Massachusetts Marines Recall Final Hours of Vietnam War
Thousands of American military personnel were evacuated from Saigon in helecopters, but then the flights stopped coming.
Ho Chi Minh City is thriving. There’s American fast food and famous French architecture. There’s shiny new skyrises and a historic Reunification Palace. It’s become a tourism destination.
Forty years ago, the city was in chaos.
Reunification Day is the Vietnamese holiday that marks the Fall of Saigon. For one installment in a series called “40 Years Later: A Return to Vietnam,’’ WBUR reporters Bob Oakes and Shannon Dooling traveled to the former Saigon to reflect on the contrasting images the world saw for so long.
Oakes and Dooling interviewed former Massachusetts marines who remembered the final moments of the Vietnam War personally:
“It wasn’t even in the plans to ever evacuate from the embassy and now we’re in a position where we’ve got people who are scared to death all around us, there’s forces out in the streets with weapons,’’ [Marine Bill Newell, of Hopkinton] recalled recently. “People are trying to get over our walls and now we’ve got helicopter landings on the rooftop and in the parking lot.’’
Read the full WBUR report here.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com