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Fascinating handwritten account of the U.S. evacuation during the Fall of Saigon on 29 April 1975, the closing bookend of the Vietnam War. Recollection is written by Intelligence Medal of Merit awardee Frank Snepp, who served as the CIA's chief strategy analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Having survived the helicopter evacuation himself that day, Snepp writes in full upon the photo:
''April 29, 1975: Just before daybreak enemy gunners began pounding Saigon's outskirts. A naval task force was standing by offshore to evacuate Americans and at-risk Vietnamese by chopper. But not until mid-afternoon did the big birds from the fleet begin arriving at regular intervals because Ambassador Graham Martin was slow to admit defeat. Meanwhile, the CIA's in-country carrier, Air American, began sending its Hueys around the city to pick up terrified evacuees and ferry them to the embassy, to Saigon's airbase and to the fleet itself. Around midday CIA Station Chief Tom Polgar directed me to help organize the rescue of a group of Vietnamese VIPs. It was to be a rooftop extraction from one of the nearby buildings equipped for such operations. I identified the more secure locations. CIA Air Officer, OB Harnage, a grizzled Navy veteran of WWII, decided on a nine-story high-rise a half mile from the embassy. It was home to a senior CIA officer with a raised helipad up top.
Four weeks before, I had met there with a top CIA intelligence source and received early warning that the Communists meant to seize Saigon militarily without pausing for negotiations - exactly what was happening now. With no time to spare, Harnage summoned an Air America Huey and headed for the chosen address, 22 Gia Long Street, as I listened in by radio. Panicked civilians were already inside the building and swarming the metal stairways leading up to the chopper pad.
Sizing up the chaos, Harnage morphed into a bat out of hell. Jamming a cigar in this mouth, brandishing his Swedish K., he punched an unruly Korean national who was threatening to charge the idling Huey, then began exercising rough crowd control at the lip of the pad. At least three times that afternoon, using two different choppers, he loaded up desperate souls and sent them off to safety. Each time - though a Huey can comfortably carry only 13 passengers - he crammed more aboard, making extra space by planting himself on a chopper skid for the ride out.
At about 2:30 pm, a UPI photographer in a nearby building caught a shot of Harnage leaning towards the upper stairway, policing those up top. It was the most famous image of Saigon's infamous last day. Among those Harnage rescued from 22 Gia Long were Saigon's Defense Minister and one of his top spymasters. By the time the entire evacuation ended early the next morning, nearly 1400 Americans, including yours truly, and more than 5,000 Vietnamese were safely aboard U.S. Navy ships thanks in part to Air America crews and U.S. military pilots who had bravely stayed aloft during Saigon's death throes.
Frank Snepp, senior CIA analyst / Saigon Station / 1969-1975
Author of Decent Interval, a memoir of the fall of Saigon.'' Large glossy photo measures 36'' x 24''. Near fine condition.
Frank Snepp Handwritten Memory of the Evacuation at 22 Gia Long St. During the Fall of Saigon -- ''...It was the most famous image of Saigon's infamous last day...''
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