On this date: 1975 – The Fall of Saigon
CBSN
You've probably seen pictures of the mob which stormed the American Embassy in Saigon desperate to find a way out in the final hours of the Vietnam War. But maybe you haven't heard the radio transmissions of the American pilots who pulled off the largest helicopter evacuation in history. I know I hadn't, until we found some of them in the Marine Corps archives.
> Okay, let's pick it up here. It looks like things are about to close up and we want to be able to give them the support they need. > All right – max it out.
That's the airborne commander directing helicopters into both the embassy and Tan Son Nhut Airport outside Saigon to pick up hundreds of Americans and thousands of Vietnamese. "Alamo" is the call sign for the airport, which was being shelled by advancing North Vietnamese troops.
