Honorable Exit
Page 44
“Breathes there an American”: George F. Will, “The New Angels of Mercy,” Washington Post, April 7, 1975, A21.
Among these dependents: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 72–73.
Bell can remember: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 72–77.
He found the corpses: Herrington, interview.
Bell wandered through: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 77–78.
There had been his hardscrabble: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 1–6.
Bell’s colleague Stuart Herrington: Herrington, interview.
Martin saw it: Carter, interview; Willenson, Bad War, 306.
After seeing his father’s: “The Stories: Trung,” www.pbs.org.
He promised a delegation: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 247.
President Thieu praised: Dawson, 55 Days, 256–57.
Moments before the blast: Manyon, Fall of Saigon, 80–81.
It was the first time: Baughn, interview; LDE, General Richard Baughn, 2.
Like Baughn and Smith: Gray, interview.
After visiting the evacuation: Ibid.
Baughn wrote a memorandum: Baughn, interview; Isaacs, Without Honor, 400–401; LDE, General Richard Baughn, 2; Snepp, Decent Interval, 334.
The operator at the DAO message center: Baughn, interview.
The embassy claimed: George McArthur, “AF General Who Aided ‘Refugee’ Airlift Recalled,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1975, 1.
The Marine Corps history notes: USMC, 157.
The day after Baughn left: Gray, interview.
In his written report: OFW, 18–20.
The SPG’s preparations: TTU/OH, Lieutenant General Richard Carey, 490–91.
A week later, he wrote: Camp, Assault from the Sky, 191.
CHAPTER 9: “PEOPLE ARE GOING TO FEEL BADLY”
Press Secretary Ron Nessen: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 101.
“Nobody thought we would get”: Hung, Palace File, 311.
White House counselor: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 318.
“more a statement”: Oberdorfer, “America’s Man in Saigon.”
An embassy source told: George McArthur, “U.S. Credibility Weak in Evacuation,” Washington Post, April 13, 1975, 19.
Only half of Congress: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 102–3.
Seventy-five percent: Martin Arnold, “Hawks and Doves Are Glad It’s Ending,” New York Times, April 20, 1975, 144.
After Ford’s speech: Murrey Marder, “U.S. Trying to Get Cease-Fire,” Washington Post, April 12, 1975, 1; John W. Finney, “Congress Resists U.S. Aid in Evacuating Vietnamese,” New York Times, April 12, 1975, 1.
The senators had requested: FRUS, 232.
After the meeting ended: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 106.
The Washington Post reported: Murrey Marder and Spencer Rich, “Vietnam Exit Plan Forms, Includes Arms Fund,” Washington Post, April 15, 1975, 1.
Representative Don Riegle Jr.: VCE, Part I, 94.
Erich von Marbod told: Hung, Palace File, 306–9.
At a meeting: FRUS, 212.
“I think we ought to get out”: Ibid., 236.
“The careful record”: Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 550.
“You should know”: FRUS, 237.
“interagency pressure for immediate”: Ibid., 238.
At a WSAG meeting: Ibid., 249.
The next day, April 22: FLEAP, box 1, April 22, 1975.
“But the U.S. is going to be”: FRUS, 256.
“a collapse under controlled”: Ibid., 243.
“We really owe it”: Kissinger, Crisis, 486.
“How many Vietnamese”: FRUS, 254.
After thanking Dean: Isaacs, Without Honor, 276.
“good evidence that”: FRUS, 256.
Kissinger was probably thinking: Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 539.
“Defense Department officials”: John W. Finney, “Fear in Pentagon,” New York Times, April 22, 1975, 1.
“Defense wishes total”: Kissinger, Crisis, 488.
“We think you should”: FRUS, 232.
“It was apparent”: Ibid., 233n5.
“But I want you to know”: Ibid., 218.
Martin replied the next day: FLMF, box 8.
“anticipate events with sufficient precision”: Ibid.
“the U.S. political situation”: Ibid., box 10.
“He always ends up”: FRUS, 257.
“My situation reminds me”: Ibid., 260.
“I have an exhausted staff”: Ibid., 262.
“There are only two”: Ibid., 233.
“We have two nutty ambassadors”: Ibid., 211.
“Our problem is to prevent”: Kissinger, Crisis, 485.
Among Martin’s contributions: Stanley Karnow, “The Hasty Retreat from Saigon,” New Republic, May 19, 1975, 15.
Also contributing to the impression: FLMF, box 8.
During a conversation with Ford: FRUS, 240.
He came to his defense: Ibid., 243.
“You may think I am”: FLMF, box 8.
“I don’t think”: Ibid.
During Kissinger’s congressional testimony: VCE, Part I, 142.
He praised Martin for handling: FRUS, 238.
“watching our friends in Hanoi”: Ibid., 209.
He insisted that the South Vietnamese: Ibid.
“panic in Saigon”: FLMF, box 8.
“We will have the appearance”: FRUS, 259.
CHAPTER 10: “NO GUARANTEES!”
The circuitous journey: Sources for Ellis material in this chapter and for the Ellis-Martin meetings: Ellis, interview; unpublished Ellis manuscript, “Saigon Evacuation 1975.”
Nessen sent a memorandum: FLEAP, box 13, April 12 and 14, 1975.
The next year, Martin would tell Congress: VCE, Part III, 548–49.
In Martin’s 1976 congressional testimony: Ibid., 599.
Martin’s first “Scarlet Pimpernel” operation: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 198–99.
When someone mentioned evacuating: TTU/OH, Carmody, 315.
Martin also broached the subject: FRUS, 209.
Four days later, on April 11: Ibid., 233.
In mid-April he summoned: TTU/OH, Carmody, 328–34.
The profile spoke: Oberdorfer, “America’s Man in Saigon.”
Two days before: Utley, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, 165–66.
“We are already in business”: FLMF, box 8.
“It is also beginning increasingly”: FRUS, 238.
CHAPTER 11: PLAYING GOD
Martindale persuaded Jake Jacobson: Source for Martindale in Phu Quoc: Martindale, interviews.
He made mistakes: Ibid.
He accelerated the pace: Ibid.
He hired a Vietnamese forger: Source for Gembara material: Gembara, interview.
Like Walter Martindale: Bell, interview.
While he had been in California: Herrington, interview.
On the way home: Ibid.; Herrington, Stalking the Vietcong, 267.
He arrived in Hanoi: Herrington, interview.
A week later, on April 18: Bell, interview.
Since returning from California: Ibid.; Herrington, interview.
Colonel Madison asked Herrington: Source for Madison material: Madison, interview.
Herrington asked Andy Gembara: Herrington, interview; Gembara, interview.
On his first run: Herrington, interview.
Bill Bell also faced: Bell, interview.
Pace was also a Vietnamese linguist: Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 71.
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They drove day and night: Sources for Bell material: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 96–100.
After Madison had flown: Madison, interview.
Herrington had the painful job: Herrington, interview; SBE; U.S. Army Military History Institute: Harry G. Summers, “Last Days in Vietnam,” Oral History Project, 56–58.
The incident haunted both men: U.S. Army Military History Institute: Harry G. Summers, “Last Days in Vietnam,” Oral History Project, 56–58.
As Herrington was escorting: Herrington, interview.
Herrington realized that: Ibid.
Although Martin had fired: Source for Hays material: Hays, interviews.
CHAPTER 12: “GODSPEED”
The Washington Post described: Oberdorfer, “America’s Man in Saigon.”
He strong-armed USIA head: Carter, interview; Todd, Cruel April, 279–80.
“a loose cannon”: Gayler, Reminiscences, 292.
Like Martin, Madison, and Baughn: Ibid., 285–90.
He found Martin: Ibid., 298.
At a gathering of CIA agents: Sullivan, interview; Sullivan, Of Spies and Lies, 208.
Martin dismissed them: FRUS, 241; Herrington, interview.
Smith next summoned retired: Herrington, interview.
During the April 19 meeting: Snepp, Decent Interval, 384–86; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 279–80; USDAO I, 12; USDAO III, 16-B-12.
Before the meeting ended: Snepp, Decent Interval, 386; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 280.
On April 16, Ken Quinn: Quinn, interview.
David Kennerly also played: Kennerly, interview.
Scowcroft’s first cable: FLMF, box 10.
His second cable expanded: Ibid.
As Ken Moorefield was casting: Sources for Moorefield and his processing center at the DAO: Moorefield, interviews; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 322–26, 369; DBC, box 4, folder 12; Snepp, Decent Interval, 388–89, 402–3, 412–13; Santoli, To Bear Any Burden, 232–34; LDE, “Ken Moorefield Remembers the Fall of Saigon.”
On April 21, the air force: Tobin, Laehr, and Hilgenberg, Last Flight from Saigon, 45.
The Saigon press corps: Dan Oberdorfer, “Saigon Press Corps,” Washington Post, April 19, 1975, A1.
Two days later, almost: George McArthur, “Hanoi’s Jets, Artillery Closing In on Saigon,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1975, A1.
“It is essential that we get”: FLMF, box 10.
“Ah, Mr. Moorefield”: Moorefield, interview.
Joe McBride, the Foreign Service officer: McBride, interview.
He had even intervened: Ky, Twenty Years and Twenty Days, 213–15.
Martin cabled Kissinger: FRUS, 244.
The next morning: Ibid., 89.
Optimists in Saigon: Manyon, Fall of Saigon, 88.
He had complained beforehand: Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 149; Hartmann, Palace Politics, 32.
“From my first day”: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 91.
During the flight back: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 322; Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 150–51.
He was right: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 323; Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain, 151.
He arrived at Tan Son Nhut: Snepp, Decent Interval, 435; Todd, Cruel April, 327–28.
Martin saw Thieu off: Snepp, Decent Interval, 435.
CHAPTER 13: “MAKE IT HAPPEN!”
Pan Am flight 841: Thomas Taylor, Where the Orange Blooms, 223–24.
Two of the diplomats: Sources for Rosenblatt and Johnstone material in this chapter: Rosenblatt, interview; Butler, Fall of Saigon, 269–73, 359–60; Willenson, Bad War, 326–27; DBC, box 3, folder 61, box 4, folder 49; Marilyn Berger, “2 Aides Go Underground, Rescue 200 in Saigon,” Washington Post, May 5, 1975, 1.
“We do not believe”: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 272.
After Pan Am flight 841 landed: Thomas Taylor, Where the Orange Blooms, 224–26.
One American remembered: Tom Glenn, interview.
Since graduating from Annapolis: Armitage, interview; Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 37–49.
He had resigned: Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 37–49.
He returned to Vietnam: Ibid.
“Ricky, we’ve been looking”: Armitage, interview; Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 49.
Von Marbod stopped: Trest, Air Commando, 251; Hung, Palace File, 339.
Pan Am station manager: Sources for Topping material in this chapter: Topping, interview; David Lamb, “Refugees Reach Guam on Cloak-Dagger Flight,” Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1975, A1; Al Topping, “Scrambling to Get Out Before the Fall,” Miami Herald, April 23, 2013.
After the plane had been: Todd, Cruel April, 320–21.
Ross Meador, the long-haired: Source for Meador material in this chapter: Meador, interview; Cherie Clark, After Sorrow Comes Joy, 68–78; Peck-Barnes, War Cradle, 185–94.
CHAPTER 14: “I WON’T GO FOR THAT”
During a staff meeting: Sources for McNamara’s background and planning for the consulate’s evacuation down the Bassac River in the remainder of this chapter: McNamara, interview; ADST, McNamara interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 119–28; ADST, Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History, “Apocalypse Not—the Evacuation from Can Tho—April 1975”; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 104–5; ADST, Ambassador Francis Terry McNamara, 127.
On April 22, McNamara sent: LDE, David Sciacchitano; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 122.
They complained about the situation: LDE, David Sciacchitano.
McNamara found their report: McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 122–24; ADST, Ambassador Francis Terry McNamara, 126; Butler, 288–91; DBC, box 4, folder 3.
After returning to Can Tho: McNamara, interview; McNamara, Escape with Honor, 125–28; ADST, McNamara, 127–30.
Delaney and McNamara continued arguing: Parker, interview; Parker, Last Man Out, 286–87.
None of the CIA agents: Sources for Jim Parker material: Parker, interview; Parker, Last Man Out, 2–5, 64–66, 78–79, 163, 255–62, 267–70; Parker, Vietnam War, 465–67.
CIA station chief Tom Polgar chose: Parker, interview; Parker, Last Man Out, 280–82.
In mid-April, Jim Parker received: Parker, interview; Parker, Vietnam War, 463–64, 478–81.
“Is this the American way”: Sources for Parker adoption story and Chau: Parker, interview; Parker, Last Man Out, 278–80, 290–91; Parker, Vietnam War, 475–76.
CHAPTER 15: KISSINGER’S CABLE
NBC Vietnam War correspondent: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 268.
“We have just received”: FLMF, box 8.
It asked that the U.S.S.R.: FLNSA-Mem, April 24, 1975.
After delivering Ford’s oral note: Ibid.
He did not cable the text: FLMF, box 8.
The Soviets answered: FLNSA-Mem, April 24, 1975.
Kissinger read the Soviet reply: FLNSA-Mem, April 24, 1975; FRUS, 258.
President Ford suggested: FRUS, 258.
“I want you to know”: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 299; FLMF, box 8.
“There is a great deal”: Butler, Fall of Saigon, 299.
He explained himself: Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 535.
In his reply to Kissinger’s cable: FLMF, box 8.
After telling Thurmond: Kissinger, Crisis, 492.
Another senator who did feel that way: Ibid., 485–86.
“the need for [an] emergency”: FLMF, box 8.
“Do not worry”: Ibid.
“cut off your balls”: Willenson, Bad War, 314.
“No, you don’t really”: Todd, Cruel April, 324.
Martin smiled and said: Snepp, Decent Interval, 431.
Later that afternoon he told: Burke, intervi
ew; Camp, Assault from the Sky, 201.
“Through other channels”: FLMF, box 8.
On April 28, with: Ibid.
After reading Kissinger’s April 25: Sullivan, interview.
“Well, I guess you might as well”: Kanes, interview.
“The fix is in”: Ibid.
When they met at Polgar’s villa: CIA, 201; Corn, Blond Ghost, 289.
He returned to the embassy: Snepp, Decent Interval, 431.
For several weeks New York Times: Browne, Muddy Boots and Red Socks, 357–58.
“Peter, there will be no final battle”: Arnett, Live from the Battlefield, 296.
“Events have validated”: FRUS, 259.
He dispatched a self-congratulatory cable: FLMF, box 8.
“waiting some possible moves”: Kissinger, Crisis, 486.
Ford said it all sounded: FLNSA-Mem, April 25, 1975.
“My thinking regarding”: FLMF, box 8.
During a White House meeting: Murrey Marder, “Hanoi Changed Signals,” Washington Post, April 30, 1975, A1.
Years later, however: Kissinger, Crisis, 540.
They were encouraged: Leslie Gelb, “Hanoi Is Signaling U.S. on Take-Over,” New York Times, April 24, 1975, 1.
“not to press an immediate”: FLMF, box 8.
Mérillon was so confident: Snepp, Decent Interval, 420.
But on April 25: Bell, interview; Madison, interview.
It would later be revealed: Dung, Our Great Spring Victory, 215.
Before leaving, he asked Jim Devine: SBE.
After boarding the plane: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 90–96.
“You Americans should not”: SBE; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 91.
Bell noticed that sacks: Bell, interview; SBE.
After the plane reached: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 94–96; SBE.
To pass the time: Bell, interview; Bell, Leave No Man Behind, 95.
He told von Marbod: SBE.
“For God’s sake, give me”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 16: RICHARD ARMITAGE’S COURAGEOUS SILENCE