"Last Days in Vietnam" - Documentary Nominated for Academy Award

[jgaynor]

Downloaded this 2014 documentary from Amazon this AM. It covers the end of the war and the evacuation of US personnel and Vietnamese. Very interesting and well made film. A distinct tribute to the people who served up to the bitter end.

[louigi]

PBS had a 2 day showing last week. Very well done, and learned a lot of details. Much of the filming was amazing.

[Griff Murphey]

I was with BLT 1-4 on USS DURHAM at Phan Rhang. We picked up 3500. Our regimental commander, Col. Al Gray gave us a big speech that we were going to sail up the Saigon River like in the movie THE SAND PEBBLES. I was really glad that did not happen.

On USS DUBUQUE LPD -8 I often saw Col. Gray fly off to Saigon in a silver AIR AMERICA Huey, wearing khaki trousers and a Hawaiian shirt.

The movie was shown at the Ft. Worth Museum of modern Art. It really put what happened in Saigon in perspective although I was dusappointed they showed none of our efforts. We had no film crews with us.

[Col. Colt]

As a pretty good armchair historian who lived through that time and kept up with news, let me chime in. I'm sure someone will correct any impressions I have that are wrong. Over one Million casualties, destruction of all meaningful tactical and strategic targets in the North by air, and the cutoff of North Vietnam's supply of AA and SAM Missles by mining the harbors and dropping the bridges to China giving the US complete air superiority brought them to the Peace Table.

The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1972 and the Vietnam War ended. Prisoners of War were exchanged, borders were supposed to be inviolate, and the US Military (except for computer and helicopter technicians and the Navy offshore) came home. We promised to stop any future incursions by the North - the B-52s from Guam would flatten any such move.

The North Vietnamese, after two years of re-equipping and rearming, in Violation of the Peace Treaty, REINVADED South Vietnam and took Saigon in 1974. President Gerald Ford judged the US public "too war weary" and left the B-52s in their hangers, giving South Vietnam, after a valent fight, to the North.

I think it is a terrible injustice to not acknowledge that the US Military did NOT "Lose" the Vietnam War - they won it. The spineless politicians "LOST" Vietnam, after our feats of arms ended the conflict.

This matters. We were NOT defeated - Henry Kissenger, the weakling Gerald R. Ford and the rest of the One World xxxxxxx in our Government spoiled what was an actual victory. I would refer you to the excellent book, Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973 (Vandamere Press, 1999, $24.95), author Mark Woodruff written by a Marine who was there, and who went to the trouble to study what happened in depth, to include North Vietnamese records. Here is a link to a good summary/review: http://www.historynet.com/book-review-unheralded-victory-the-defeat-of-the-viet-cong-and-the-north-vietnamese-army-1961-1973-by-mark-woodruff-vandamere-press.htm

Until I read this book, I too "blurred" the entire story into one sad mess - and I, like most Americans, saw a defeat. Mark Woodruff correctly points out that we never lost a major battle, or the war itself.

But the American Left and their many friends in the Media wanted to degrade and disgrace the US Military and our soldiers, and ridicule the US policy of protecting Freedom in the world. The Leftists in the Newsrooms got their revenge. They created a false narrative that members of the US Military are "losers". And they've kept that alive with misleading and misunderstood pictures of the helicopters on the Embassy roof for years. Don't keep their lies alive. We evacuated lots of people - but there was no US Military combat presence when we did. We did not "go with our tails between our legs". That is a huge disservice to all who served.... CC

[Griff Murphey]

Ty33405334063340733404[ATTACH=CONFIG]33405

In his book GOODNIGHT, SAIGON, Charles Henderson gives another scenario to the evacuation. He says the initial plan was for my unit, 1-4, to make an amphibious landing with the full BLT including armor and artillery, but casualties were anticipated to be over 50 percent. One supposes the idea was to establish a toe hold to move back in, or establish a safe zone for evacuees.

Both ideas, sailing up the Saigon River, or conducting a battalion sized amphibious assault, were in my opinion not very practical.

Of course as a lowly O-3 and a Navy dentist to boot, I wasn't invited to any of those planning sessions. However the corpsman in the BAS openly discussed the idea of the amphibious landing. But then they were in the battalion area on Okinawa and I was in the dental clinic in the day and the O club at night.

We picked up 3500 at Phan Rhang on USS DURHAM LKA-114, more than any other US NAVY ship.

Sorry about the sideways boat pix. Dunno why or how to fix.