Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama
When the outcome of the Vietnam War became obvious, the US began evacuating South Vietnamese people who were in danger of retaliation from the advancing Communists. In the last few months of the war, 50,000 people loaded onto supply ships and planes to escape, but a planned evacuation of two million people was not to be.
The American ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham Martin, refused to authorize a mass evacuation because he did not want to publicly admit the war was lost until the final hours before Saigon fell. By April of 1975, the only way to get people out was by helicopter. The process was called Operation Frequent Wind, and involved airlifting Americans and Vietnamese from the roof of the American embassy by helicopter.Leaving the evacuations as late as Martin did understandably resulted in mass panic across Saigon with many thousands of South Vietnamese citizens fleeing in everything from cars to…
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