April 30th 1975 - The Fall of Saigon - Vietnam War Was Over For The USA

The Pultizer Prize winning photo from Newsweek

Harry on the same roof today. 

The Vietnam War drug on for 20 years. The USA lost 58,000 soldiers and billions of dollars. But the government was afraid to say - uncle. President Nixon ran on a platform that he had a secret plan to end the war. I voted for him for that in 1972. His plan was simply to quit and pull out. He won the election in a landslide - he won 49 of 50 states. Two years later - he resigned in disgrace - over trying to cover up a simple break-in. He resigned in 1974 - we were still in Vietnam. Finally in 1975 - President Ford said we are done. And the evacuation ended with this helicopter leaving near the US Embassy with our ambassador on board. Thousands of people were left in the embassy. 

As soon as Lulu was invited to Vietnam - I wanted to duplicate this picture. I wanted to see where the helicopters landed. The old embassy was torn down after the war. A new embassy was built next door. But someone told me the evacuation really did not occur in the embassy. 

The Pittman Apartment were next door. They were 9 stories high. Lots of CIA agents lived there and they knew the building well. It was an easy place to defend - and the elevator shaft had a flat roof. 

Huey Helicopters were heroes in the Vietnam War. They would ferry soldiers in and out of action. They would swoop in and rescue stranded troops. They had a lot of fire power. They are still used by the marines today. I had an Argosy Motor Home shaped like a Huey - and a Vietnam Vet insisted on buying it from me for that reason. He even took the police in a slow speed chase in it - like OJ. 

I went to the embassy. I asked where the apartment was. They said it was torn down. But they did not realize it was not in the old embassy. We found an address and followed it. Someone said go in the building - and go to floor 9 on the elevator. We tried that and the janitor caught us. He said for $4 - we could go on the roof. We did and I almost cried when this greeted our eyes. 

I had to crawl up two rickety ladders to get to the top. Lulu took pictures from the elevator level. Although it was 45 years ago - there was still plenty of stuff around up there. It was a messy time warp. From up there on the roof - I could see the new embassy. I could see the Notre Dame Cathedral. I could see some of the old building from the old embassy. It was a mess - but a good mess. 

In my mind - I could imagine being there on the night Saigon fell. A Huey only holds 14 people. They took out almost 6000 people that way. It was like a sky train. One chopper after another landing. They took the people to aircraft carriers in the Pacific. The ambassador refuse to go - so they keep sending others. Finally - one pilot lied and told the ambassador - the president said it was time to go. He left. Once the queen bee was gone - the airlift stopped. Thousands were left to answer to the Viet Cong. 

The famous photo was in Newsweek. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It is burned in my mind - like the Hiroshima Bomb photo - like the Iwo Jima Flag Raising - like Lee Harvey Oswald being shot in Dallas live on TV. 

As Billy Joel sang - "and we would all go down together." 

My deepest respect to all the men that served in Vietnam. Their country call them to serve and they went. Duty - Honor - Country. 

The helicopter landed here.

The yellow buildings are the new embassy.

It was 45 years ago.

The American embassy was here

Notice the Notre Dame Cathedral in back.

Nothing has change here. 

The roof is the same concrete slab.

My selfie trying to get the roof. 

Note the sweat - it was hot humid. 

The roof slab was about 10 inches thick.

That other big building was not there then in 1975. 

I piled some roof slabs to get high enough to jump up.

The elevator on the 9th floor

Old party are roof. It was covered with people that day. 

The CIA lived in the Pittman Apartments. 

"And we would all go down together."