Posted on 04/30/2025 10:23:02 AM PDT by Rummyfan
We must remember not just South Vietnam's fall, but why it fell.
Fifty years ago, April 30, 1975, the world watched in horror and disbelief as the last American helicopter lifted off from the rooftop of our embassy in Saigon. South Vietnam had fallen in the manner of Ernest Hemingway, “first gradually, then suddenly”: a decades-long war, a relative peace, and then a mad dash by the North Vietnamese Army that consumed the country in less than a month.
The tragedy was simply breathtaking. And horribly, horribly unnecessary.
What followed was not peace, but darkness. The swift collapse of South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (turns out the Domino Theory was true) brought the subjugation of millions, and the opening act of a Communist bloodbath across Southeast Asia. At least a million were sent to the “re-education camps” in Vietnam alone. Half a million were murdered. Another two million fled this brutal night by sea, on rafts wholly unsuited for the tumultuous ocean, in wild hope that an American aircraft carrier might happen upon them. Close to half a million died in the water.
I remember standing before one of the refugees, one of the countless “boat people” who was resettled to Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was a slight, middle-aged man, with thinning hair and humble dignity. We were in the fellowship hall of my church. I was eight years old. And I remember looking up at the South Vietnamese flag on his lapel and just weeping, and saying over and over “I’m sorry, I’m just so sorry.”
We should all be so sorry.
(Excerpt) Read more at rodmartin.org ...
Vietnam was none of our business. We shouldn’t have gotten involved, just like Ukraine.
Very good article which lays out the betrayal by the Leftist Media and the deep state.
Biden was in his third year as a senator when Saigon fell.
It’s on my mind everytime I think about seeing NVA tanks rolling through Saigon and no B-52s stopping them.
Yep, scum reds then, scum reds now.
The world knows that you cannot trust the U.S. government.
Quite correct but also an understatement in a discussion of this event to the extent that it also always showed U.S. military in a bad light.
It is a fact we had beaten the NVN and the VC to the point it was no longer able to field an effective combat force, had entered a peace treaty and had completed removing our combat forces by April, 1975.
The author of this article was some 8 years old when the Embassy photo was taken and it must have made an impression on his mind when he first saw it.
Those were civilians helping SVN civilians board SVN Air Force helicopters on the Embassy roof. The helicopter shown being pushed off the carrier was a SVN Air Force helicopter that was one of 45 so destroyed. The SVN pilots had no intention of returning to SVN in those aircraft and we needed the space for operations. At least 45 that landed on carrier decks were deliberately pushed overboard to make room for successive landings.
It is similar to Bush being criticized for the "Mission Accomplished" photo when that banner applied solely to the warship and crew displaying it.
The Left works 24/7 shaping our attitudes.
Kennedy was right. “It’s their war”. That’s what got him killed. The CIA and MIC did him in.
Sad story, but thanks for taking the time to share.
Fascinating story that I read with sadness and gratitude..
Don't forget Dem. Johnson and Mcnamara micro-managing operations.
Unbeknown to most, General Giap said in his memoirs that he was ready to give up after the so-called successful Tet Offensive...which actually failed. He changed his mind after watching our news with Walter Cronkite and the hippie demonstrations against the war.
There was also John Kerry who debated fellow swiftboat veteran John O’Neill on the Dick Cavett Show during the early 1970s. O’Neill insisted there would be a bloodbath in SE Asia if the US left the region while Kerry mocked him and said no such thing would happen.
You are SO right!
Or we could just really wage war instead of using measured response, designed to consume expendable war products and make profit for suppliers.
“Oh Don’t Worry”
Famous last words of the Baby Boom generation
Thanks for posting.
At the war’s end - 58,220 American soldiers had been killed, more than 150,000 had been wounded, and at least 21,000 had been permanently disabled.
Here’s the SOB’s that couldn’t win that war -
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963): Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military advisers in Vietnam and authorized the use of U.S. troops in combat.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969): Johnson escalated the war, deploying ground troops to Vietnam and authorizing the bombing of North Vietnam.
Richard Nixon (1969-1974): Nixon implemented a policy of Vietnamization, which aimed to reduce U.S. involvement and increase the role of South Vietnamese forces. (Dick that didn’t play out too well)
Gerald Ford (1974-1977): Ford inherited the war from Nixon and oversaw the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.
(Remember pictures of those soldiers hanging off helicopters trying to evacuate)
Vietnam cost us $134.53 billion and in today’s dollars that equates to 1.020 trillion.
Heroin - Marijuana - Morale drop. Know why? Most of these fighting men LOST HOPE.
Tet Offensive, My Lai massacre- oh, and Richard Nixon had campaigned in the 1968 presidential election under the slogan that he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam and bring “peace with honor”. (Another dick head in my view)
Anyone remember, “The Pentagon Papers”
Guess I’ll just shut up B4 get t’eed off.
One more week of the total bombing at Christmas 72 and the war was won. North Vietnam was on it’s knees blasted to bits but Nixon was not interested in winning by then, only getting the POWs back. Today South Vietnam would be the mirror of South Korea had we carried through. Ao 58K Americans died for NOTHING!
South Vietnam fell because....
Nixon shipped ARVN’s resupply to ISR in ‘73 - ‘74 to fight Yom Kippur war and thereafter. In ‘75 they lacked the supplies to defend against the north.
Put our troops on the border of North and South, and supplied the South with equipment and training. Allow those who supported communism to migrate North.
If we were going to send in the Military like we ended up doing, attack the North all the way to their Northernmost border. KICK THE SHEET out of them. All in or the first paragraph.
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