Word: saigon
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Even as President Ford pleaded for more military aid to South Viet Nam, Saigon's troops fled from the north in a frenzy, abandoning an estimated $700 million worth of military equipment. Said a Pentagon officer: "We might just as well send the stuff directly to Hanoi?then it wouldn't get damaged." The U.S. was appalled by the brutal way in which South Vietnamese marines, many trained by the U.S., stormed an American evacuation ship leaving Danang, looting, raping and killing refugees in a wild scramble to escape. Many Americans became preoccupied with helping refugees, especially children, though even...
...Washington officials to say publicly what others were conceding privately. "I guess a lot of Vietnamese are going to die." Somewhat bitterly, he added, "For us, we go on living." Later, Rockefeller insisted that his "too late" view applied only to the fate of the refugees. Yet, while the Saigon government might shake up its personnel, and perhaps even rally some effective defense of the city and the Mekong Delta, its long-range military fate appeared sealed. The Communists, now superior in both firepower and manpower, could take their time in striking the final blows...
...urged Ford to defend the Nixon-Kissinger Viet Nam policy that had produced the 1973 Paris accords, for which Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize. They wanted the major blame pinned on Congress for its alleged failure to live up to those accords by cutting back aid to Saigon. Others knew that the facts were not so simple. At any rate, Ford's closest White House advisers, including Counsellor Robert Hartmann, felt that nothing could be gained by dwelling on past mistakes or misguided policy, and they pleaded for a forward-looking presidential leadership that would stress the need...
While Ford exaggerated the strategic importance of South Viet Nam and overplayed U.S. responsibility for Saigon's debacle, there was no question that the American image was at least temporarily damaged and that some U.S. allies were jittery. The Japanese government announced that it was reappraising its pro-Saigon policy and that its Foreign Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, who will visit Washington this week, will ask Kissinger to reaffirm the U.S. nuclear protection of Japan. In South Korea, the nervous government of President Park Chung Hee seemed to accept the Kissinger linkage theory that events in one part of the world...
...Regardless of what happens in Indochina, the President will emphasize, America will remain faithful to its commitments elsewhere. He is also expected to outline precisely what, if anything, the U.S. can now do about the deteriorating situation in South Viet Nam, based on the mission to Saigon of Army Chief of Staff General Frederick C. Weyand and the resulting options prepared by the National Security Council. Briefing the press after meeting with Weyand, Kissinger gave no hint that the U.S. has any intention of abandoning President Thieu. Asked about Thieu's charge that Americans could be called "traitors" if they...