On 29 Apr 1975, during the Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The last US citizens begin evacuation from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. In 19 hours, 81 helicopters carried more than 1,000 Americans and almost 6,000 Vietnamese to aircraft carriers offshore. Cpl. Charles McMahon, Jr. and Lance Cpl. Darwin Judge, USMC, were the last US military personnel killed in action in Vietnam, as they were guarding Tan Son Nhut Airbase during the evacuation. At 7:53 a.m. on April 30, the last helicopter lifted off the rook of the embassy and headed out to sea. Later that morning, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace. The Vietnam War was over.
The US military never lost a major battle during the entire war. The politicians kept changing the rules and then decided to cut-n-run when the American media backed up by American protesters decided that we were loosing. As a result, all the Vietnamese people who took us at our word that we would be there for them were murdered or imprisoned–much to our shame. Let’s not do that to the folks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
