April 30th, 1981. 20/20 Eyewitness news looks back at the last American troops leaving Vietnam six years before.
“By the last week of April the entire top of South Vietnam was last, Saigon itself was cordoned off and surrounded…now it was no longer a question of whether or not the Americans in Vietnam would pull out, it was only a question of when…”
This segment begins looking at the cultural happenings in 1975, before moving to the biggest event of that year and its extensive cast of characters. We learn how in the weeks of April Americans and the Vietnamese supporting them were making every attempt to leave the country, and the eery quiet in Saigon during that time period. War footage and reports during that time show the chaotic scenes.
As the segment continues principals are interviewed, CIA agents in the country, generals in charge of the theater, embassy security guards, helicopter evacuation pilots and many more. So many helicopters are bringing evacuees to American ships that there is no space for them, and the choppers are pushed into the sea. Classified documents are being shredded at the embassy, a huge cache of weapons will be blown up, thousands of Vietnamese are at the gates desparate to get in, in order to get out of the country. U.S. Marines deploy tear gas and form a security perimeter to maintain order.
The chaotic fall of Saigon continues to referenced in American cultural and military settings. In 2026 the city is more commonly known as Ho Chi Minh City.
This stock footage courtesy of Geraldo’s television history.
Some of the original audio in this television archive has been replaced. Hall of the Mountain King by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/