Saigon Airlift Refugees on USS Midway Again
The aircraft carrier Midway, whose decks were full of helicopters and refugees during the evacuation of Saigon 35 years ago, will once again be the scene of American sailors and pilots and Vietnamese pilots and citizens joining together on the flight deck on April 30. This time, however, it will be under much calmer conditions on Navy Pier in the Port of San Diego rather than off the coast of Saigon. The occasion will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Operation Frequent Wind, which unfolded at the end of the Vietnam War and became the largest helicopter evacuation in history.
The ceremony is slated to include a private reunion of sailors and refugees, and an address by Navy Captain Larry Chambers and Air Boss Vern Jumper who were in charge of Midway’s 4,500 crew members. They ensured that the helicopters landed safely and refugees were escorted off the flight deck. A highlight of the ceremony will be the unveiling of a permanent exhibit that will hang from the museum ceiling—a replica of the Cessna “Bird Dog” that South Vietnamese air force Major Bung Ly flew and landed on Midway with his wife and five children on board.
An unknown number of South Vietnamese pilots left their homeland in late April 1975, and flew out to sea in hopes that the Americans would allow them to land on their ships. They had no communication with U.S. troops and not enough fuel to make it back to shore.
Seeing the foreign helicopters nearing Midway, Captain Chambers ordered his crew to push the U.S. helicopters on the flight deck into the South China Sea to make room for the Vietnamese. The carrier Hancock was in the immediate vicinity, and landed planes and helicopters as well. The carriers Coral Sea and Enterprise, standing by in strike support, took in refugees also. At 11 a.m. on April 30, the North Vietnamese crashed through the gates of Saigon’s Presidential Palace and raised the National Liberation Front flag on its roof. The war was over.
Nixon Library Releases Declassified Vietnam-Era Papers
In January the Nixon Library released some 280,000 pages of memos, notes and reports from the Nixon Presidential Materials to the public, including a treasure trove of 5,500 declassified pages relating to national security matters such as the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in the spring of 1970.
In meeting notes from a conversation that took place between Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and Henry Kissinger on March 8, 1970, Kissinger noted that the ambassador was encouraged that for the first time the North Vietnamese were willing to discuss the National Liberation Front’s “10 Point Peace Plan” and President Richard Nixon’s “8 Point Peace Plan,” and were “not insisting that we accept them.” The ambassador was also encouraged that the North Vietnamese did not take exception to Kissinger’s use of the word “reciprocity” or the word “unconditional” in referring to the American withdrawal.
Kissinger also discussed “Troop Withdrawals” with the ambassador, who recommended a reduction of 50,000 men over four months, rather than Nixon’s consideration of “20,000 men over a two month period.”
Also included in the released papers is a May 26, 1970, report from General Alexander Haig to the White House, “Exclusively Eyes Only Dr. Kissinger,” based on Haig’s recent conversations with President Thieu and Ambassador Bunker in Saigon, and his meeting with General Creighton Abrams and Ambassador Samuel D. Berger. He outlined several issues dealing with the drawdown of U.S. ground troops, the Cambodian operation, and the reduction of tactical air and B-52 sorties after July 1.
“General Abrams also confirmed he had just received authority for air operation in Eastern Cambodia with appropriate safeguards,” stated General Haig. “He was obviously pleased.”
He also stated that Thieu was as confused “as are embassy and MACV and perhaps Washington on what GVN and U.S. should do in the event NVA/VC forces continue all-out attack on Phnom Penh and Cambodians urgently request help. This is issue of gravest consequence that may soon develop with varying shades of ambiguity.” History shows that that is exactly what happened.
A selection of the recently released documents are available online as pdf files at www.nixonlibrary.gov.
Students Sell ‘Lollies for Laos’
Sixth grade students in Wausau, Wis., who are learning about the Vietnam War in the classroom, have begun a project they hope will help protect kids their age in Laos from injury or death resulting from bombs dropped on their homeland some four decades ago. Sue Thompson, a teacher at D.C. Everest Middle School explained, “Our former principal, Jim Harris, has been raising money for his trips to Laos to remove bombs and unexploded ordnance there. The students have had sucker sales in the past, and a ‘Lollies for Laos’ project seemed perfect.” Their goal is to raise $2,000. The project complements a course on what the lives of middle school children are like in different parts of the world. Harris shares pictures and stories of his work in Laos with the students. It was a result of his close connection with Wausau’s sizeable Hmong refugee community that Harris began traveling to Laos in 2006 to work with villagers. In 2009 he started the nonprofit We Help War Victims organization to increase awareness of the unexploded ordnance problems in Laos and to raise funds to continue bomb abandonment.
Between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped 270 million cluster bombs on Laos, and up to 30 percent of them never exploded. “We tell people in the villages if they find a bomb anywhere, if they let me know I’ll have my team there to make it safe within 48 hours,” Harris said. In his first six months, 1,000 bombs were safely detonated.
According to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), an impartial humanitarian organization that clears bombs for communities worldwide, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos than it did on all of Europe during World War II, making it the most heavily bombed country in the world. The American bombing was an attempt to disrupt Communist supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, much of which ran through Laos.
VVMF Travels to Hanoi with General McCaffrey
On a recent trip to Vietnam with General Barry McCaffrey, Jan C. Scruggs, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), announced that the VVMF will receive a $1 million grant from the U.S. government to assist with de mining activities in Vietnam. The grant will be used for VVMF’s Project Renew, a nine-year-old humanitarian mine clearance and public safety program in Quang Tri Province, where 80 percent of the land contains unexploded ordnance.
“More than 350,000 tons of explosive remnants of war continue to contaminate the country and harm its people,” said Scruggs in Hanoi on January 11. “Project Renew was designed to reduce deaths and injuries by education, and by clearing up bombs and mines,” said Chuck Searcy, VVMF’s representative in Vietnam. “The children can now identify virtually every type of ordnance.”
Scruggs made the announcement as part of a weeklong educational and humanitarian mission to Vietnam, where a delegation of 30 Americans saw firsthand the benefits of projects that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has sponsored, such as a new rural elementary school and a reduction in ordnance accidents.
Along with Scruggs and General McCaffrey, U.S. Army (Ret.), who was wounded in Vietnam, Peter M. Holt, a Vietnam veteran, chairman of the VVMF’s Education Center Campaign and an owner of the San Antonio Spurs, joined the delegation, which met with Vietnam’s government officials, entrepreneurs, war veterans and students while on visits throughout the country.
Vietnam War Novel Gets Big Buzz
Decorated veteran Karl Marlantes’ soon-to-be-released Matterhorn, A Novel of the Vietnam War has been picked by publishers and booksellers to be a 2010 top seller. Due out May 1, the 700-page novel received good advance reviews, and early bookseller orders have been promising. “I think it will be really big,” said Daphne Durham of Amazon.com. “You’re dropped in a country with this platoon and you stumble your way through the war and all its horrors with them.” A Marine in Vietnam, Marlantes was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star Medal, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts and 10 air medals. Matterhorn is his first novel.
Originally published in the June 2010 issue of Vietnam. To subscribe, click here.
