The media has always used misleading photos to show the Vietnam military in a bad light.
The media was and is always giving the impression the American military is fleeing South Vietnam in a chaotic panic when it wasn’t even there since South Vietnam fell years after we left, or that Americans were burning that little girl with Napalm although the Americans weren’t involved in the incident, or that all our soldiers did was suffer wounds and defeatism and using Zippos on thatch huts, or that the VC were dominating us and our installations during Tet.
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.