Thursday, April 10, 1975. A request, and a denial, for aid.

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.

Operation Eagle Pull Demonstrates Successful Evacuation of Noncombatants April 8, 2025 | By David Vergun U.S. citizens and local nationals were evacuated by helicopter from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during Operation Eagle Pull, which occurred 50 years ago, April 12, 1975. The operation became necessary as the communist military group Khmer Rouge surrounded the capital of Phnom Penh to overthrow the U.S.-backed Khmer Republic government.  Planning for the evacuation started months earlier. On Jan. 6, 1975, the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit, part of the amphibious ready group, was alerted to sail to the Gulf of Thailand near Cambodia to prepare for an evacuation. Three months later, on April 3, 1975, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia John Gunther Dean requested the deployment of an Operation Eagle Pull command element, which landed at Pochentong International Airport near Phnom Penh. The command element supervised the fixed-wing aircraft evacuation of more than 750 Cambodians over the next seven days. By April 10, 1975, artillery and rocket fire directed at the airport by the Khmer Rouge became so intense that the fix-wing evacuation was stopped.  As a final option, the command group selected a soccer field close to the U.S. Embassy as a helicopter landing zone for further evacuation. The embassy staff prepared to leave April 11, 1975, but the evacuation was delayed a day, allowing the USS Hancock, a World War II-era aircraft carrier, to join the evacuation fleet. In addition to the Hancock, the fleet consisted of the amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa, which carried CH-46 Sea Knight, CH-53 Sea Stallion, AH-1J Sea Cobra and UH-1E Iroquois helicopters; the amphibious transport dock ship USS Vancouver; and the dock landing ship USS Thomaston.  The destroyer USS Edson, the guided missile destroyer USS Henry B. Wilson, the destroyer escorts USS Knox and USS Kirk, and the frigate USS Cook provided escort and naval gunfire support.   At 6 a.m., April 12, 1975, helicopters began launching from the USS Okinawa and USS Vancouver, with a security force of 360 Marines.  Around 8:45 a.m., the first wave of helicopters made it to the landing zone, where Marines established perimeter security and began evacuating 84 Americans, 205 Cambodians and other foreign nationals. The U.S. Embassy was shuttered by 9:45 a.m., and at 11:15 a.m., the combat control team and Eagle Pull command element were safely extracted.  The last Marine helicopter landed on the USS Okinawa at 12:15 a.m.  On April 13, 1975, the evacuees were flown to U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand, and the amphibious ready group set sail to the South China Sea to participate in the Saigon, South Vietnam evacuation, which occurred at the end of the month.   Eagle Pull was a tactical success because everyone evacuated made it safely out. However, it was not considered a political strategic success because the U.S.-backed government would soon fall.  On April 18, 1975, the Khmer Rouge occupied Phnom Penh and soon after began executing perceived political opponents and minority groups, resulting in the deaths of up to 2 million people, which was about 25% of Cambodia's population.  The U.S. Embassy in Cambodia reopened, and normal relations resumed in May 1994.  With the passage of the 1971 Cooper-Church Amendment, which cut off funding for U.S. military operations in Laos and Cambodia, it was only a matter of time before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, according to Sydney H. Batchelder and D.A. Quinlan, authors of "Operation Eagle Pull," a May 1976 article published in the Marine Corps Gazette magazine.  This amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1970 was named for Senators John Cooper and Frank Church, who sponsored it.  Eagle Pull was an early example of noncombatant evacuation operations, or NEOs, by helicopter. The Marine Corps and the other services participated in many subsequent NEOs around the globe, using a blueprint similar to Eagle Pull. Some were considered successful, and others less so.  Eagle Pull also demonstrated the utility of an amphibious ready group in operations, both military and humanitarian.

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.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 9, 1975. Holding out.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Battle of Xuân Lộc, Federal Communications Comission, India, Indian Army, Kingdom of Sikkum, North Vietnamese Army, South Korea, television, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Tuesday, May 8, 1973. End of the Seige at Wounded Knee.

Today In Wyoming's History: May 8: 1973    Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.

US Marshals with duck hunter pattern camouflage raise the flat at Wounded Knee. From https://www.usmarshals.gov/who-we-are/history/historical-reading-room/incident-wounded-knee

Sudan, much in the news recently, released all of its political prisoners as a new constitution went into effect.

Palden Thandup Namgyal gave up his absolute authority of Sikkim in an agreement with India.

Fighting broke out between Lebanon and the PLO.

Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals made his 242nd consecutive start, a 20th Century record, in a game against the San Francisco Giants.

Tuesday, April 3, 1973. The beginning of the end of personal space and time.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 3:  1973  The T E Ranch Headquarters, near Cody, WY, which William F. Cody had owned, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first handheld cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper in a demonstration call by Motorola.

Would that this would never have occurred.

Montreal announced Canada's first lottery in an effort to help pay for the upcoming 1976 Olympics.

The USSR launched Salyut 2, it's second space station.  It would be a failure due to hitting fragments soon thereafter, and it would crash back to Earth on May 28.  Well, not crash.  It burned up before it hit.

The Kingdom of Sikkim within India experienced a large-scale revolt which would require Indian intervention, and result in eventual Indian annexation.

Seal of Sikkum, downright scary.