The SS Mayaguez was stopped in international waters by the P-128, a Cambodian gunboat manned by Khmer Rouge forces. The boat was taken, and its crewmembers made captives.
The Khmer Rouge crew of the P-128 had acted without informing their superiors.
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A celebration organized by anti war figure and songwriter Phil Ochs marked the end of the Vietnam War, which of course by necessary implication marked the South Vietnamese defeat. The event in Central park included performances by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon.
The ironies are thick, as the poster above portrays. Rather than smiling Vietnamese women, there were thousands of South Vietnamese going into an uncertain future that included "reeducation", although this time the Communists in Vietnam did not commit mass murders. The Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao, however, were about to.
A partial solar eclipse was visible in Greenland, Europe, north Africa and north Asia.
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The Khmer Rouge captured the Thổ Chu Islands, where they evacuated and later executed 500 Vietnamese civilians.
The PAVN (NVA) launched a counterattack from Phú Quốc and Thổ Chu and attacked Cambodia's Poulo Wai island.
Peace certainly had not come to the region.
The Federal Government announced it would not cover $1.5B in New York expenditures which had been asked for by the city. I can recall this really being a topic of conversation.
Sony introduced the Betamax home videotaping system. It costs $2,488 in 1975 dollars, which would be well over $10,000 now.
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550 occupants of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh crossed into Thailand. They included 300 Khmer Muslims.
The People's Republic of China and the European Community agreed to establish trade and diplomatic relations.
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The one millionth run in Major League Baseball history was scored by Bob Watson of the Houston Astros.
The Khmer Rouge seized control of South Vietnam's Phú Quốc Island.
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The ARVN withdrew from Xuân Lộc.
The Khmer Rouge declared that all former regime employees, including soldiers, needed to register with the new government.
A largescale military wedding took place involving members of the ROK SWC 9th Brigade. This is linked directly to Reddit:
More photos of it can be found here: Wedding.
Note the uniforms heavily impacted by the Vietnam War, which South Korea participated in.
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Hang Thun Hak, 48 year old former radical Socialist Prime Minister of Cambodia was executed by the Khmer Rouge. He'd been in the far left himself and had contacts with the Khmer Rouge, none of which saved him, with execution of left wing radicals actually being common amongst Communist.
The NVA took Phan Thiết.
Van McCoy released The Hustle.
ZZ Top released Fandango!
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Khmer Rouge cadres marched into Phnom Penh, forced all residents out of their homes, marched them into the countryside, and began mass murders.
Around 2,000,000 Cambodians would die during the Cambodian genocide which only ended when the Vietnamese Army conquered Cambodia during the Cambodian Vietnamese War.
A CIA spy inside the North Vietnamese government inner circle informed the US Embassy in Saigon that the North would not negotiated, which was pretty obvious by this point anyway.
The last flight of the RAAF out of Vietnam took place, thereby taking a total of 270 Vietnamese civilians to Thailand.
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Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians. Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.
Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."
The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.
Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland
Josephine Baker died at age 68.
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President Ford requested Congress to provide South Vietnam: $722 million in military aid and $250 million for economic aid, an absolutely massive amount in 1975 dollars. He also asked for the lifting of Case-Church restrictions in the event U.S. military intervention became necessary to help American citizens in Vietnam. He asked for a response by April 17. . Congress declined and expressed doubt that the aid could arrive in time to be useful, which, quite frankly, absent direct American intervention, was probably correct.
His appeal reinforced by recent successes by the ARVN at Xuan Loc and in IV CORPS. Units of the ARVN were fighting well.
We also start today with a surprising recollection by the Department of Defense recalling events that commenced on this day in 1975.
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The legislature of the Kingdom of Sikkim voted to become part of India.
Lee Elder became the first African American to play in the Masters.
The Masters must be played surprisingly early in the year.
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Cambodian Prime Minister Long Boret met with representatives of the Khmer Rouge in Thailand.
Wives of Air Force men stationed in Japan volunteered to assist in Operation Babylift.
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President Ford ordered the evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh.
Operation Babylift began as a U.S. effort to bring South Vietnamese orphans to the United States. Widely lauded today (it would be unlikely to take place, frankly, under the current administration), there was some criticism at the time on the assertion that not all the children were actually orphans, and that it was a cultural based decision given that young people were being taken out of their native land to avoid communism.
Gen. Weyand met with President Thiệu in Saigon and promised more American aid to South Vietnam, but declined Thiệu's request for a renewal of American bombing of North Vietnamese forces. As they both well knew, without U.S. air support there was no hope for the ARVN.
South Vietnamese Prime Minister Trần Thiện Khiêm resigned. He would take up exile in France and then the United States, converting to Catholicism there. He died in 2021.
Israel and South Africa signed SECMENT, a secret mutual defense agreement.
Bobby Fischer refused to play a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, and thereby ceded the title of chess champion.
Actress Mary Ure, most famous for her role in Where Eagles Dare, and the wife of Robert Shaw, died of an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates at age 42.
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The ongoing collapse in South Vietnam was increasingly spreading to neighboring Cambodia, where Neak Leung fell to Khmer Rouge after fierce Cambodian resistance. cutting off a supply route to Phnom Penh from South Vietnam.
Cambodian President Lon Nol went into exile, being succeeded by Saukaum Khoy. He'd spend the rest of his life in Hawaii.
Qui Nhơn in South Vietnam fell to the NVA giving the communists control of half of South Vietnam's landmass.
South Vietnamese Gen.hú departed Nha Trang secretly by helicopter after having previously refused requests from his men to retreat from the city. The American Consul General in Nha Trang, Moncrieff Spear, ordered the evacuation of American personnel from the city, leaving behind about 100 of the consulate's Vietnamese employees and one of the five Marine Security Guards, Sergeant Michael A. McCormick by accident.
McCormick was later able to leave Nha Trang on a CIA Air America helicopter.
The bicentennial "Freedom Train" began its tour of the United States starting with a display in Wilmington, Delaware.
A disgrace.
Kissinger later asserted that President Ford needed to decide on a plan to evacuate Americans and some Vietnamese allies within a week. Vice President Rockefeller feared that because the mob would be so unruly during the evacuation, that Marines would have to shoot refugees.
The situation in Cambodia was also discussed.
Ford authorized the use of U.S. Navy vessels to assist in the evacuation of South Vietnamese cities.
The New Zealand surgical team was evacuated from Qui Nhơn ending a twelve year mission there.
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