The Fall and Rise of Saigon : Saigon’s Last Hours

It took the North Vietnamese army only a few weeks after it began its push south in March, 1975, to reach the outskirts of Saigon. From April 25 to 29, the troops relentlessly attacked South Vietnamese defenses around the embattled city, creating openings for secondary units to sneak into Saigon.

APRIL 29

4:00 A.M.

WAKE-UP CALL: North Vietnamese artillery pounds Tan Son Nhut air base, the South Vietnamese general staff headquarters and navy headquarters. The last of the American fighter airplanes scramble to take off. Northern infantry troops are not far behind as mortar shells explode in the vicinity of the air base.

11:51 A.M.

OPERATION WHITE CHRISTMAS: Evacuation orders are given. Helicopters from the waiting American armada off the coast of South Vietnam and fighter and bomber escorts from air bases in Thailand head for Saigon.

3:00 P.M.

AIRLIFT BEGINS: Marines guard pickup sites at the airport while about 3,000 refugees are being divided into groups of 50 to 70. American helicopters also begin pickup of personnel and refugees at the U.S. Embassy compound. A mob of refugees rings the outer walls of the embassy compound trying to get in. Some are able to scale the compound wall, leaving their weeping families behind. Airlift continues well into the night.

APRIL 30

3:15 A.M.

GET OUT NOW: U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin receives a message from the secretary of defense to evacuate all Americans from Saigon within half and hour. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger tells Martin by telephone: “You and your heroes must return home now.”

4:42 A.M.

Ambassador Martin and the last of his staff board a helicopter on the embassy roof.

5:10 A.M.

FINAL STRUGGLE: Two hundred Americans take two hours to make it from the ground floor to the embassy roof. They block doors, stairwells and elevator shafts behind them and throw tear-gas grenades.

7:53 A.M.

LAST AMERICANS OUT: A helicopter carrying the last remaining U.S. Marines flies off. And for the first time in more than a decade, there are no American fighting men in South Vietnam.

ENEMY ADVANCE

Ho Chi Minh Trail: Communist supply route throughout Vietnam War Sources: “The Final Collapse” by Gen. Cao Van Vien, “The Fall of the South” by Clark Dougan, David Fulghum and the editors of Boston Publishing Co., The Illustrated History of the Vietnam War by Brian Beckett, Cruel April by Oliver Todd; Researched by DAVID MONTESITO and GREG HESTER / Los Angeles Times