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Los Angeles Times
April 30, 1975
This article describes the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. Saigon (later renamed Ho Chi Minh City) was taken over by the Communist forces of the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front, which had renamed itself the Provisional Revolutionary Government (referred to here as the Provisional Military Government). This article refers to the Communist forces as the “Viet Cong.” This was originally a derogatory term but it came to be widely used during the Vietnam War.
Saigon—South Vietnam today surrendered unconditionally to the Viet Cong. President Duong Van (Big) Minh called on government forces to turn in their arms, and Communist tanks and troops soon began pouring into downtown Saigon.
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The tanks, flying Viet Cong flags and carrying grinning, waving Communist troops, moved through the streets directly to the presidential palace. The flag of the Viet Cong's Provisional Military Government was then hoisted over the palace.
Earlier the tanks had fired salvos into the air in jubilation at their victory.
Reuters reporters said crowds cheered the Viet Cong troops.
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Associated Press reported the population was moving normally about the streets. Viet Cong flags materialized on the buildings. Viet Cong soldiers walked along the main steets surrounded by laughing local people, shaking their hands, AP reported.
However, it was not all joy, United Press International reported. Many streets were quiet and residents huddled apprehensively in their doorways or inside their homes.
A Saigon policeman, identified by his uniform as Lt. Col. Long, put a pistol to his head in the main downtown square and committed suicide.
“We are here to hand over to you the power in order to avoid bloodshed,” Minh said in a radio speech to the nation, addressing himself to the Viet Cong.
Minh had earlier proposed a cease-fire but this was rejected.
The Viet Cong issued a statement in Paris claiming victory over a “puppet regime.” Sporadic shooting in Saigon had already stopped as had shellfire along the northern rim of the capital—the area from which Communist gunners had been bombarding Tan Son Nhut airport.
Columns of South Vietnamese troops later began pulling out of their defensive positions in the city and marched to central points to turn in their arms.
The new president's announcement came just hours after the United States officially ended its role in South Vietnam and left it up to the Vietnamese to find peace.
American helicopters swept into Saigon just after dawn to pick up 30 marines from the U.S. Embassy rooftop to complete the final evacuation of about 900 Americans and more than 5,000 Vietnamese.
Left behind were just a handful of Americans, including newsmen, who decided to stay....
Gen. Nguyen Huu Hanh, deputy chief of staff, then went on the air to order all South Vietnamese troops to carry out Minh's orders. “All commanders must be ready to enter into relations with commanders of the Provisional Revolutionary Government to carry out the cease-fire without bloodshed,” he said.
At noon, less than two hours after Minh's broadcast, a jeep flying the Viet Cong flag drove along the street a block from the abandoned U.S. Embassy. The eight cheering men in the vehicle were in civilian clothes but carried an assortment of weapons including Communist AK-47 rifles.
One of the men was sitting on the fender holding the flag. He beckoned to an American newsman and said in English, “Go home, go home.”
Half an hour later a truckload of North Vietnamese soldiers in green uniforms and helmets rolled down the Rue Catinat, the city's main downtown street. The red, yellow-starred flag of North Vietnam was flying from the truck.
Beginning just before noon Tuesday, waves of Marine Corps and Air Force helicopters flew 6,400 evacuees from Saigon to a 40-vessel armada waiting 17 to 15 miles off the coast of South Vietnam.
U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin was among the last civilians to leave. A Navy spokesman said that Mrs. Martin and Nguyen Cao Ky, former premier and air force commander, were carried on an early chopper flight to the USS Denver.
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong shells slammed into Tan Son Nhut Air Base during the night. A big cloud of smoke still was rising at dawn.
To the east, two big fires could be seen in the Long Binh-Bien Hoa area 15 miles northeast of Saigon. One of the fires was in an ammunition dump.
The Viet Cong claimed they had captured Bien Hoa, site of the big South Vietnamese air base.
Pilots of the South Vietnamese air force, Saigon's staunchest anti-Communist service, Tuesday flew more than 70 air force cargo and attack planes to American-controlled Utapao Air Base in neighboring Thailand. They carried more than 2,000 refugees.
Scores of other South Vietnamese helicopter pilots filled their craft with military men and civilians and headed out to sea, searching for the carriers of the U.S. 7th Fleet.
Meanwhile, radio reports monitored in Singapore said that U.S. Navy fighter planes went into action over South Vietnam Tuesday to protect fleeing refugees from marauding helicopters with South Vietnamese markings.
The reports, from U.S. command and field centers, as well as military and civilian vessels standing offshore, said tens of thousands of South Vietnamese were trying to flee through the port of Vung Tau, which was being mortared and shelled by Communists.
Others were on boats on the Mekong River heading for the open sea hoping to be picked up by bigger vessels.
The reports indicated massive evacuations were in progress and some ships standing off Vung Tau, 45 miles southeast of Saigon, said thousands of small craft were putting to sea crammed with refugees.
There were scenes of chaos Tuesday as weeping Vietnamese pleaded for places in evacuation convoys and tried to force their way into the U.S. Embassy.
Helicopters flying in groups of three plucked evacuees from the top of the embassy and ledges of apartment buildings while looting broke out in the street below.
Sporadic shots cracked through the streets during the day.
The night was eerie with the light from flares as hundreds of Vietnamese gathered outside the embassy begging Americans to help them flee their country.
“Please take my children,” cried a young woman as she clutched an American holding a embassy radio. “They are half-American and the Viet Cong will kill them.”
Marine guards in full battle gear and embassy officials in civilian garb stood within the gates of the white concrete, fortress-like building.
They listened to the Vietnamese pleas with harried but sad looks.
The Americans were leaving, but they couldn't take the thousands with them who wanted out.
“I worked for the Americans 17 years,” said a Chinese man. “Why are they leaving me? I'm their friend.”
Dozens of abandoned cars lined the broad boulevard outside the embassy as their owners sought refuge within.
Most of the people were Vietnamese who had worked for Americans or had half-American children, but many were from wealthy or well-to-do families.
“I have gold,” said a well-dressed young man to an American. “If you help me get out of Vietnam, I'll give you $200,000.”
This morning, 21 hours after it had started, the airlift ended when a big Marine helicopter swooped down onto the embassy roof and plucked out a number of marines stranded there overnight as the rear guard for the evacuation. They fired a red smoke grenade, to guide the CH-46 helicopter in and as it touched down they scrambled aboard and were airbound within four minutes.
The departure of the last marines was more than two hours after a statement by President Ford declaring the evacuation complete was read to reporters.
White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen explained: “Earlier today we announced that the evacuation had been completed. At that time we were not aware that an element of the ground security force remained to be evacuated. Therefore, the completion of the evacuation of these personnel actually occurred after the conclusion of the press conference. Latest reports indicate that the remaining security forces now have been evacuated.”
UPI correspondent Leon Daniel, among the handful of American newsmen still in Saigon, reported that helicopters had landed again at the embassy at dawn today and that small-arms fire erupted near the center of the city. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Daniel said still more Vietnamese were waiting on rooftops around Saigon, apparently still hoping helicopters would come to evacuate them from the country.
Hundreds of civilians swarmed into the embassy compound and onto the roof after the marines had left. On the roof of a nearby building that had also served as an emergency helipad several hundred civilians huddled together, hoping there would be more choppers to carry them away.
Four American marines died during the final hours of the U.S. presence in Vietnam. Two were killed in the heavy Tuesday morning bombardment of Tan Son Nhut Air Base when a rocket hit the compound of the U.S. defense attache's office where they were on guard. The other two died during the evacuation when their helicopter plunged into the South China Sea.
Marine pilots who arrived aboard the Blue Ridge said they took fire flying over Saigon.
Source: Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1975.
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Ford, Gerald R(udolph); Ho Chi Minh City; Vietnam War
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