As the final curtains of the Vietnam War dropped with the Vietcong invasion of Saigon,
the US needed to evacuate as many US citizens
and South Vietnam allies as possible in the span of fewer than 18 hours.
As US personnel threw dozens of their own million-dollar helicopters overboard
to make space for more refugees, the scenes of Operation Frequent Winds would shock the world
and exhibit the merciful side of US troops.
Still, thousands of refugees rushed Saigon’s coasts, trying to escape from the incoming
invasion. Many of them used boats and makeshift rafts to try to make it to the US ships,
while others even attempted to reach them in small planes.
Pilots worked non-stop for almost 20 hours in the most grueling
and desperate conditions, and some of the helicopters were so overburdened
that the vehicles could barely hover a few inches from the ground.
As the artillery rounds struck closer and closer, no one wanted to be left behind,
and US commanders would have to make an extremely difficult decision…
An Unwinnable War
The invasion of Saigon was the last nail in the conflict for US efforts during the Vietnam War.
The entire conflict had been a deceptive one. From the beginning of the war, the US believed
it would be a straightforward affair thanks to its overwhelming firepower and advanced intelligence.
For most of the struggle, the US-backed South Vietnam forces seemed to prevail.
American commanders defined success based on the casualties they were causing the enemy,
but that would turn out to be a faulty definition.
As the war progressed, the casualties the US inflicted on the North Vietnamese became
a rallying cry and earned the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA,
additional support from their allies and the media.
Being the first war with no real front-lines, all the apparent
territorial gains the US-led forces had made suddenly vanished on January 31, 1968,
as the NVA executed the Tet Offensive. Using their mastery of guerrilla tactics and furtive warfare,
the NVA deployed a brutal synchronized attack across Vietnam, striking over 800 cities.
The attack didn’t cause overwhelming American casualties.
Still, it did make the US forces realize that they weren’t even close to winning the war.
The morale of US-backed troops sank through the floor as they realized their conventional
warfare methods were not hurting the Vietcong and the NVA as much as they had previously thought.
Back at home, political pressure to get out of the almost 20-year-old conflict was at its peak,
and when information regarding how disappointing US progress really was
started to leak to the media, public support for the war all but disappeared.
All the more, after reports surfaced of what would come to be known as the Mỹ Lai massacre
in late 1968, the US military faced tremendous pressure to exit the country as soon as possible.
Finally, in 1973, the US government was forced to order the gradual withdrawal of
all US troops in Vietnam. During the following two years, US troops started to decrease rapidly
just as the NVA forces advanced closer and closer to Saigon.
The fate of the Vietnam war was written.
An Unwanted Evacuation Plan
As time ran out for Americans and their allies in Saigon,
several plans were outlined to manage the massive evacuation efforts that were now inevitable.
The ideal plan, which would save the most significant number of American nationals and
at-risk citizens, didn’t involve helicopters at all. The scheme revolved around using commercial,
military, and cargo planes to evacuate as many as two million people from Saigon.
The backup plan was to dock hundreds of ships into the Saigon harbor to allow the people to board
them and escape to safety. This secondary strategy was meant to rescue up to 200,000 refugees.
If none of the two primary plans could be executed, there were instructions for a third,
more impromptu evacuation scheme: the use of military helicopters to airlift as many at-risk
individuals from key locations in Saigon to the US carriers 40 miles off the coast. It was the least
desirable strategy, as it entailed taking the most risks while saving the least amount of people.
However, as luck would have it,
the helicopter plan would be the one executed for Operation Frequent Winds.
The reason behind the execution of the least efficient plan came to one man,
Graham Martin, the US ambassador to South Vietnam.
Martin had the final word to authorize an evacuation plan. The first two required
much more time to execute, and Martin was sure this would spread unnecessary chaos in Saigon.
Besides, with the mighty US carriers just a few miles off Saigon,
he was confident the NVA would never dare attack the city itself.
As Martin stalled, the NVA proved they were not frightened by the US Navy,
and on April 28, 1975, they bombed and destroyed the Tan Son Nhut Air Base,
making the escape by airplane now impossible.
A Bittersweet Escape
The people who hoped to escape the North Vietnamese invasion didn’t know when the
evacuation would commence. All they were told was to tune in to the US military radio station
and wait for a secret code phrase, which was: (QUOTE): “The Temperature in Saigon
Is 105 and Rising” followed by the song ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’ by Bing Crosby.
The radio announcer finally said the fateful words on April 29,
1975, and Operation Frequent Winds officially began.
For Saigon’s ordinary citizens, there was an active curfew due
to the bombings from previous days. Hence, the entire city was deserted,
with the notable exception of the people who thought they had a chance to be evacuated.
Thousands of people then rushed to the US and Canadian embassies, where helicopters
were constantly landing and taking off with as many refugees as they could carry.
Priority was given to US citizens and their families and then to high-ranking
members from the South Vietnam military who would surely be executed if captured.
The exclusivity of the evacuation didn’t stop thousands of people
from flocking the entrance to every US military post.
Many of them had families in the US or Canada and held visas from those countries.
Out of compassion, US troops allowed many of them to pass.
However, it soon became clear that the operation couldn’t handle so many people.
Helicopter pilots carried scores of people on every trip, surpassing the
maximum weight that their aircraft were allowed to load by a long shot.
One of the pilots recalled how his helicopter was so overburdened when trying to take off
from a rooftop that it could barely hover a few inches from the ground.
As nobody wanted to leave the aircraft, the pilot thrust the helicopter forward,
hoping that they would gain enough momentum to safely escape as they flew down the rooftop.
It was a close call; during a split-second, even the young pilot thought the helicopter
was going to plummet down from the edge of the roof. Fortunately, they made it.
As the US ships became more and more crowded, the order was given
to throw all the South Vietnam helicopters overboard to make more room for refugees.
But as more and more people continued to arrive, even US aircraft began to be cast off.
Soon, the order was given for many pilots to crash their helicopter directly into the sea
and wait for rescue as there was not enough room to land anymore.
Even worse, US helicopters were not the only ones dropping refugees at the US ships.
Thousands of private boats and small planes also made the desperate journey out to sea to reach the
evacuating vessels, and American sailors rescued as many of these arriving rejects as they could.
Acts of Heroism
During the massive evacuation, Major Buang-Ly, a South Vietnam pilot, stole a small 1-engine plane
and ventured into the sea to reach a US ship and save his family of five.
Buang-Ly´s plane had very little fuel, and although the Major was an experienced pilot,
he had never even seen an aircraft carrier, much less landed on one.
Buang-Ly followed some helicopters he spotted by the coast, and they led them to the aircraft
carrier USS Midway. With no more fuel for a return trip, the carrier was their last hope.
Unfortunately, the ship’s deck was jam-packed with helicopters,
and there was no space to land. Worse still, the pilot and his family had
no way to contact the ship, as the plane they were on didn’t have a working radio.
The intrepid pilot and his family decided to drop notes from the plane. In total,
they dropped four messages, but three of them were taken by the wind. Still, US troops were able to
stanch the fourth one and read its contents: (QUOTE): “Can you mouve [sic] these helicopter
to the other side, I can land on your runway. Please rescue me. Major Buang wife and 5 child.”
The note was taken to the commanding officer, Captain Lawrence Chambers,
who knew that the landing space would be too small for such a plane if they
could clear the whole deck. However, he also realized that the small aircraft
would not safely hover above the sea because of its fixed landing gear.
He either had to help them make the improbable landing or ignore them
altogether. The suggestion from the US Admiral on the phone was to ditch Buang-Ly’s plane,
but Chambers wasn’t about to let an innocent family perish.
Knowing that he would probably be court-martialed for what he was about to do, Chambers ordered his
crew to toss as many helicopters overboard as were necessary to clear the runway.
After sinking the aircraft, he ordered the ship to accelerate to 25 knots,
as that would be the only way the small plane could make the landing.
The entire Midway crew prepared for the worst, as the odds were it would be a crash landing.
Nonetheless, Major Buang-Ly performed a textbook maneuver
and used Midway's speed to his advantage in a perfect landing.
The event summarized the spirit of the entire Frequent Winds operation,
a limited number of US troops doing the almost impossible to save as many people as they could.
In the end, the whole affair was a bittersweet experience.
On the one hand, Operation Frequent Winds was able to rescue over 7,000 people
that would otherwise have probably been executed. However,
there were thousands of people left behind due to the operation’s limits.
President Gerald Ford would later call the war:
(QUOTE) "A sad and tragic period in America's history" but added that: (QUOTE) "you couldn't
help but be very proud of those pilots and others who were conducting the evacuation."
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