Kabul evacuations: Echoes of 1975 US exit from Vietnam’s Saigon?

Back in June, as Taliban built momentum, Biden himself addressed Saigon parallels and dismissed them out of hand.

Thousands of US soldiers being sent to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban pushes towards the city has revived memories of the fall of Saigon. A photo that immortalised America’s defeat in Vietnam, showing evacuees boarding a helicopter on the roof of a building, spread fast on social networks after the US announced the emergency deployment on Thursday. “The latest news of a further drawdown at our embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” leading Republican legislator Mitch McConnell said.