The New York Review of Books ran an issue on The Meaning of Vietnam.
The disaster of no fault divorce spread to Australia with the Family Law Act 1975.
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The United Kingdom became an oil producing nation as the first oil was produced in the North Sea's Argyll field.
The U.S House of Representatives voted 209 to 187 to reject President Ford's proposal for a .23 per gallon federal fuel tax Ford saw as a way of ending US dependency on imported oil by 1985.
Alice Olson, the widow of Frank Olson, learned for the first time that her husband had been the subject of secret CIA experiments with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of the illegal clandestine program MKUltra. Olson had leaped to his death in 1953. The CIA was hoping to find drugs that could be used for interrogation purposes.
Vietnam sent an order to all "puppet soldiers" of Army of the Republic of Vietnam to attend three days of "re-education" (hoc tap), and for former officers to bring supplies for one month of training. Most officers who reported were held for more than one month.
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Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass held a concert at Camp Talega, Camp Pendleton, to entertain Vietnamese refugees.
President Ford reported that 3,341 refugees had been relocated to third countries, with a majority going to Canada.
An artillery salute at Shea stadium for the Army's 200th anniversary went wrong.
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Major South Vietnamese spy, Võ Văn Ba, who had infiltrated the North Vietnamese and who had served, in that capacity, as the Communist Party secretary for Phu Kuong district, Tây Ninh province with responsibility for recruiting members of the Cao Dai religious sect, committed suicide in captivity.
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The Department of Health, Education and Welfare promulgated rules prohibiting separate physical education classes for boys and girls and schools from excluding pregnant students from the classroom.
I can't recall this happening, and I wonder if there were nuances to it. In junior high, which I was just going into, PE classes were definitely separated into male and female. They were not in high school.
I can only recall one pregnant student while in high school, and she was married.
Uganda nationalisted all land holdings.
Sultan Alimirah Hanfere, leader of Ethiopia's Afar people and of the Afar Liberation Front, declared war on the Ethiopian government.
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Neutralist Laotian Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma ordered the Royal Lao Army to lay down their arms and cease further resistance as the Pathet Lao took Savannakhet.
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Gerald Ford.
The statement was issued to calm NATO fears that the US might back out of its commitments to Europe, the way it had in Vietnam.
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The US and Laos reached an agreement which included that all Americans were to leave Laos,by June 30, 1975.
The nation was not yet fully controlled by the Pathet Lao.
Falling like dominoes.
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Gerald Ford issued the following proclamation:
Proclamation 4375—Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, May 26, 1975
May 22, 1975
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
At the height of the Civil War, President Lincoln proclaimed at a battlefield cemetery "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." Shortly after that tragic war, a day was set aside each year to honor those who gave their lives.
Over 100 years have passed since that simple but moving ceremony at Gettysburg. There have been many Memorial Days, and many more Americans have died in defense of what we believe in. As Thomas Paine said, "Those who would reap the blessings of freedom must . . . undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Today, because of the sacrifice and courage of American men and women, we are a free Nation at peace.
Let us dedicate ourselves today, and every day, to honoring those valiant Americans who died in service to their country. Let us gain strength from their sacrifice and devote ourselves to the peaceful pursuits which freedom allows and progress demands.
With faith in ourselves, future Memorial Days will find us still united in our purpose. Let us join together in working toward the greatest memorial we can construct for those who lay down their lives for us-a peace so durable that there will be no need for further sacrifices.
In recognition of those Americans to whom we pay tribute today, the Congress, by joint resolution of May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has requested that the President issue a Proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and to designate a period during that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer.
Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 1975, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11 o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in prayer.
I urge all of America's news media to assist in this observance.
I direct that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels of the Federal Government throughout the United States and all areas under its jurisdiction and control.
I also call upon the Governors of the fifty States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and appropriate officials of all local units of government to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on all public buildings during the customary forenoon period; and I request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the same period.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.
GERALD R. FORD
It was my father's 46th birthday.
As it was a day he didn't have to work, my guess is that we went fishing on the North Platte.
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Bobby Unser won the 1975 Indianapolis 500, which was halted after 435 miles due to a rainstorm. My father likely would have watched this on television.
There was a lunar eclipse.
I turned 12 years old, although I don't remember it. In 1975 we probably went to Mass the evening prior. As this was a Sunday in May, we may have gone fishing on the river during the day. We wouldn't have had a party or anything, but my parents would have gotten me a few gifts and likely my mother made some sort of a cake.
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The last naturally occurring case of the smallpox virus variola major was found on a woman named Saiban Bibi in the Assam state of India.
The last case of variola minor was found in Somalia, at Merca, in October 1977.
The elimination of the disease is a scientific triumph that occured in an era in which the lethality of diseases was still widely appreciated.
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Most American employees of the U.S Embassy in Laos were ordered to evacuate.
The U.S. has an embassy in Laos presently. In fact, the countries never severed diplomatic relations and normalized them in 1992.
The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 was signed into law by President Ford. The act provided for resettlement of South Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees into the United States. In 1975 it would be amended to include include refugees from Laos.
A military government was appointed to govern Lebanon.
Former President of the Teamsters Union Dave Beck was pardoned by President Ford.
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The Khmer Rouge began to purge Cambodians associated with the former government, a move that would feature mass execution.
This is commonly viewed as the beginning of the Cambodian Genocide.
The House of Representatives voted 303-96 to admit women to the previously all-male service academies. The move was quite controversial at the time.
The Senate would follow suit, with the first women entering the academies in the summer of 1976.
The final episode of the police series Adam-12 was broadcast.
Last episode.
Executive Order 11860—Establishing the President's Advisory Committee on Refugees
May 19, 1975
Since the arrival of the first settlers on our eastern seaboard nearly 400 years ago, America has been a refuge for victims of persecution, intolerance and privation from around the world. Tide after tide of immigrants has settled here and each group has enriched cur heritage and added to our well-being as a nation.
For many residents of Southeast Asia who stood by America as an ally and who have lost their homeland in the tragic developments of the past few weeks, America offers a last, best hope upon which they can build new lives. We are a big country and their numbers are proportionately small. We must open our doors and our hearts.
The arrival of thousands of refugees, mostly children, will require many adjustments on their part and considerable assistance on ours. But it is in our best interest as well as theirs to make this transition as gracious and efficient as humanly possible.
I have determined that it would be in the public interest to establish an advisory committee to the President on the resettlement in the United States of refugees from Indochina.
Now, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:
SECTION 1. Establishment of a Presidential Advisory Committee. There is hereby established the President's Advisory Committee on Refugees, hereinafter referred to as the Committee. The Committee shall be composed of such citizens from private life as the President may, from time to time, appoint. The President shall designate one member of the Committee to serve as chairman.
SEC. 2. Functions of the Advisory Committee. The Committee shall advise the President and the heads of appropriate Federal agencies concerning the expeditious and coordinated resettlement of refugees from Southeast Asia. The Committee shall include in its advice, consideration of the following areas:
(a) Health and environmental matters related to resettlement;
(b) the interrelationship of the governmental and volunteer roles in the resettlement;
(c) educational and cultural adjustments required by these efforts;
(d) the general well-being of resettled refugees and their families in their new American communities; and
(e) such other related concerns as the President may, from time to time, specify.
The Committee shall also seek to facilitate the location, solicitation, and channeling of private resources for these resettlement efforts, and to establish lines of communication with all concerned governmental agencies, relevant voluntary agencies, the Vietnamese-American community and the American public at large. The Committee shall conclude its work within one year.
SEC. 3. Assistance, Cooperation, and Expenses.
(a) All executive departments and agencies of the Federal government, to the extent permitted by law, are directed to cooperate with the Committee and to furnish such information, facilities, funds, and assistance as the Committee may require.
(b) No member of the Committee shall receive compensation from the United States by reason of service on the Committee, but may, to the extent permitted by law, be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law (5 U.S.C. 5703).
SEC. 4. Federal Advisory Committee Act. Notwithstanding the provisions of any other Executive order, the functions of the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App. 1), except that of reporting annually to Congress, which are applicable to the advisory committee established by this Order, shall be performed by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.
GERALD R. FORD
The White House,
May 19, 1975.
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A Marine Corps raid on Koh Tang island took back the Mayaguez, which they found deserted, while a Navy air raid destroyed the now Khmer Rouge run Cambodian navy.
Eighteen Marines were killed in combat and an additional 23 in a helicopter crash in the raid. Khmer forces were much larger than anticipated and resistance heavy. The helicopter passengers were not fully accounted for when the withdrawal occurred and it was later determined that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) a shall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.
Sailing under a white flag, a Cambodian vessel brought thirty Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson.
It is really this date, and not the one that was declared several days earlier, that should be regarded as the end of the Vietnam War Era, as this was really the last combat in the US's involvement in the Indochinese War, of which the Vietnam War was part. It interesting came to an end somewhat in the way in which it had started in earnest, with Marines being deployed over a ship, as they would be because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
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Thousands of Hmong soldiers and officers and their families who had assisted the CIA during the Laotian Civil War, reported to the Long Chieng airbase in Laos for air evacuation. Only two cargo planes were assigned the duty, but they managed to take out 2,500 Hmong.
This brings back up the discussion here earlier of Ma Yang, a Hmong was deported by the U.S. to Laos even though she only speaks English and has lived in the US since she was eight months old. As far as I know, nothing has yet been done to address her plight.
Today is Hmong American Day in the United States, which is set on this day in recognition of the evacuation and ultimately that a population of the Hmong Diaspora relocated to the U.S. The largest population of Hmong live in China, which is actually where the ethnic group originates, with Vietnam having the second largest population.
Dalton Trumbo was presented an Academy Award for his 1956 script for The Brave Ones, which had been earlier awarded under a pseudonym due to Trumbo then being blacklisted.
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