The last telegram sent from the US Embassy in Saigon to the State Department 40 years ago “Plan to close mission Saigon Approximately 0430 Saigon time, dependent on performance of military evacuation channels. Due to necessity to destroy commo gear, this is the last Saigon message to secstate. Secret.”. I - was a teenager then, arrived at this gate on April 29th right after 4:30 pm so it was too late to get in. Stood outside of the gate and witnessed the biggest evacuation of all times, with helicopters landed and took off all night until the early morning of April 30th. There was a reason why I was late to get to the Embassy. My uncle (my Dad's cousin) was a CIA agent and he supposed to take me and my sister with him when he was evacuated for the US. The first attempt was the afternoon of the 28th when we were waiting on the rooftop of his house to be picked up by helicopter. However, there was rocket bombardments at Tan Son Nhat Airport that afternoon so the plan was cancelled. He was instructed to go to the US Embassy the next day before 4:30 pm instead. There was a little problem with the whole evacuation thing. My Uncle's wife was no where to be found along with their adopted son. He was desperately looking for them. By the time he decided to go to the Embassy, it was too late. The ending was really a heart broken. My Uncle committed suicide right after the fall of Saigon. And what happened to his wife, you may ask? It turned out that she was also a spy working for the other side. Not sure if he knew that before committing suicide. You would have thought this kind of things only happened in a Thriller Movie. A sad ending for an unnecessary war.

4/26/2016
Khoa Nguyen

40 Years after the fall of Saigon