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On April 29, 1975, Nguyen did something that could have been ripped from the script of a “Mission Impossible” movie. He was fleeing from the North Vietnamese army with his wife and their three young children as communist soldiers crashed the gates of Saigon “We couldn’t figure out how he did it; he was a Houdini,”. “Unless somebody shoots at us, we ain’t shooting,” Jacobs told his crew. He radioed the Kirk that he would hover just above the deck. Then he would order his wife and three children to take their chances by jumping out of the helicopter, into...

On board the repatriation flight VN409 were 403 Vietnamese citizens—including 41 unaccompanied babies, who were being sent back to the country without their parents. When Nguyen was finally allowed through to the isolation ward, her hopes of being able to reassure her granddaughter soon gave way to the realization that the 6-month-old, who was born in Korea and whom she had never met before, felt no greater comfort in her arms than she did being held by a random member of staff. If Tran’s is the house that immigration built, illegal migration turned it into a home. We asked around...

After his military career, Rockhold worked as a defense contractor, operating mostly in Africa. He first returned to Vietnam in 1992 to work on a program to help economic refugees. He settled in Vietnam in 1995, the same year the United States and Vietnam normalized relations. He married a Vietnamese woman in 2009. In fact, he liked it so much that he persuaded his mother to move to Vietnam from Santa Maria, Calif., also in 2009. She came for the wedding, and decided to stay,” he said with a laugh. She lived in Vietnam until her death in 2015 at...

Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, possessed the Confucian "Mandate of Heaven," a moral and political authority that was widely recognized by all Vietnamese. What is not commonly known is that Diem was a devout Roman Catholic - in fact, he was a third-order Benedictine and daily communicant. Diem was taken down by a military coup sponsored by the U.S. government and ultimately betrayed by the administration of the first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, which resulted in Diem's brutal murder on Nov. 2, 1963. In his new book, THE LOST MANDATE OF HEAVEN: The...

When we played this song at LZ Lambeau, a welcome home event for Vietnam vets and their families held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., in 2010, we were overwhelmed by the response it received, especially by spouses of Vietnam vets. They sang along with tears in their eyes, because they were the ones saying goodbye to the men who were boarding the planes for Vietnam. And it got to soldiers/vets, too. As Jason Sherman, an AFVN DJ during part of his tour in Vietnam, recalled: “Leaving on a Jet Plane brought tears to my eyes.”

Pham Xuan An, a Vietnam War correspondent for the US news weekly Time who led a double life as a top North Vietnamese spy, died aged 79. Dubbed a patriot and the perfect spy by some and a traitor by others, the retired People's Army general died in Ho Chi Minh City's military hospital 175, of emphysema after a lifelong habit of chain-smoking American cigarettes. "He died at 11.20 in the morning from a severe pulmonary disease," a military doctor told AFP declining to be named. "He was admitted in our hospital 50 days ago in a critical condition." Journalist...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

grand meeting was held in Ba Dinh Hall in Hanoi on April 29 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the liberation of southern Vietnam and the reunification of the south and the north. Among those present at the meeting were General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC) Nong Duc Manh; former CPVCC General Secretary Do Muoi; President and Politburo member Tran Duc Luong; Prime Minister and Politburo member Phan Van Khai; Chairman of the National Assembly and Politburo member Nguyen Van An; President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front's Presidium Pham The Duyet; and General Vo Nguyen...