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The Fall of Saigon

Under attack by North Vietnamese forces, terrified South Vietnamese hurry to reach U.S. helicopters as they prepare to pull out of Saigon.

Diem Do tried to be a goodstudent. But it was hard.Each day he went to school. But each day his class got smaller. “One day a couple of guys would be gone, and then a couple more. Then the teacher wouldn't show up,” said 12-year-old Do. “Everyone was scared. They sensed that something tragic was about to happen.”

It was April 1975. Do was going to school in Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam. That country had been fighting North Vietnam for many years. Now the war was almost over. The United States had fought on the side of South Vietnam. But it was no use. A big army from North Vietnam was marching south. Its goal was to take over Saigon and end the war.

The Americans had gotten ready for the worst. They had plans to get themselves out of Saigon when the time came. By this time there weren't many Americans still there. Most had left years before. The problem was what to do with America's South Vietnamese friends. These people, too, hoped to get out before the enemy arrived. But there were far too many South Vietnamese. U.S. planes began to fly a few people out. But this was done slowly and quietly. Officials feared that if too many people thought the end was close, they might panic.

The army from the North, meanwhile, had its own schedule, and it was moving fast. By the last week of April, the army had Saigon surrounded. Each night, a college student named Nam Pham climbed to the roof of his home. He could see flashes of gunfire and bombs in the far distance. They kept getting closer and closer. Pham knew the South would soon lose. “It gave me kind of a weird feeling,”he said, “watching something you love so much lost a little bit every day.”

On April 29, the North attacked Saigon itself. At four o'clock in the morning, they began to bomb the airport. When the Americans turned on their radios that morning, they heard “White Christmas.”That song was a secret signal. It meant, “This is it. Everybody out!”

For the Vietnamese it was a different story. The blasts at the airport shook them out of their beds. Mass panic gripped the city. People dashed out of their homes, looking for a way—any way—to get out of town. Some people boarded boats and headed out to sea. The U.S. Navy had many large ships waiting offshore.

Loi Nguyen Vo was one of the lucky ones. She was living with her mother and six younger siblings. “We had to leave quickly with only the clothes on our back,” she said. Taking charge, Vo went to look for a boat. Thousands of others lined the riverbank oping for the same thing. Out of the mist, a patrol boat came by and picked up Vo and her family. “I still don't know why we were picked. We were very lucky,” said Vo many years later.

Many Vietnamese rushed to the U.S. embassy. The Americans had been their friends. Surely America would help them now. But what could the Americans do? There were thousands of people swarming around the embassy gates. They all wanted to flee. But time was running out. The North was closing in. Frank Snepp, an American, tried to restore order. “Don't worry,” he told the mob. “We won't leave you!” Snepp was lying. There was no way to evacuate this many people in just a few hours. He later said the scene was like a“vision out of a nightmare.”

The bombing closed the airport. So no one could fly out from there. Driving out of town wasn't possible either. The army of the North had all the roads blocked. Other than by boat, the only way out was by helicopter. American pilots flew helicopters back and forth from the ships at sea to Saigon. They had to land on the roof of the embassy. It was the only safe flat place they could find. The pilots took as many Vietnamese as they could. But far more had to be left behind. “These people were desperate to escape,” said one pilot.“But we could only hold so many.”

Tini Tran was only three years old at the time. Many years later she could still recall what it was like. Her parents brought her to the embassy gates. But they soon lost her in the crowd. Luckily Tran's uncle found her. “He hoisted me up as he shoved his way through the crowd,” recalled Tran. “Afraid I would become trampled in the crush, my uncle handed me into the arms of an American.” Luckily the rest of her family also made it out.

If the fall of Saigon had any heroes, they were the helicopter pilots. Time after time they risked their lives. Darrell Browning had never flown in combat. Now he faced many dangers. He worried about being shot down. The army of the North could do it. So, too, could a soldier from the South. Some of these soldiers were angry at the United States for leaving them alone to face the enemy. Also,Browning flew late into the night with his lights out. With choppers flying all over the place, he might have hit one in midair. Luckily, nothing like that happened.

Each time Browning landed on the roof, people fought each other for a seat. He helped as many as he could. His chopper was built to carry 24 people. Still, he let 36 get on board. He figured the Vietnamese people tended to be small, so they weighed less. Even so, he worried he couldn't take off with all the extra weight. Somehow, he did. By midnight, he had made five round trips between his ship and the roof.

Then he was told to stop. It was over. The chopper pilots were worn out. One exhausted pilot missed his ship and crashed into the sea. The officer in charge worried that other pilots would also make tragic mistakes.

The next day, April 30, the army of the North captured Saigon. The war was over. In all, about 50,000 South Vietnamese escaped. Some were on the deck of Darrell Browning's ship. Many were the people he had helped to save the night before. “There were about a thousand of them,” he said. “They had lost everything. They had no idea where they were going and they were tired. But they were orderly and thankful. They came up and thanked us.” For them, at least, the nightmare was over.