The last helicopter out of Saigon (29 April 1975)

 It must be twenty years since my wife and I were last in Ho Chi Min City. Since then much has changed - the bicycles have been replaced by scooters, the city centre is dominated by multinational retail brands and the old city name 'Saigon' has been rehabilitated. On this, our second albeit very brief visit, we decided to do something a little different and seek out the building which was the subject of an iconic photo taken by Hubert van E on the afternoon of the 29th April, 1975. The photograph shows a Huey helicopter leaving the rooftop of an office block in downtown Saigon as desperate evacuees were whisked out of the city following the arrival of the North Vietnamese Army in Saigon at the very end of the Vietnam War. The image is often incorrectly captioned as showing the American Embassy and, to compound the error, is sometimes misdescribed as showing the 'last helicopter to leave Saigon'. 

Hubert van E's iconic photograph - The Fall of Saigon

In 1975 the building was actually a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) residential block and office facility. The building, in what was then Gia Long Street, was one of several CIA safehouses and offices across Saigon. On the the 28th April 1975, rocket and artillery strikes were hitting Tan Son Nhut Airport making fixed wing evacuation impossible and on the following day the U.S. authorities switched to helicopter evacuation under the code name 'Operation Frequent Wind'. It was a fraught time as desperate military personnel, civilian staff, interpreters and Vietnamese civilians sought to secure a seat on one of the evacuation flights. In all, over 7,000 people were taken by helicopter to U.S. Navy Task Force 77 - principally the two carriers, USS Enterprise and USS Coral Sea. News coverage at the time showed recently arrived helicopters being pushed off the flight decks to make room for additional landings.

The CIA buiding now in Li Tu Trong Street

The building wasn't difficult to find as we weren't the first to seek it out. Indeed, the office block with the easily recognisable elevator building on the top, can be seen from the ornamental garden situated to the south east of Notre Dame Cathedral. Back in 1975 the roof of the building would have been one of the highest points in the city. Nowadays the eight storey structure is dwarfed by a giant tower block which stands across the street, directly opposite the main entrance. We made our way past the central post office and worked out which was the correct address. In present times the building is a simple office block with no obvious clue to its' fascinating history. Anyway, we ventured in and approached a reception desk manned by a concierge. After flashing a copy of Hubert von E's famous photograph and offering a small payment in Vietnamese Dong, we were rewarded with a grin and gestured towards the elevator. We got in, I pressed the button for the eighth floor and up we went - to revisit history!

The view from the top of the old CIA building

The elevator control room, where the ladder was

On leaving the elevator at the top, it takes a bit of imagination to picture the scene as it was on that afternoon - 29th April 1975. In the famous picture a CIA operated Air America Huey hovers directly above the elevator 'hut'. Those boarding did so by mounting a ladder from the office block roof. Again, there is nothing to remind the occasional visitor of the evacuation. The rooftop was obviously a bar at one time. There had been a temporary structure up there but that has since collapsed. I managed to get up to the level where the base of the ladder was by clambering over a pile of broken beams and other debris. One can certainly get a sense of what it must have been like by surveying the view which encompasses Notre Dame Cathedral and the Independence Palace (it was only one day later - 30th April, 1975, that North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the palace gates. They are still there attracting the attention of tourists, see below).

Tanks at the Independence Palace 

Whilst up on the roof I tried to visualise the scene. I imagined the guards at street level holding back desperate potential evacuees. The long climb up the internal stairs (or maybe the elevator was till operational?), the anxiety of those waiting and the relief in getting one foot on the bottom of the access ladder. The situation at the time was chaotic but there are at least a couple of eye-witnesses to the events at 22 Gia Long Street. First Hubert van E who took the photo from a nearby rooftop. He recalls a CIA operative helping evacuees up the ladder and describes the process as appearing to being 'organised but tense' - certainly not 'mob panic'. CIA operative Frank Snepp was present in the building. He recalled that those evacuated included CIA and U.S. Government personnel and Vietnamese associates. Furthermore, he remembered that evacuees were taken up to the roof in small groups (presumably from the upper storeys).

On a related note, it is possible to gain an impression of the Vietcong perspective by visiting the tiny 'Saigon Gia Binh' Special Forces Museum which is situated a mile or so from the CIA building.  This private museum is situated in a second floor apartment and accessed from a busy shopping street via a blue doorway - see the photo below.

Special Forces Museum

Ho Chi Min Shrine

The proprietor / lift operator (pictured above with my wife) was an excellent host, and explained via my translation app that the museum is situated in an old North Vietnamese safehouse. In the carefully curated space there is a shrine to Ho Chi Min, a reconstructed 1970s living room, an impressive collection of weapons and other military artefacts, plus explanatory panels explaining some of the exploits of the men who were based there - for example the sinking of the USNS Card in 1964 and the bombing of the Brink Hotel that same year. Controversial episodes from a problematic war. 

As an aside, I would recommend Vietnam as a place to visit. We found so much to see and experience and nothing but friendliness and helpfulness from the local people with whom we interacted. It may once have been a war zone, but now it is a delight!