At 7.53 a.m. on Tuesday 30 April 1975, 50 years ago today, Sergeant Juan Valdez boarded a Sea Knight helicopter sent from aircraft carrier USS Midway that had landed a few minutes earlier on the roof of the US embassy in Saigon. He was the last US soldier to be evacuated from Vietnam. As he scurried to the rooftop, he was aware that some 420 Vietnamese, who had been promised evacuation, were left in the courtyard below. They faced an uncertain fate.
The day before it had been reported to Washington that Saigon Airport was under persistent rocket attack. Escape by airplane became impossible. President Gerald Ford explained: ‘The military situation deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in Vietnam’.
Eventually Nixon bombed the north to the peace table
Back in New York, President Nixon’s Secretary of State was not a happy man. A crestfallen Henry Kissinger cancelled his tickets to see Noel Coward’s play, Present Laughter.
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