Fall of Saigon
American Legion Magazine Written in 2003
April 30th is the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. #FallofSaigon.
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of #FallOfSaigon, Kat Fitzpatrick – daughter of @CIA official stationed there – talks about how living in Saigon shaped her worldview & why telling her family’s story is her way of honoring those who served.
https://www.legion.org/information-center/news/magazine/2025/april/not-your-normal-childhood
Ahead of that, check out the informative Sept. 2003 American Legion Magazine article. They dedicated the entire issue to the #VietnamWar. First-person accounts, how it shaped future U.S. conflicts & more. Click here for more information and the magazine
Nearly 50 years ago, North Vietnamese military forces took control of South Vietnam’s capital, Saigon. Over the course of April 29-30, 1975, and with 800 U.S. Marines providing security, U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Army helicopters evacuated more than 7,000 people from Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base, the U.S. embassy and other locations via Operation: Frequent Wind.
On that second day – April 30 – North Korean forces had total control of Saigon, bringing what is considered to be the official end of the Vietnam War.
Throughout April, The American Legion will be sharing stories about the Vietnam War’s final days. But nearly 22 years ago, in September 2003, we dedicated an entire issue of The American Legion Magazine to the war.
The issue “Vietnam Remembered” included articles on the heroes of the war, James Stockdale’s perspective as a prisoner of war, a first-person account the Vietnam’s Dustoff crews’ efforts to rescue wounded soldiers by Medal of Honor recipient Patrick H. Brady, how the Vietnam War experience continued to shape how America fights wars, and much more.
Check out the entire issue here.
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