Monday, April 28, 1975. Ordering the ARVN to hold on.

U.S Consul Francis Terry McNamara met with ARVN Major General Nguyễn Khoa Nam about the plans to evacuate U.S consulate employees, some American civilians and some Vietnamese employees by boat. General Nam didn't want any members of the ARVN to be included, so they could remain and fight. 

A North Vietnamese air raid on Tan Son Nhut Air Base caused half of the fixed winged aircraft to be evacuated from the air base.

The RVNAF launched a helicopter attack on VC troops who were attempting to occupy the Newport Bridge, which was followed by a ground attack.

President Dương Văn Minh made an inaugural speech about the struggle of the South Vietnam military and finding ways for the peace to end the war.  He ordered the ARVN to hold all remaining ground and urged the South Vietnamese to stay in the country pending a ceasefire which he promised would keep South Vietnam separate from the north.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 27, 1975. Big Minh takes charge.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Dương Văn Minh, North Vietnamese Army, Personalities, South Vietnam, Trần Văn Hương, Vietnam War, Vietnamese Diaspora

Saturday, April 26, 1975. The attack on Saigon begins.

The NVA commenced its attack on Saigon with a bombardment of the Bien Hoa Air Base.

Cable from Graham Martin, Ambassador to South Vietnam, to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Concerning the Evacuation of Vietnam

TV Guide had an article on Sex and Violence in television, which is interesting given the context of the times.

It also featured McCloud, which was a popular police drama in the era of police dramas.  The show featured Gunsmoke veteran Dennis Weaver as a New Mexico police detective somehow assigned to Brooklyn.  I recall my father used to watch it.  That entire plot line sounds a lot like the plot of 1968 film Coogan's Bluff, which featured Clint Eastwood as a sheriff's deputy from Arizona on assignment in New York.

TV Guide was a weekly magazine my father subscribed to.  I don't know if it exists anymore.  It ran all of the television schedules for the week.  I always thought it was an odd thing to subscribe to really, but it came to the house.

Last edition:

Friday April 25, 1975. White Christmas.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Australia, Communism, Mexico, Mexico City, Portugal, Saigon Vietnam, South Vietnam, Terrorism, The Fall of Saigon, United States, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Saturday, April 12, 1975. Eagle Pull.

US ambassador John Gunther Dean stepping off Marine Corps helicopter in Thailand.

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.

Last edition:

Friday, April 11, 1975. The looming end for Cambodia and the NVA takes the Spratlys.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Cambodian Civil War, China, Gerald Ford, North Vietnamese Army, Operation Eagle Pull, People's Republic of China, Spratly Islands, United States Marine Corps

Tuesday, April 8, 1975. "Over in a month".

U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater claimed that the Vietnam War "would have been over in a month" had he been elected President in 1964.

1964 Goldwater bumper sticker.

Seems doubtful.

Goldwater was the most right wing truly conservative Republican candidate to have ever been nominated, far more conservative than Ronald Reagan, and a true conservative, unlike the current occupant of the Oval Office.

A South Vietnamese pilot, Nguyễn Thành Trung, dropped bombs on the Presidential Place and then defected.  

This is an event that I can recall occuring.

He want on to serve in the North Vietnamese air force and then worked as a commercial pilot for Vietnam Airlines.

South Vietnamese Major General Nguyễn Văn Hiếu was found shot dead in his command post.at the  Biên Hòa airbase, 

The Godfather Part II won an Academy Award for best picture, the first sequel to do so.

Frank Robinson became the first black manager in Major League.  More on Robinson:

April 8, 1975: Frank Robinson Becomes Baseball's 1st Black Manager

Last edition:

Monday, April 7, 1975. A meeting in Thailand.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Cambodia, Cambodian Civil War, Indochina, Japan, Khemr Rouge, Operation Babylift, Thailand, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War, Women