:25:45,960 leave the embassy." 1306 01:25:45,960 --> 01:25:49,760 So after that announcement everybody feel relaxed. 1307 01:25:49,760 --> 01:25:51,760 Literally, we totally relaxed. 1308 01:25:51,760 --> 01:25:53,230 We have nothing to worry about. 1309 01:25:53,230 --> 01:25:54,940 Yeah. 1310 01:25:57,470 --> 01:25:59,220 HENRY KISSINGER: We were told 1311 01:25:59,230 --> 01:26:03,640 that the North Vietnamese tanks were coming very close. 1312 01:26:03,640 --> 01:26:06,110 So we asked, we in the White House, asked 1313 01:26:06,110 --> 01:26:11,820 the Defense Department how many South Vietnamese were left. 1314 01:26:11,820 --> 01:26:15,780 "“Left" meant inside the embassy compound. 1315 01:26:15,780 --> 01:26:18,250 And then we calculated how many helicopters 1316 01:26:18,250 --> 01:26:22,370 it would take to get them out. 1317 01:26:22,370 --> 01:26:28,920 We told Martin that he had to be on the last helicopter. 1318 01:26:28,920 --> 01:26:31,170 HERRINGTON: All I know is that in Washington 1319 01:26:31,170 --> 01:26:33,350 there was confusion about the numbers on the ground. 1320 01:26:35,890 --> 01:26:40,850 At 1:00 a.m. there were 1,100 people left to evacuate. 1321 01:26:40,850 --> 01:26:42,560 After we'd had a flurry of choppers 1322 01:26:42,560 --> 01:26:44,780 and cleaned out more than half of them 1323 01:26:44,780 --> 01:26:47,310 and there were 420 people left, 1324 01:26:47,310 --> 01:26:50,110 we received an order from Washington 1325 01:26:50,110 --> 01:26:52,070 that the lift was over 1326 01:26:52,070 --> 01:26:54,950 other than the extraction of the remaining Americans. 1327 01:26:56,990 --> 01:26:58,830 BERRY: About 4:00 in the morning, 4:30, 1328 01:26:58,830 --> 01:27:01,240 I land on the USS Blue Ridge again. 1329 01:27:01,240 --> 01:27:05,660 So, General Carey comes out, gives me an apple 1330 01:27:05,670 --> 01:27:07,750 and a cup of coffee or something and says, 1331 01:27:07,750 --> 01:27:09,340 "We're under orders from the President. 1332 01:27:09,340 --> 01:27:11,880 You got to get the Ambassador out." 1333 01:27:11,880 --> 01:27:13,760 So we fly in. 1334 01:27:13,760 --> 01:27:17,680 I land on the roof exactly at 4:50 in the morning and I said, 1335 01:27:17,680 --> 01:27:23,220 "I'm not leaving until the Ambassador's onboard." 1336 01:27:23,220 --> 01:27:26,230 VALDEZ: One of the Marines lowered the flag, folded it up 1337 01:27:26,230 --> 01:27:29,320 and escorted the Ambassador up to the landing zone 1338 01:27:29,320 --> 01:27:30,690 up on top of the embassy 1339 01:27:30,690 --> 01:27:33,690 and he gave him the flag 1340 01:27:33,690 --> 01:27:36,290 and, uh, that was it. 1341 01:27:39,370 --> 01:27:41,960 HERRINGTON: Major Kean came to Colonel Madison, said, "No more." 1342 01:27:41,960 --> 01:27:43,950 Only Americans from this point on." 1343 01:27:43,950 --> 01:27:47,040 And Madison said, "The hell you say. 1344 01:27:47,040 --> 01:27:49,040 We've got these people over here." 1345 01:27:49,040 --> 01:27:53,040 And Kean said, "Sir, not going to happen. 1346 01:27:53,050 --> 01:27:55,710 It's a presidential order." 1347 01:27:55,720 --> 01:27:58,060 And Madison said, "I'll take this up with the Ambassador." 1348 01:27:58,060 --> 01:27:59,850 He was very hot under the collar. 1349 01:27:59,850 --> 01:28:04,720 And Kean said, "You can't, that's him," 1350 01:28:04,720 --> 01:28:08,450 and pointed to the CH-46 that was just flying away. 1351 01:28:14,400 --> 01:28:18,490 BERRY: So the Ambassador's on board. 1352 01:28:18,490 --> 01:28:19,870 And out we go. 1353 01:28:24,870 --> 01:28:27,660 We land on the Blue Ridge. 1354 01:28:27,660 --> 01:28:32,040 15 or 20, maybe 25 people get off with the Ambassador 1355 01:28:32,040 --> 01:28:33,920 and that was the end of it. 1356 01:28:36,050 --> 01:28:38,760 I flew 18.3 hours straight through. 1357 01:28:38,760 --> 01:28:43,090 Graham Martin looked very tired, extremely haggard. 1358 01:28:43,100 --> 01:28:46,310 I mean, he looked like... I'm sure the pressure was immense. 1359 01:28:46,310 --> 01:28:49,190 REPORTER: And at what time were you to cease evacuation? 1360 01:28:49,190 --> 01:28:51,440 Cease evacuation? 1361 01:28:51,440 --> 01:28:54,320 BERRY: We could still be flying if we hadn't gotten the Ambassador out 1362 01:28:54,320 --> 01:28:59,610 because he refused to stop the lift. 1363 01:28:59,610 --> 01:29:00,660 I think about 3:00. 1364 01:29:00,660 --> 01:29:01,950 REPORTER: 3:00 in the morning? 1365 01:29:01,950 --> 01:29:03,290 No, 3:45. 1366 01:29:08,910 --> 01:29:13,420 HERRINGTON: Colonel Madison says to me, "We're screwed." 1367 01:29:13,420 --> 01:29:16,040 "Stu, you stay down here in the parking lot 1368 01:29:16,050 --> 01:29:18,960 and keep these 420 people warm"- 1369 01:29:18,970 --> 01:29:22,430 meaning if they see us all leave at the same time 1370 01:29:22,430 --> 01:29:26,430 they'll panic-"and then make your way to the roof. 1371 01:29:26,430 --> 01:29:28,310 We gotta go." 1372 01:29:28,310 --> 01:29:32,560 And he was very angry and very disappointed. 1373 01:29:32,560 --> 01:29:36,690 So they disappeared into the embassy. 1374 01:29:36,690 --> 01:29:38,440 And I went to where the remaining Vietnamese 1375 01:29:38,440 --> 01:29:40,940 who were waiting and told them... 1376 01:29:40,950 --> 01:29:44,910 (SPEAKING VIETNAMESE) 1377 01:29:44,910 --> 01:29:52,710 "Big helicopters about to come," and waited a few minutes. 1378 01:29:52,710 --> 01:29:56,290 Then I saw a chopper take off and I thought, 1379 01:29:56,290 --> 01:29:59,880 "Shit, was I supposed to be on that one?" 1380 01:29:59,880 --> 01:30:02,430 So, I looked at the Vietnamese and I said... 1381 01:30:02,430 --> 01:30:03,930 (SPEAKING VIETNAMESE) 1382 01:30:03,930 --> 01:30:06,680 "l got to take a leak." 1383 01:30:06,680 --> 01:30:10,100 And I left into the shadows. 1384 01:30:10,100 --> 01:30:12,900 I made my way around in a circuitous route 1385 01:30:12,900 --> 01:30:14,990 and went into the embassy. 1386 01:30:16,980 --> 01:30:22,830 I thought about how this really, really was wrong. 1387 01:30:24,410 --> 01:30:27,380 I thought maybe I should just say, "I'm not leaving" 1388 01:30:27,380 --> 01:30:30,950 till they go, because I promised them." 1389 01:30:30,950 --> 01:30:33,370 And then I said, "Don't be a fool. 1390 01:30:33,370 --> 01:30:34,920 "Maybe they've started shooting down helicopters 1391 01:30:34,920 --> 01:30:36,120 "for all you know. 1392 01:30:36,130 --> 01:30:39,250 "You're not going to get anybody else out. 1393 01:30:39,250 --> 01:30:41,880 "It's a presidential order. 1394 01:30:41,880 --> 01:30:44,880 This decision has been made." 1395 01:30:44,880 --> 01:30:50,310 So, I got to the roof and a CH-46 alighted on the rooftop, 1396 01:30:50,310 --> 01:30:55,400 put its ramp down and we got on board. 1397 01:30:59,360 --> 01:31:02,440 As it took off, the door was open. 1398 01:31:02,440 --> 01:31:04,280 And down in the parking lot 1399 01:31:04,280 --> 01:31:06,410 I could see the group of 420 of them. 1400 01:31:06,410 --> 01:31:08,410 They were right were we had left them marshaled 1401 01:31:08,410 --> 01:31:11,910 on this little patch of grass. 1402 01:31:11,910 --> 01:31:14,950 I felt absolutely awful. 1403 01:31:14,960 --> 01:31:21,180 It was just so... serious and deep a betrayal. 1404 01:31:34,850 --> 01:31:37,810 JACOBS: Later that night I was quite surprised that I got 1405 01:31:37,810 --> 01:31:39,410 a call to "Come alongside the flagship. 1406 01:31:39,410 --> 01:31:42,320 The Admiral wants to speak to you." 1407 01:31:42,320 --> 01:31:46,900 My first reaction, as any CO, is, "What did we do?" 1408 01:31:46,900 --> 01:31:52,330 not realizing we had been picked for a special mission. 1409 01:31:52,330 --> 01:31:55,120 DOYLE: We were supposed to pick up this person. 1410 01:31:55,120 --> 01:31:58,380 He was 30 years old, came aboard, civilian clothes. 1411 01:31:58,380 --> 01:32:00,670 And the Captain was just told 1412 01:32:00,670 --> 01:32:05,710 to take his direction from this guy. 1413 01:32:05,720 --> 01:32:09,680 RICHARD ARMITAGE: I went aboard the Kirk and met with Captain Paul Jacobs. 1414 01:32:09,680 --> 01:32:12,150 And the first thing he said to me is, 1415 01:32:12,150 --> 01:32:15,140 "Young man, I'm not accustomed 1416 01:32:15,140 --> 01:32:17,640 "to strange civilians coming aboard my ship armed 1417 01:32:17,650 --> 01:32:19,230 in the middle of the night." 1418 01:32:19,230 --> 01:32:21,530 And I said, "Captain, I assure you, neither am l." 1419 01:32:21,530 --> 01:32:25,110 JACOBS: He smelled like a Naval officer, you know. 1420 01:32:25,110 --> 01:32:26,740 You know, one officer can smell another one. 1421 01:32:26,740 --> 01:32:28,660 So, I looked him up in the blue book. 1422 01:32:28,660 --> 01:32:31,280 He's a graduate of the Naval Academy. 1423 01:32:31,280 --> 01:32:33,080 So from that point on we were fine. 1424 01:32:33,080 --> 01:32:34,330 "What do you want to do?" 1425 01:32:34,330 --> 01:32:37,050 And we worked together as a team. 1426 01:32:40,460 --> 01:32:43,930 ARMITAGE: We steamed down to Con Son Island and we could see 1427 01:32:43,930 --> 01:32:48,050 on the radar display that there were a lot of blips. 1428 01:32:48,050 --> 01:32:50,720 And I remember dawn breaking and the sun coming up, 1429 01:32:50,720 --> 01:32:54,600 and seeing what I had seen as a radar display in person. 1430 01:32:56,890 --> 01:33:00,310 There were dozens of ships. 1431 01:33:00,310 --> 01:33:05,190 And not just Vietnamese naval ships, 1432 01:33:05,190 --> 01:33:08,400 but also civilian ships. 1433 01:33:08,400 --> 01:33:12,280 And they were all totally crammed with people. 1434 01:33:15,870 --> 01:33:19,540 JACOBS: There are no words to describe 1435 01:33:19,540 --> 01:33:22,620 what a ship looks like that holds 200 1436 01:33:22,630 --> 01:33:25,040 and it’s got 2,000 on it. 1437 01:33:25,040 --> 01:33:30,630 I don't think anybody really understood the magnitude of it 1438 01:33:30,630 --> 01:33:33,760 until we looked at what we got in front of us. 1439 01:33:35,430 --> 01:33:37,560 It looked like something out of Exodus. 1440 01:33:39,730 --> 01:33:45,100 Our mission was to help the ships into international waters. 1441 01:33:45,110 --> 01:33:49,440 But now they had all these people. 1442 01:33:49,440 --> 01:33:53,320 My reaction is, "How the hell are we going to do this?" 1443 01:33:55,620 --> 01:33:59,000 Most of the Vietnamese Navy ships were dead in the water, 1444 01:33:59,000 --> 01:34:04,420 some were anchored, some were just adrift. 1445 01:34:04,420 --> 01:34:06,540 So, we sent over our engineering, technical people 1446 01:34:06,540 --> 01:34:12,510 to see what we could do to help them and get them underway. 1447 01:34:12,510 --> 01:34:15,350 Some of these ships had been hit by enemy fire 1448 01:34:15,350 --> 01:34:16,810 coming down the Saigon River. 1449 01:34:16,810 --> 01:34:20,930 One of the boats had been hit and sinking, 1450 01:34:20,930 --> 01:34:24,020 so it went alongside one of the other Vietnamese Navy ships. 1451 01:34:24,030 --> 01:34:27,110 A wooden plank was thrown between the two ships 1452 01:34:27,110 --> 01:34:30,950 for the civilians and naval personnel on the damaged ship 1453 01:34:30,950 --> 01:34:33,400 to cross onto the ship that wasn't. 1454 01:34:33,400 --> 01:34:38,580 The seas were rolling and it was a somewhat precarious passage. 1455 01:34:38,580 --> 01:34:43,080 At one point, a young Vietnamese man panicked 1456 01:34:43,080 --> 01:34:47,290 as a young girl, I remember, was walking across this plank, 1457 01:34:47,290 --> 01:34:48,670 and he kind of rushed ahead of her 1458 01:34:48,670 --> 01:34:50,300 and she fell between the two ships. 1459 01:34:50,300 --> 01:34:54,270 DOYLE (ON TAPE): Apparently one of the Vietnamese men pushed a girl. 1460 01:34:54,270 --> 01:34:55,680 She was killed. 1461 01:34:55,680 --> 01:34:57,800 She was drowned between the two ships, 1462 01:34:57,810 --> 01:35:00,850 and that almost started a panic. 1463 01:35:00,850 --> 01:35:04,100 A Vietnamese sailor immediately shot this guy, 1464 01:35:04,100 --> 01:35:05,730 and then order was restored. 1465 01:35:05,730 --> 01:35:08,480 DOYLE (ON TAPE): They said, "There will be no pushing 1466 01:35:08,480 --> 01:35:11,440 and there will be no shoving on this ship." 1467 01:35:11,440 --> 01:35:13,620 People calmed down greatly after that. 1468 01:35:18,570 --> 01:35:24,750 ARMITAGE: We had worked a plan out to sail the ships to the Philippines. 1469 01:35:24,750 --> 01:35:30,000 And the Kirk was going to escort them. 1470 01:35:30,000 --> 01:35:32,000 But the fact that they're going to be crammed 1471 01:35:32,000 --> 01:35:34,010 with an unknown number of civilians 1472 01:35:34,010 --> 01:35:36,670 was somewhat problematic. 1473 01:35:36,680 --> 01:35:39,390 The U.S. government already had a refugee problem 1474 01:35:39,400 --> 01:35:41,430 with the U.S. Naval ships. 1475 01:35:41,430 --> 01:35:44,860 This was another 30,000 or more people to deal with. 1476 01:35:44,860 --> 01:35:48,520 JACOBS: We were up all night talking about it. 1477 01:35:48,520 --> 01:35:51,110 And I'm convinced that if we sent them back or took them back 1478 01:35:51,110 --> 01:35:52,360 they would have killed them all. 1479 01:35:52,360 --> 01:35:57,650 And Armitage decided to bring them. 1480 01:35:57,660 --> 01:36:01,530 And he didn't get permission from Washington to do that. 1481 01:36:01,530 --> 01:36:05,380 ARMITAGE: I thought it was a lot easier to beg forgiveness 1482 01:36:05,380 --> 01:36:07,370 than to get permission. 1483 01:36:09,380 --> 01:36:11,880 So the decision was made. 1484 01:36:11,880 --> 01:36:13,970 And they all went with us. 1485 01:36:41,410 --> 01:36:44,830 MIKE SULLIVAN: We had finally got out the last of the refugees 1486 01:36:44,830 --> 01:36:46,660 that we could get out. 1487 01:36:46,660 --> 01:36:49,540 Now we had to evacuate the Marines. 1488 01:36:52,130 --> 01:36:56,960 They were all inside the embassy building except for us. 1489 01:36:56,960 --> 01:37:00,680 I was still on the embassy grounds with two of my sergeants 1490 01:37:00,680 --> 01:37:02,680 and I said, "You two stay right with me. 1491 01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:04,100 Don't leave my side." 1492 01:37:04,100 --> 01:37:07,930 We slowly walked backwards to the embassy door 1493 01:37:07,930 --> 01:37:10,810 and a couple of Vietnamese came towards me. 1494 01:37:10,810 --> 01:37:12,770 I said, "We have no more helicopters. 1495 01:37:12,770 --> 01:37:13,770 "That's it. 1496 01:37:13,770 --> 01:37:15,110 "I'm sorry. 1497 01:37:15,110 --> 01:37:17,440 We cannot take you." 1498 01:37:17,440 --> 01:37:19,110 And they began to argue with me. 1499 01:37:19,120 --> 01:37:20,910 They spoke good English, too. 1500 01:37:20,910 --> 01:37:22,660 "We can ride in your helicopter." 1501 01:37:22,660 --> 01:37:26,830 I said, "I'm sorry, no more." 1502 01:37:26,830 --> 01:37:30,160 So we spun around and slammed these huge doors, 1503 01:37:30,160 --> 01:37:33,590 and we locked it from behind. 1504 01:37:39,630 --> 01:37:41,730 PHO: I kind of fall asleep off and on, 1505 01:37:41,730 --> 01:37:44,930 but what gets me woke up is the noise. 1506 01:37:44,930 --> 01:37:46,680 It's a different noise. 1507 01:37:46,680 --> 01:37:49,350 Sol kind of look up. 1508 01:37:49,350 --> 01:37:52,060 And the first thing in my sight was 1509 01:37:52,060 --> 01:37:58,270 I didn't see that soldier there anymore on that wall. 1510 01:37:58,280 --> 01:38:02,030 There were people throwing blankets or jackets 1511 01:38:02,030 --> 01:38:03,700 and materials over the barbed wire 1512 01:38:03,700 --> 01:38:07,580 so they can climb over the wire to come in. 1513 01:38:07,580 --> 01:38:11,040 It was like, "Where are the soldiers?" 1514 01:38:11,040 --> 01:38:14,670 SULLIVAN: We were going up the stairs. 1515 01:38:14,670 --> 01:38:18,130 Below me I could hear feet running on the stairway. 1516 01:38:18,130 --> 01:38:21,680 When we got to the roof, Master Sergeant Valdez was there. 1517 01:38:21,680 --> 01:38:23,550 He says, "We got everybody?" 1518 01:38:23,550 --> 01:38:25,050 "Yeah." 1519 01:38:25,050 --> 01:38:28,850 I said, "Man, there's somebody chasing me up those stairs." 1520 01:38:28,850 --> 01:38:32,680 VALDEZ: There were wall lockers up on the roof 1521 01:38:32,680 --> 01:38:36,480 and those big fire extinguishers with wheels so we tilted 1522 01:38:36,480 --> 01:38:38,950 all those wall lockers and the fire extinguishers, 1523 01:38:38,950 --> 01:38:42,070 put them against the door. 1524 01:38:42,070 --> 01:38:44,910 There was a little window there that we could see them in there, 1525 01:38:44,910 --> 01:38:50,160 all the Vietnamese trying to get to the roof. 1526 01:38:50,160 --> 01:38:54,870 The Marines started going out as choppers came in. 1527 01:38:54,870 --> 01:39:00,040 Then all of a sudden choppers all cease. 1528 01:39:00,050 --> 01:39:02,470 There was 11 of us still left there. 1529 01:39:08,390 --> 01:39:12,060 The briefing was delayed until the evacuation was completed 1530 01:39:12,060 --> 01:39:14,400 and the last helicopters are now in the air. 1531 01:39:14,400 --> 01:39:18,020 The President commends the personnel of the armed forces 1532 01:39:18,020 --> 01:39:21,360 who accomplished it, as well as Ambassador Graham Martin 1533 01:39:21,360 --> 01:39:24,240 and the staff of his mission who served so well 1534 01:39:24,240 --> 01:39:27,030 under difficult conditions. 1535 01:39:27,030 --> 01:39:30,280 KISSINGER: We were told that Martin had left on the last helicopter 1536 01:39:30,280 --> 01:39:33,160 and that the evacuation had ended. 1537 01:39:33,160 --> 01:39:38,250 I'm confident that every American who wanted to come out 1538 01:39:38,250 --> 01:39:39,960 is out. 1539 01:39:39,960 --> 01:39:42,920 KISSINGER: So we held a briefing. 1540 01:39:42,920 --> 01:39:45,050 Well, turned out not to be the last helicopter 1541 01:39:45,050 --> 01:39:49,090 because there was another horrendous screw-up. 1542 01:39:49,090 --> 01:39:53,310 VALDEZ: There were no helicopters. 1543 01:39:53,310 --> 01:39:56,610 You know, we were just kind of sitting down around 1544 01:39:56,610 --> 01:39:58,310 looking at each other, 1545 01:39:58,310 --> 01:40:00,780 wondering, you know, what's going to happen here, 1546 01:40:00,780 --> 01:40:04,320 you know, whether they truly had forgotten about us. 1547 01:40:04,320 --> 01:40:10,160 SULLIVAN: So l got on my radio and I began saying, "U.S. Navy, U.S. Navy", 1548 01:40:10,160 --> 01:40:13,780 American embassy, request extraction immediate." 1549 01:40:13,790 --> 01:40:15,630 And I repeated this over and over and over. 1550 01:40:15,630 --> 01:40:20,630 The only option we had was sit on the stupid roof 1551 01:40:20,630 --> 01:40:22,460 like a sitting duck. 1552 01:40:22,460 --> 01:40:25,310 And I kept thinking, "Where are the North Vietnamese?" 1553 01:40:28,260 --> 01:40:31,140 VALDEZ: About 7:45 in the morning you could start seeing. 1554 01:40:31,140 --> 01:40:35,220 North Vietnamese coming down the road. 1555 01:40:35,220 --> 01:40:37,480 My thoughts were, "What's to keep them from bombing" 1556 01:40:37,480 --> 01:40:40,200 "the top of the embassy roof and blowing us off," you know? 1557 01:40:42,400 --> 01:40:44,820 SULLIVAN: A tank is going to take one shot. 1558 01:40:44,820 --> 01:40:47,320 If it hits the building, you're gone. 1559 01:40:50,490 --> 01:40:52,960 So I didn't like the idea of being up there, 1560 01:40:52,960 --> 01:40:57,500 but where else are you going to go? 1561 01:40:57,500 --> 01:41:02,250 Finally I looked out and I saw a black dot. 1562 01:41:02,250 --> 01:41:04,500 When that chopper landed, I told the Marines, 1563 01:41:04,510 --> 01:41:07,880 "Go. Get in." 1564 01:41:07,880 --> 01:41:11,930 I was the last one out. 1565 01:41:11,930 --> 01:41:16,140 And as I was putting my foot on the ramp, I fell down, 1566 01:41:16,140 --> 01:41:20,020 and I'm just hanging on and the ramp's going up. 1567 01:41:20,020 --> 01:41:21,520 SULLIVAN: The ramp is closing 1568 01:41:21,520 --> 01:41:24,940 and I did what I was trained in my first tour-count. 1569 01:41:24,940 --> 01:41:28,190 So I went, "One, two, three, four, five, six... ten." 1570 01:41:28,200 --> 01:41:29,400 "Ten? 1571 01:41:29,400 --> 01:41:31,530 "One, two, three, four, five, six... ten. 1572 01:41:31,530 --> 01:41:32,910 Ten." 1573 01:41:32,910 --> 01:41:36,750 And I looked at the crew chief and I said, "Put it down." 1574 01:41:36,750 --> 01:41:38,620 I knew I was missing one man. 1575 01:41:38,620 --> 01:41:40,660 I remember looking at the ramp 1576 01:41:40,660 --> 01:41:43,170 and two hands were over the top of it. 1577 01:41:43,170 --> 01:41:44,460 (CHUCKLES) 1578 01:41:44,460 --> 01:41:46,210 So the Marines just kind of grabbed me 1579 01:41:46,210 --> 01:41:48,050 and then just pulled me in. 1580 01:41:51,260 --> 01:41:57,100 SULLIVAN: We left, by my watch, at 7:58 Saigon time. 1581 01:41:57,100 --> 01:41:59,980 And we were the last 11. 1582 01:42:05,770 --> 01:42:10,240 JIM LAURIE: My cameraman, Neil Davis, and I decided to stay. 1583 01:42:13,240 --> 01:42:16,080 We saw the last helicopter leave from the roof. 1584 01:42:17,580 --> 01:42:20,800 We then tried to scramble into the embassy ourselves. 1585 01:42:20,800 --> 01:42:22,250 Neil got to the roof. 1586 01:42:22,250 --> 01:42:24,000 I did not. 1587 01:42:24,000 --> 01:42:25,920 And he saw dozens of Vietnamese 1588 01:42:25,920 --> 01:42:30,050 just sitting on the helicopter pad on the roof of the embassy, 1589 01:42:30,050 --> 01:42:33,420 waiting, wanting to get out. 1590 01:42:33,430 --> 01:42:36,270 And of course no more helicopters were going to come. 1591 01:42:40,060 --> 01:42:42,020 PHO: I didn't join them. 1592 01:42:42,020 --> 01:42:45,850 I actually... scared. 1593 01:42:45,850 --> 01:42:48,610 If the Communists come in, 1594 01:42:48,610 --> 01:42:50,450 the last thing we want them to see us 1595 01:42:50,450 --> 01:42:52,440 is in the American embassy. 1596 01:42:52,440 --> 01:42:53,440 So we get out. 1597 01:42:57,370 --> 01:43:00,460 LAURIE: People were coming in and out of the buildings. 1598 01:43:00,460 --> 01:43:04,290 Literally, anything that could not be fastened down 1599 01:43:04,290 --> 01:43:08,040 or was not fastened down was being taken away. 1600 01:43:08,040 --> 01:43:10,550 Any souvenirs from the Ambassador's office 1601 01:43:10,550 --> 01:43:12,050 were taken away. 1602 01:43:12,050 --> 01:43:15,140 Almost brick by brick the embassy was being dismantled. 1603 01:43:15,140 --> 01:43:17,470 It was ordinary looting. 1604 01:43:17,470 --> 01:43:22,010 But more than that, I think it was just frustration and anger 1605 01:43:22,020 --> 01:43:26,310 and an opportunity to get back, perhaps, at the Americans 1606 01:43:26,310 --> 01:43:29,110 because in the view of many in that crowd that day, 1607 01:43:29,110 --> 01:43:31,990 we had deserted them. 1608 01:43:39,280 --> 01:43:41,830 NBC news correspondent Jim Laurie 1609 01:43:41,830 --> 01:43:44,920 is one of the few Americans still left in Saigon, 1610 01:43:44,920 --> 01:43:48,460 in the city when President Duong Van Minh went on the radio 1611 01:43:48,460 --> 01:43:50,670 and told the Viet Cong 1612 01:43:50,670 --> 01:43:52,840 that his country would surrender unconditionally 1613 01:43:52,840 --> 01:43:56,550 and that he had told its army to lay down its arms. 1614 01:43:56,550 --> 01:43:58,180 Here from Saigon radio hookup 1615 01:43:58,180 --> 01:44:00,390 is Laurie's report on the surrender. 1616 01:44:00,390 --> 01:44:04,480 LAURIE: In the words of General Minh, "We are here to hand over" 1617 01:44:04,480 --> 01:44:09,650 the power of government to you in order to avoid bloodshed.“ 1618 01:44:09,650 --> 01:44:13,570 It is a unilateral ceasefire and an unconditional surrender. 1619 01:44:13,570 --> 01:44:17,450 The 30-year war in South Vietnam is at last over. 1620 01:44:42,050 --> 01:44:45,640 The first thing I did was to destroy my documents, 1621 01:44:45,640 --> 01:44:51,230 my badges, just keeping the civilian ID. 1622 01:44:51,230 --> 01:44:56,410 And then I went around Saigon to see what happened. 1623 01:45:28,850 --> 01:45:36,230 I saw a lot of South Vietnamese soldiers in underwear. 1624 01:45:36,230 --> 01:45:42,320 They took off all their military clothes, boots, 1625 01:45:42,320 --> 01:45:44,620 and they threw them away. 1626 01:45:52,710 --> 01:45:57,460 And I thought, well, what would happen to them? 1627 01:46:00,420 --> 01:46:02,680 And to me, to myself. 1628 01:46:02,680 --> 01:46:04,430 Right. 1629 01:46:07,970 --> 01:46:14,310 I thought of my friends who were killed in action and I thought, 1630 01:46:14,310 --> 01:46:18,190 "Well, is this what we fought for?" 1631 01:46:20,900 --> 01:46:25,620 "ls this what the Americans came for?" 1632 01:46:29,330 --> 01:46:32,420 And I didn't have the answer. 1633 01:46:38,590 --> 01:46:44,050 SNEPP: I have wrestled with this ever since. 1634 01:46:44,050 --> 01:46:48,350 I realized that l had become 1635 01:46:48,350 --> 01:46:51,520 the quintessential American in Vietnam. 1636 01:46:51,520 --> 01:46:55,560 I had all these causes, all these big things I was doing. 1637 01:46:55,560 --> 01:46:57,650 I was hying to get the truth back to Washington. 1638 01:46:57,650 --> 01:47:01,280 I was talking to agents, trying to persuade the Ambassador, 1639 01:47:01,280 --> 01:47:06,250 and I forgot that what was at stake were human lives. 1640 01:47:11,290 --> 01:47:16,250 PHO: For years after that, I hear that sound in my head, 1641 01:47:16,250 --> 01:47:19,290 that sound like, "Tchk-tchk-tchk-tchk-tchk". 1642 01:47:19,290 --> 01:47:21,380 In the middle of the night l just jump up. 1643 01:47:21,380 --> 01:47:23,050 I thought the helicopter come pick me up. 1644 01:47:25,800 --> 01:47:28,050 I called it "dream in the wind." 1645 01:47:31,310 --> 01:47:34,810 Later we found out the big fleet is out there. 1646 01:47:34,810 --> 01:47:36,810 You can just take a boat and go there. 1647 01:47:36,810 --> 01:47:39,730 They take everybody. 1648 01:47:39,730 --> 01:47:42,580 If you can get out there, you're on board. 1649 01:47:45,990 --> 01:47:48,530 And I just didn't know that. 1650 01:47:48,530 --> 01:47:51,210 You know, so... 1651 01:48:03,670 --> 01:48:06,270 JACOBS: As we approached the Philippines with our refugees, 1652 01:48:06,270 --> 01:48:08,760 there was a big problem. 1653 01:48:08,760 --> 01:48:10,590 They wouldn't let us in. 1654 01:48:10,600 --> 01:48:13,510 And the reason they wouldn't let us in is 1655 01:48:13,520 --> 01:48:15,110 because the government there had recognized 1656 01:48:15,110 --> 01:48:17,310 the new regime in Vietnam 1657 01:48:17,310 --> 01:48:20,190 and these Navy ships we were escorting, 1658 01:48:20,190 --> 01:48:24,270 they were all flying South Vietnamese flags. 1659 01:48:24,280 --> 01:48:28,450 And the solution was to reflag all these ships 1660 01:48:28,450 --> 01:48:31,950 as American ships. 1661 01:48:31,950 --> 01:48:33,290 (KIEM DO SPEAKING VIETNAMESE) 1662 01:48:50,930 --> 01:48:55,020 (SINGING IN VIETNAMESE) 1663 01:49:24,250 --> 01:49:28,710 JACOBS: They lowered their Vietnamese flag, people crying. 1664 01:49:28,720 --> 01:49:31,010 It was very emotional for them to lose their country, 1665 01:49:31,010 --> 01:49:32,430 their flag, their ship. 1666 01:49:32,430 --> 01:49:36,350 Everything was gone. 1667 01:49:36,350 --> 01:49:38,190 And then we raised the American flag. 1668 01:49:38,190 --> 01:49:41,480 We tried to do that with as much dignity as we could. 1669 01:49:52,820 --> 01:49:55,080 HERRINGTON: There were thousands and thousands of Americans 1670 01:49:55,080 --> 01:50:00,040 who sewed in Vietnam who were sitting at home heartbroken 1671 01:50:00,040 --> 01:50:04,210 at watching this whole thing come to naught. 1672 01:50:08,300 --> 01:50:12,720 The end of April of 1975 was... 1673 01:50:12,720 --> 01:50:16,640 the whole Vietnam involvement in microcosm... 1674 01:50:16,640 --> 01:50:19,560 Promises made in good faith, promises broken; 1675 01:50:19,560 --> 01:50:25,730 People being hurt because we didn't get our act together. 1676 01:50:25,730 --> 01:50:27,070 You know, the whole Vietnam War 1677 01:50:27,070 --> 01:50:30,610 is a story that kind of sounds like that. 1678 01:50:30,610 --> 01:50:35,160 But on the other hand, sometimes there are moments 1679 01:50:35,160 --> 01:50:38,370 when good people have to rise to the occasion 1680 01:50:38,370 --> 01:50:40,920 and do the things that need to be done. 1681 01:50:40,920 --> 01:50:45,460 And in Saigon, there was no shortage of people like that. 141236

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