Latest news with #ParisPeaceAccords
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
50 years later, Air Force pilot recalls Operation Babylift flight that killed 138
SAIGON, Vietnam — As the Vietnam War continued into the 1970s, pressure to get U.S. troops out of the fray was mounting. By 1973, troops finally began withdrawing from one of the most unpopular conflicts in American history. But what remained in Vietnam was a population of the most vulnerable, innocent bystanders: babies and young children. Refusing to comply with the guidelines of the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese Army continued its onslaught in the South as it worked its way to the nation's capital of Saigon. As the situation became more dire, President Gerald Ford ordered the evacuation of nearly 3,000 Vietnamese orphans, known as Operation Babylift. The first flight was scheduled for April 4, 1975. At the time, Dennis 'Bud' Traynor was an Air Force captain, tasked with flying his C5-A Galaxy aircraft into Saigon with a type of cargo he was unfamiliar with. 'We're used to working in tons not in people,' said the now-retired Air Force colonel. 'Upstairs in the troop compartment in the 73 seats we would put two kids, a pillow, a juice and a seatbelt. Next seat.' The older, more facile children were placed in the cargo department underneath the aircraft. With no seating, they lined the bottom of the aircraft with a blanket to shield them from the metal surface beneath them. There were 314 people on board, 250 of them were children. Just minutes into the flight, the aircraft experienced a rapid decompression. 'There was a loud bang, the cockpit filled with condensation, and I remember I didn't have my feet on the rudder pedals and they went BAM,' Traynor said. It was Traynor's first experience with a crisis of this magnitude while flying the C5. 'I sent a scanner,' Traynor said. 'He described the back of the airplane as a big gaping hole with the flight control cables hanging out the back like spaghetti.' As Traynor wrestled with the crippled aircraft, he decided to guide it to a nearby rice paddy just miles from Tan Son Nhut airport. The C5 bounced on the ground, crushing the cargo department below it as it glided to a stop hundreds of yards from where it first made contact with the remote land. 'I cranked open the window, and normally it would be 33-feet in the air but of course, I'm just stepping out onto the ground,' Traynor said. 'I got out and I look back toward the side of the flight deck and the wings were burning.' Despite the devastation and scattered debris, Traynor began looking for any survivors. With the help of local farmers, they were able to help two crew members trapped in the wreckage. But there was plenty of horror left to be uncovered. 'I was hoping to find live kids, but I did not,' Traynor said. 'Other people had gone out towards the fire and looked out, [at] what a hundred yards away was the troop compartment.' That compartment is where the youngest passengers were stowed. As Traynor got closer to the wreckage, he could see survivors being pulled out. Of the 250 children who took off on the flight, 78 died in the crash. But his skills as a pilot saved 176 people. He received the Air Force Cross for extraordinary heroism and airmanship. 'I don't think the crew took ownership of the deaths,' Traynor said. 'They took ownership of the lives.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Epoch Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Fall of Saigon, 50 Years On
Commentary Fifty years ago, on April 30, Americans were glued to their television sets. Flickering screens showed frightened civilians pushing their way up a rickety rooftop stairway, desperately trying to climb aboard one of the last departing helicopters. On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the communist armies of North Vietnam, just two years after the Paris Peace Accords and the departure of American forces. The event still polarizes the American public. According to a The Vietnamese diaspora are less conflicted, still referring to it as ' Despite the US military retreat two years earlier, this final, chaotic, terrifying scene was a black eye to a nation that had never lost a war. Korea and the War of 1812 ended with treaties, but neither was an outright defeat. The image of a helicopter on a rooftop certainly ended the myth of American invincibility, earned from the capitals of Europe to the coasts of Japan. Despite that day's bleak visuals, Related Stories 5/6/2025 4/17/2025 After nearly two decades of intervention, the public and both political parties had tired of the conflict. The war began under President Eisenhower, intensified with Kennedy and Johnson, and finally ended with Nixon's treaty falsely declaring 'peace with honor.' In a last-ditch effort to prevent Saigon's fall, President Ford asked Congress for financial aid, but the measure failed. South Vietnam paid the price. Hundreds of thousands were sent to In an odd quirk of fate, even the victorious communists eventually made peace with capitalism, decades later. In 2001, their new economic plan enhanced the role of the private sector, leading to significant economic growth. By 2007, Vietnam had joined the World Trade Organization, and regularly ranks as one of the Looking back at the entire conflict, fingers can't be pointed at one president, one party, or one event. With hindsight, however, many lessons are apparent. The Fall of Saigon is what happens when government overreach extends into war-making without clarity, conviction, or constitutional constraint. Congress never formally declared war, violating the very framework the Founders established to avoid foreign entanglements. Instead of empowering military experts on the ground, politicians micromanaged from D.C., all the while keeping a twitching eye on public opinion. The war actually was won in the paddies and jungles of Southeast Asia, but was definitively lost in the marble halls of Congress and the editorial offices of the press. Vietnam birthed the modern anti-American Left, which interpreted the war not as a failure of execution, but as an indictment of the American experiment itself. From lecture halls to Hollywood, the narrative of America as an imperial oppressor took root. The result was a generation of political leaders, academics, and cultural elites who questioned not just foreign policy, but the very legitimacy of American leadership. The Left used Vietnam as a political cudgel, bearing much of the moral blame for what followed. When progressive politicians refused to honor America's commitments, millions were left to suffer under a totalitarian regime. The American political establishment—dominated by a post-Watergate liberal consensus—chose to disengage rather than finish what Democrats had helped start. But Republicans hardly emerge with honor either. Paired with Nixon's resignation, Vietnam deepened a national distrust of government, if not outright contempt. The 'Vietnam Syndrome' took hold, fostering cynicism, defeatism, and a hesitance to project American power even when justified. The public's skepticism of military action became deeply ingrained—sometimes wisely, often reflexively. The tragedy today is that our leaders still haven't learned. In 2021, we watched the Fall of Kabul unfold in eerily similar fashion. Afghans clung to airplanes as the Taliban marched on the capital, again showing America breaking her promises. These bookends of defeat—Saigon and Kabul—share a common thread: political leaders who would rather 'end wars' than win them, and bureaucratic inertia that prizes optics over outcomes. Both tragedies severely eroded America's credibility. Our failure in Vietnam was followed by the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Our chaotic retreat from Kabul was followed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's hard to see either of these as coincidental. Going forward, politicians in both parties shouldn't extend military interventions into multi-decade affairs. Voters may tolerate a quick strike and even a brief occupation. But they consistently turn against wars that outlast presidencies. There's something especially dark about seeing a 20-year Afghanistan veteran serving alongside his son or daughter in Kandahar. As the post-WWII Cold War order recedes, the United States can no longer serve as the worldwide cop on the beat. Instead, Washington should craft a principled but limited foreign policy, rooted in national security. Promising much beyond that will result in more broken promises, foreign aggression, and human suffering. And many, many more Saigons. From the Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: End of Vietnam War didn't end conflict, or news coverage
Editor's note: This story was originally published on April 20, 2024. A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. While the end of the Vietnam War is chronicled as April 30, 1975, the conflict itself is an ongoing tale. Even now, 50 years later, those who lived through it, fought in it, protested against it, have strong feelings. On that day, Saigon fell to Communist forces. The declaration of the end of the war with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords was Jan. 27, 1973, and U.S. troops withdrew a couple of months later. Deseret News writers and photographers through the years have share stories from Vietnam veterans, views from the Southeast Asian country, retrospectives as well as efforts to honor U.S. veterans. We share a collection of those memories from Deseret News archives through the years: Saigon fell 50 years ago today. This Utah woman was on the last refugee ship out of Vietnam '50 years later, memory still bright for pilot who flew Vietnam POWs to freedom' 'Opinion: Legacies and lessons 50 years after the Vietnam War' 'Photo of the day: How Utah is honoring veterans' 'A look at the Viet War — through 'enemy' eyes' 'Has our approach to military changed since Vietnam?' 'Photos: Vietnam veterans honored at Utah Capitol' 'Visit Utah Vietnam Memorial' "Saigon is not falling'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From Vietnam to Gaza: War shatters illusions about US leadership
Eight years before the U.S.-backed regime in South Vietnam collapsed, I stood with high school friends at Manhattan's Penn Station on the night of April 15, 1967, waiting for a train back to Washington after attending the era's largest antiwar protest so far. An early edition of the next day's New York Times arrived on newsstands with a big headline at the top of the front page that said '100,000 Rally at U.N. Against Vietnam War.' I heard someone say, 'Johnson will have to listen to us now.' But President Lyndon Johnson dashed the hopes of those who marched from Central Park to the United Nations that day (with an actual turnout later estimated at 400,000). He kept escalating the war in Vietnam, while secretly also bombing Laos and Cambodia. During the years that followed, antiwar demonstrations grew in thousands of communities across the United States. The decentralized Moratorium Day events on October 15, 1969 drew upward of 2 million people. But all forms of protest fell on deaf official ears. A song by the folksinger Donovan, recorded midway through the decade, became more accurate and powerful with each passing year: 'The War Drags On.' As the war continued, so did the fading of trust in the wisdom and morality of Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon. Gallup polls gauged the steep credibility drop. In 1965, just 24 percent of Americans said involvement in the Vietnam War had been a mistake. By the spring of 1971, the figure was 61 percent. The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam gradually diminished from the peak of 536,100 in 1968, but ground operations and massive U.S. bombing persisted until the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in late January 1973. American forces withdrew from Vietnam, but the war went on with U.S. support for 27 more months, until – on April 30, 1975 – the final helicopter liftoff from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon signaled that the Vietnam War was indeed over. By then, most Americans were majorly disillusioned. Optimism that public opinion would sway their government's leaders on matters of war and peace had been steadily crushed while carnage in Southeast Asia continued. To many citizens, democracy had failed – and the failure seemed especially acute to students, whose views on the war had evolved way ahead of overall opinion. At the end of the 1960s, Gallup found 'significantly more opposition to President Richard Nixon's Vietnam policies' among students at public and private colleges than in 'a parallel survey of the U.S. general public: 44 percent vs. 25 percent, respectively.' The same poll 'showed 69 percent of students in favor of slowing down or halting the fighting in Vietnam, while only 20 percent favored escalation. This was a sharp change from 1967, when more students favored escalation (49 percent) than de-escalation (35 percent).' Six decades later, it took much less time for young Americans to turn decisively against their government's key role of arming Israel's war on Gaza. By a wide margin, continuous huge shipments of weapons to the Israeli military swiftly convinced most young adults that the U.S. government was complicit in a relentless siege taking the lives of Palestinian civilians on a large scale. A CBS News/YouGov poll in June 2024 found that Americans opposed sending 'weapons and supplies to Israel' by 61-39 percent. Opposition to the arms shipments was even higher among young people. For adults under age 30, the ratio was 77-23. Emerging generations learned that moral concerns about their country's engagement in faraway wars meant little to policymakers in Washington. No civics textbook could prepare students for the realities of power that kept the nation's war machine on a rampage, taking several million lives in Southeast Asia or supplying weapons making possible genocide in Gaza. For vast numbers of Americans, disproportionately young, the monstrous warfare overseen by Presidents Johnson and Nixon caused the scales to fall from their eyes about the character of U.S. leadership. And like President Trump now, President Biden showed that nice-sounding rhetoric could serve as a tidy cover story for choosing to enable nonstop horrors without letup. No campaign-trail platitudes about caring and joy could make up for a lack of decency. By remaining faithful to the war policies of the president they served, while discounting the opinions of young voters, two Democratic vice presidents – Hubert Humphrey and Kamala Harris – damaged their efforts to win the White House. A pair of exchanges on network television, 56 years apart, are eerily August 1968, appearing on the NBC program "Meet the Press," Humphrey was asked: 'On what points, if any, do you disagree with the Vietnam policies of President Johnson?' 'I think that the policies that the president has pursued are basically sound,' Humphrey replied. In October 2024, appearing on the ABC program "The View," Harris was asked: 'Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?' 'There is not a thing that comes to mind,' Harris replied. Young people's votes for Harris last fall were just 54 percent, compared to 60 percent that they provided to Biden four years earlier. Many young eyes saw the war policy positions of Hubert Humphrey and Kamala Harris as immoral. Their decisions to stay on a war train clashed with youthful idealism. And while hardboiled political strategists opted to discount such idealism as beside the electoral point, the consequences have been truly tragic – and largely foreseeable.
ITV News
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
'Put that camera down or we'll shoot you': ITN cameraman looks back at filming the fall of Saigon
The Vietnam War is often referred to as the first 'televised war'. The combination of new technologies and relatively unrestricted access to the front lines during the 1960s and 1970s allowed journalists to bring the story into people's homes like never before. Following the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, the final American troops were withdrawn from combat and financial support to South Vietnam was drastically cut. Emboldened, the North of the country launched a major offensive in the spring of 1975 which would soon take them all the way to Saigon, the former capital of the South. At the time, ITN had two crews in Vietnam. Sandy Gall was teamed up with a French agency crew, whilst Michael Nicholson was alongside sound recordist Hugh Thomson and cameraman Peter Wilkinson. As the world remembers those images of chaos and panic 50 years on, this is Peter's first-hand account of what it was like on the other side of the lens, as he captured a defining moment in history. On April 28, 1975, with the communist Viet Cong forces advancing towards Saigon, a fierce battle broke out for control of Newport Bridge on the outskirts of the city. Throughout the day, ITN's teams witnessed the intense battle unfold up close. 'You could see the Viet Cong approaching in their APCs, and then ground troops just shooting at the South Vietnamese on the bridge. And obviously, we slowly moved backwards as they were getting closer. I think it lasted about two or three days.' The situation was moving fast, and those efforts to secure the Newport Bridge were ultimately in vain. The next day, the Americans used the song White Christmas to signal the start of Operation Frequent Wind - the final evacuation from Saigon. "Everybody wanted to get out. Leave Vietnam. There was lots of looting. It was just a frightening experience," Peter recounted. "We heard White Christmas about 3 am. Went down to the foyer, and there were hundreds of people there queuing. 'The Viet Cong warned any Americans or British crews that were left would be shot. So, whether that was exaggerated, I don't know, but we didn't really want to test it out' Peter and his team boarded a bus taking hopeful evacuees to the US embassy. "It was horrendous. As we were driving around the streets, the bumper caught on a roll of barbed wire, which they pulled across to close the road. "We were driving down the streets with people attached in barbed wire. "Some of them went under the bus. It was awful. I think it lasted about four hours.' Peter pulled out his camera and captured some of that bus ride to the embassy. 'The driver, who had never driven a coach before, I was filming him from the back. "He stopped the coach and he got out and he was shaking. And he grabbed hold of my shirt and he said, 'I'm trying to save your life here, and this is what you're doing to us'. I said, 'No, okay, relax. You won't see that, I promise'." After several hours, the bus arrived at the embassy were Peter says thousands of people had been waiting there for days. 'I remember just being in that crowd and the smell and the heat of the bodies and heaving. People weren't violent. It was quite amazing in that crowd." Peter and the team made their way to the walls of the US embassy, waiting hours before they could scale the building. 'We tried to climb the wall, and our feet were covered in excrement and urine because these people had been there for days. So, trying to climb over a wall was just so difficult. "Eventually they pulled me over and I squatted down on top of the roof of this entrance building and started filming. "The marines inside all had their guns pointed at me saying, 'Put that camera down, otherwise we'll shoot you'. And I actually thought, I'm not going to make it out of this place anyway. So I filmed it. 'And I carried on filming. Just filmed my two - my soundman and Michael Nicholson - coming over the wall. And that was it. I put the camera down and not a word was said about it.' The team waited inside the compound for hours to board one of the Chinook aircrafts evacuating those lucky enough to be on the right side of the wall. 'It was only when we left land and went out to the South China Sea, I sort of breathed a sigh of relief. And it [the helicopter] was absolutely packed. There was not one inch of space on the helicopter. So heavy. I didn't think we were going to lift even out of the embassy.' The evacuees were taken to the USS Okinawa - a US Navy ship - where they spent the evening. 'As evening came, lots of little boats all came out to the aircraft, hoping that they would be saved. They were setting fire to themselves so that there would be a reason to be saved. And they were all going down. It was just horrendous, a horrendous sight." From the USS Okinawa, Peter and his team went to Hong Kong, before heading home. With the Americans gone and no resistance from the South Vietnamese, Sandy Gall and his crew witnessed further history, with the arrival of the North Vietnamese forces into Saigon on April 30, the city's fall into their hands and communist rule complete. April 30, 1975, marked the end of the Vietnam War. And it left a permanent impression on those who covered the conflict, and whose lives were changed forever by it. 'I'm not in the film because I'm filming them. People always say about Michael Nicholson coming over the wall, but never mention me. But I was there."
