Former first lady Betty Ford dies at 93

Phu Nhân Tổng Thống Hoa Kỳ đang thăm viếng trại tỵ nạn trong căn cứ Thủy Quân Lục Chiến 

Hoa Kỳ Camp Pendleton và đang tiếp chuyện với Thiếu Tướng Tư Lệnh Doanh Trại

Hình dưới Tổng Thống Ford liên lạc điện thoại vào khuya ngày 29 tháng 4 năm 1975

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• FILE - This June 1994 file picture shows former first lady Betty Ford during an interview …
• FILE - In this Jan. 4, 1949 file picture, Rep. Gerald R. Ford, Jr. of the Fifth Michigan …

DETROIT (AP) — Betty Ford, the former first lady whose triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center in California, died at age 93, a family friend said.

Her death Friday was confirmed to The Associated Press by Marty Allen, chairman emeritus of the Ford Foundation. Family spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski said later that the former first lady died at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Other details of her death were not immediately available.

Ford's husband, former President Gerald R. Ford, died in December 2006.

"She was a wonderful wife and mother; a great friend; and a courageous First Lady," former President George H.W. Bush said in a statement on Friday. "No one confronted life's struggles with more fortitude or honesty, and as a result, we all learned from the challenges she faced."

While her husband served as president, Betty Ford's comments weren't the kind of genteel, innocuous talk expected from a first lady, and a Republican one no less. Her unscripted comments sparked tempests in the press and dismayed President Ford's advisers, who were trying to soothe the national psyche after Watergate. But to the scandal-scarred, Vietnam-wearied, hippie-rattled nation, Mrs. Ford's openness was refreshing.

According to Mrs. Ford, her young adult children probably had smoked marijuana — and if she were their age, she'd try it, too. She told the CBS television news magazine "60 Minutes" she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her youngest, 18-year-old Susan, was in a sexual relationship (an embarrassed Susan issued a denial).

She mused that living together before marriage might be wise, thought women should be drafted into the military if men were, and spoke up unapologetically for abortion rights, taking a position contrary to the president's. "Having babies is a blessing, not a duty," Mrs. Ford said.

Candor worked for Betty Ford, again and again. She would build an enduring legacy by opening up the toughest times of her life as public example.

In an era when cancer was discussed in hushed tones and mastectomy was still a taboo subject, the first lady shared the specifics of her breast cancer surgery. The publicity helped bring the disease into the open and inspired countless women to seek breast examinations.

Her most painful revelation came 15 months after leaving the White House, when Mrs. Ford announced that she was entering treatment for a longtime addiction to painkillers and alcohol. It turned out the famously forthcoming first lady had been keeping a secret, even from herself.

She used the unvarnished story of her own descent and recovery to crusade for better addiction treatment, especially for women. She co-founded the nonprofit Betty Ford Center near the Fords' home in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1982. Mrs. Ford raised millions of dollars for the center, kept close watch over its operations, and regularly welcomed groups of new patients with a speech that started, "Hello, my name's Betty Ford, and I'm an alcoholic and drug addict."

Although most famous for a string of celebrity patients over the years — from Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Cash to Lindsay Lohan — the center keeps its rates relatively affordable and has served more than 90,000 people.

"People who get well often say, 'You saved my life,' and 'You've turned my life around,'" Mrs. Ford once said. "They don't realize we merely provided the means for them to do it themselves, and that's all."

In a statement Friday, President Barack Obama said the Betty Ford Center would honor Mrs. Ford's legacy "by giving countless Americans a new lease on life."

"As our nation's First Lady, she was a powerful advocate for women's health and women's rights," the president said. "After leaving the White House, Mrs. Ford helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction and inspired thousands to seek much-needed treatment."

Mrs. Ford was a free spirit from the start. Elizabeth Bloomer, born April 8, 1918, fell in love with dance as a girl in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and decided it would be her life. At 20, despite her mother's misgivings, she moved to New York to learn from her idol Martha Graham. She lived in Greenwich Village, worked as a model, and performed at Carnegie Hall in Graham's modern dance ensemble. "I thought I had arrived," she later recalled.

But her mother coaxed her back to Grand Rapids, where Betty worked as a dance teacher and store fashion coordinator and married William Warren, a friend from school days. He was a salesman who traveled frequently; she was unhappy. Their marriage lasted five years.

While waiting for her divorce to become final, she met and began dating, as she put it in her memoir, "probably the most eligible bachelor in Grand Rapids" — former college football star, Navy veteran and lawyer Jerry Ford. They would be married for 58 years, until his death in December 2006.

When he proposed, she didn't know about his political ambitions; when he launched his bid for Congress during their engagement, she figured he couldn't win.

Two weeks after their October 1948 wedding, her husband was elected to his first term in the House of Representatives. He would serve 25 years, rising to minority leader.

Mrs. Ford was thrust into a role she found exhausting and unfulfilling: political housewife. While her husband campaigned for weeks at a time or worked late on Capitol Hill, she raised their four children: Michael, Jack, Steven and Susan. She arranged luncheons for congressional wives, helped with her husband's campaigns, became a Cub Scout den mother, taught Sunday school.

A pinched nerve in her neck in 1964, followed by the onset of severe osteoarthritis, led her to an assortment of prescription drugs that never fully relieved the pain. For years she had been what she later called "a controlled drinker, no binges." Now she began mixing pills and alcohol. Feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated, she suffered an emotional breakdown that led to weekly visits with a psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist didn't take note of her drinking but instead tried to build her self-esteem: "He said I had to start thinking I was valuable, not just as a wife and mother, but as myself."

The White House would give her that gift.

In 1973, as Mrs. Ford was happily anticipating her husband's retirement from politics, Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced out of office over bribery charges. President Richard Nixon turned to Gerald Ford to fill the office.

Less than a year later, his presidency consumed by the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned. On Aug. 9, 1974, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the only chief executive in American history who hadn't been elected either president or vice president.

Mrs. Ford wrote of her sudden ascent to first lady: "It was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time."

She was 56 when she moved into the White House, and looked more matronly than mod. Ever gracious, her chestnut hair carefully coifed into a soft bouffant, she tended to speak softly and slowly, even when taking a feminist stand.

Her breast cancer diagnosis, coming less than two months after President Ford was whisked into office, may have helped disarm the clergymen, conservative activists and Southern politicians who were most inflamed by her loose comments. She was photographed recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital, looking frail in her robe, and won praise for her grace and courage.

"She seems to have just what it takes to make people feel at home in the world again," media critic Marshall McLuhan observed at the time. "Something about her makes us feel rooted and secure — a feeling we haven't had in a while. And her cancer has been a catharsis for everybody."

The public outpouring of support helped her embrace the power of her position. "I was somebody, the first lady," she wrote later. "When I spoke, people listened."

She used her newfound influence to lobby aggressively for the women's Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which failed to get ratified nonetheless, and to speak against child abuse, raise money for handicapped children, and champion the performing arts.

It's debatable whether Mrs. Ford's frank nature helped or hurt her husband's 1976 campaign to win a full term as president. Polls showed she was widely admired. By taking positions more liberal than the president's, she helped broaden his appeal beyond traditional Republican voters. But she also outraged some conservatives, leaving the president more vulnerable to a strong Republican primary challenge by Ronald Reagan. That battle weakened Ford going into the general election against Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Carter won by a slim margin. The president had lost his voice in the campaign's final days, and it was Mrs. Ford who read his concession speech to the nation.

After leaving the White House in January 1977, the Fords retired to a Rancho Mirage golf community, but he spent much of his time away, giving speeches and playing in golf tournaments. Home alone, deprived of her exciting and purposeful life in the White House, Mrs. Ford drank.

By 1978 her secret was obvious to those closest to her.

"As I got sicker," she recalled, "I gradually stopped going to lunch. I wouldn't see friends. I was putting everyone out of my life." Her children recalled her living in a stupor, shuffling around in her bathrobe, refusing meals in favor of a drink.

Her family finally confronted her and insisted she seek treatment.

"I was stunned at what they were trying to tell me about how I disappointed them and let them down," she said in a 1994 Associated Press interview. "I was terribly hurt — after I had spent all those years trying to be the best mother, wife I could be. ... Luckily, I was able to hear them saying that I needed help and they cared too much about me to let it go on."

She credited their "intervention" with saving her life.

Mrs. Ford entered Long Beach Naval Hospital and, alongside alcoholic young sailors and officers, underwent a grim detoxification that became the model for therapy at the Betty Ford Center. In her book "A Glad Awakening," she described her recovery as a second chance at life.

And in that second chance, she found a new purpose.

"There is joy in recovery," she wrote, "and in helping others discover that joy."

Family spokeswoman Lewandrowski the family expects to organize a service in Palm Desert over the next couple of days. Ford's body will be sent to Michigan for burial alongside her husband, who is buried at his namesake museum in Grand Rapids.

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Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles and Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.

• Former first lady Betty Ford is helped back to her vehicle after the casket of former …  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Betty Ford, the wife of the late President Gerald Ford and whose battles with addiction led to the founding of a famed drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic bearing her name, died on Friday. Ford was 93.

"I was deeply saddened this afternoon when I heard of Betty Ford's death," former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a statement confirming Ford's death.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Paul Simao)

Những trẻ em mồ côi Việt Nam di tản 1975 chương trình "BABYLIFT" 

Tổng Thống Ford đang bồng một em bé ty nạn Cộng Sản Việt Nam

NIXON, FORD, and the ABANDONMENT of SOUTH VIETNAM

Nixon's War & Vietnamization: 1968-1973
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon campaigned in 1968 with a claim to have a "secret plan" to end the war. The war wound down after 1969 while unproductive peace talks went on in Paris. Domestic support for the war in Vietnam continued to diminish during Nixon's administration, with Vietnamizaion the main strategy to facilitate U.S. withdrawal.



Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and President Ford discuss the American evacuation of Saigon, April 28, 1975.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller





White Christmas in April: The Collapse of South Vietnam, 1975

By J. Edward Lee and Toby Haynsworth

When the last of the American POW’s were released by Hanoi in March of 1973, most Americans dismissed Vietnam from their consciousness. However, the Paris Peace Accords negotiated by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho provided for an expanded Defense Attaché Office under the direction of the American Ambassador to South Vietnam. This office’s staff was limited to fifty uniformed and 1200 civilian American personnel. These dedicated men and women were tasked with the management of the military assistance programs designed to provide the logistical support of the South Vietnamese military authorized by the Paris Peace Accords and promised by the President of the United States.

White Christmas in April: The Collapse of South Vietnam, 1975 describes how the Vietnam War actually ended in April 1975. This is accomplished by letting twenty-seven of the people who were either involved in the massive evacuation of Americans, Vietnamese, and third country nationals, or who were close observers of the event, give their personal accounts of how the end to America’s efforts to defend the independence of the people of South Vietnam came to pass.

The narrators in White Christmas in April are women and men, military and civilian, American and Vietnamese. Taken together, they tell a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is a story of courage, confusion, politics, dedication, greed, duplicity, anger, pain, joy, zeal, stupidity, hesitation, and gallantry. In other words, it describes the American experience in Vietnam in microcosm.







Some of what the narrators had to say:

"When I was at NATO, the news of the collapse of South Vietnam was probably the saddest day of my life. I had told President Ford that he had to roll up his sleeves like Harry Truman and go up to the Hill and have it out with those guys. I think that I would have bombed the North Vietnamese and let them impeach me if they wanted."
General Alexander Haig, NATO Commander and White House Chief of Staff.

"When the end came and you sent a small contingent of marines to secure Tan Son Nhut on April 29, we knew that they would not be there long. In my opinion, there was a kind of ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to allow the evacuation to go forward. We stopped fighting and shelling for a few hours. We didn’t shoot much. Then you were gone."
Tran Trong Khanh, ex-Vietcong officer.

"Starting with our rock bottom fiscal year 1975 budget of $1.126 billion, I degraded it in hundred million dollar, country killing, increments. I ended my cable with this: ‘$600 million level–write off South Vietnam as a bad investment and a broken promise.’"
General John Murray, Defense Attaché in Saigon in 1974.

"At about four o’clock in the morning (of April 30), the ambassador and I went up to the remaining communications set up, the last one. We sent our final message. The date-time group of that message was 291215Z. The message said, ‘Plan to close mission about 0430, 30 April local time. This is the last message from Embassy Saigon.’"
Mr. Wolfgang Lehmann, Deputy Chief of Mission, Saigon.

"There were two U.S.-type CIA agents who had twelve bus loads of Vietnamese CIA agents that they had collected around the countryside, and they were either told, or couldn’t get to Tan Son Nhut, so they got to the Mike-Mike piers in Saigon, and I picked them up on the barge that I was taking down the river, and we went out together."
Mr. William Ryder, Military Sealift Command, Saigon, Operations Officer.

"The exodus had started. For the next ten days I never slept more than a few minutes at a time. We worked around the clock. The first day we put up over 1,000 people. My job was getting them organized into planeloads and handling problems. One day we had 7,000 people to get out, and, thank God, our team had gotten very efficient by then.
Ms. Sally Vinyard, Director of Housing, Saigon.

"Our game plan was very simple because we were taking a lot of sniper fire up there on the roof. The game plan was, when the bird set down, we already had stacks of Vietnamese in the ladder well. Before that bird set down, we had them moving. We got the bird loaded, and they were out of there. We had to do it quickly because of the sniper fire."
Sergeant Terry Bennington, USMC Security Guard.

Posted by SQTB K10B/72 THSQ-QLVNCH at 2:33 PM

Sau tháng tư đen 1975 những chiến hữu Nha Kỹ Thuật di tản sang Hoa Kỳ, đông đảo nhất là Quân Nhân thuộc Sờ Công Tác Nha Kỹ Thuật Bộ Tồng Tham Mưu. Đơn vị sở Công Tác gồm có 5 Đoàn Công Tác, Đoàn 11 và 71 đóng tại Sơn Trà, Đà Nẵng, Đoàn 72 căn cứ Tiên Sa trước Bộ Chỉ Huy Sở Phòng Vệ Duyên Hải NKT cạnh Bộ Tư Lệnh Vùng 1 Duyên Hải bên kia là đèo Hải Vân, Đoàn 75 căn cứ tại Phi Trường Cù Hanh Pleiku và Đoàn 68 nằm trong khu cấm tại Trung Tâm Huấn Luyện Yên Thế, Long Thành, Biên Hòa.

 Cuối tháng 3 năm 1975 sau biến cố Di tàn miền trung Bộ Chỉ Huy Sờ Công Tác từ Sơn Trà Đà Nẵng xuôi Nam về Sàigòn bằng "Hải Lộ Kinh Hoàng" theo những chuyến xà lan, những chuyến tàu đủ loại, những chiếc tàu kéo về đến Nha Trang, Cam Ranh, Vũng Tàu, Làng Cô Nhi Long Thành và cuối cùng là Kho 18 Khánh Hội, Quân 4 Sàigòn chứng kiến hàng ngàn quân nhân và đồng bào đã bỏ mạng trên đoạn đường Hải Lộ Kinh Hoàng này.

 Tháng 3 năm 1975, Đoàn Công Tác 75 đóng tại Pleiku chịu chung số phận với cuộc triệt thoái lịch sữ Cao nguyên, bằng đủ mọi phương tiện, Bộ Chỉ Huy, các Toán cùng khu gia binh, đi tản đường bộ băng rừng những phụ nữ và trẻ em chân tả tơi, giày dép rách nát còn lại những đôi vớ rách nát bao chân, không tiếp tục hành trình, cuối cùng tá túc lại những buôn Thượng, một số khác đã được Phi Đoàn 219 đón giữa rừng và đưa về Tuy Hòa. rồi gặp nhau tại Nha Trang, có người tìm đủ mọi phương tiện cuối cùng số quân nhân còn lại về tập trung tại kho 18 và sát nhập vào các Đoàn thuộc Sở Công Tác tiếp tục nhận lãnh trách nhiệm hành quân thu thập tin túc cho Quân Đoàn 3 cũng như Biệt Khu Thủ Đô.

 Vòng đai thủ đô Sàigòn lúc này đã bị vây chặt bỡi nhiều sư đoàn của cộng quân, cùng chung số phận này Đoàn Công Tác 68 đồn trú tại Long Thành cũng về tại Kho 18 Khánh Hội và tiếp tục hành quân với tất cả các Đoàn khác của Sở Công Tác khu vực hành quân trong thời gian này là vòng đai của Sàigòn giáp ranh vơí Tỉnh Bình Dương, như Ấp Đồn, Bình Triệu, và một số công tác khác thuộc Quận Gò Vấp tỉnh Gia định khu vưc vòng đai Phi Trường Tân Sơn Nhất, phía ngoài Trung Tâm Huấn Luyện Quang Trung, Hốc Môn và Xa Lộ Đại Hàn.
Ngoài một số toán chịu trách nhiệm bảo vệ yếu nhân thuộc Bộ Tổng Tham Mưu và một số toạ độ bí mật được giao phó tại Biệt Khu Thủ Đô và các quận của Tỉnh Gia Định.

 Tối 29 tháng 4 năm 1975 BCH Sở Công Tác cùng các Đoàn Công Tác rời sông Sàigòn bằng Đoàn tàu Quân Vận tại Kho 18 cùng với đoàn tàu của Hải Quân, một số toán trong vùng Hành Quân vẫn chưa có phương tiện để về cùng triệt xuất cùng đi, cũng như lần di tản miền Trung khi đoàn tàu rời bải biển Tiên Sa ra khơi một số toán vẫn còn hành quân trên đèo Hãi Vân và sau này hình ảnh lại được xuất hiện trên phim “Mưòi Ngàn Ngày Chiến Tranh Việt Nam” hai tay trên đầu từng ngưòi một ung dung trong thân phận tù binh chiến tranh. Những hình ảnh này về sau lưu lại trên tập Sách Lịch Sữ Chiến Tranh Việt Nam toàn tập 20 cuốn đuưoọ thấy trong các Thư viện Hoa Kỳ. lần này tất cả đoàn tàu trong đêm tối âm thâm di chuyển không một ánh sáng ngoại trừ những ánh sáng lóe lên và tiếng nổ chập chùng của kho đạn thành Tuy Hạ bên kia sông Sàigòn. Trên những chiếc LCM loại đổ bộ có hầu hết Bộ Chỉ Huy Sở Công Tác cùng các đoàn Công Tác được lệnh di tản ra khỏi khu vực Sàigòn đến Hải Phận Quốc Tế. 

 Vào sáng ngày 30 tháng 4 năm 1975 tất cà được di chuyễn qua các Xà lan (loại vận tải tiếp tế đạn dược cho Cam Bốt ) chung quanh có bọc bao cát và lưới kẽm cao quá đầu, cũng vừa lúc ông Dương Văn Minh trên hệ thống truyền thanh tuyên bố bàn giao với chính quyền phía bên kia ( Việt Cộng) lúc ấy vào khoãng 10 giờ sáng. Chấm dứt 5 năm từ ngày thành lập Sở Công Tác tại Nha Trang , 11 năm từ ngày thành lập Nha Kỹ Thuật Tại Thủ Đô Sàigòn và 10 năm trưóc đó của Sở Kỹ Thuật cũng như các hoạt động Quân Sự Tình Báo của đơn vị này từ ngày chia cắt đất nưóc 20 tháng 7 năm 1954 và trước đó.

 Sau những tai nạn như sập xà lan ngoài Hải Phận Quốc Tế, người chết và bị thương, cảnh hổn loạn ngoài biễn đông vào giờ thứ 25 những chiếc tàu ma không người lái zig zag ngoài biễn khơi cuối cùng trực thăng hoa kỳ phải bắn chìm trước khi gây tai nạn, những trực thăng di tản tìm cách đậu vào xà lan chật hẹp và có thể nổ tung khi cánh quạt đụng vào lưới thép bọc bao cát cao quá đầu, những thuyền bè đầy nhóc binh sĩ di tản từ chiến trường Xuân Lộc tìm cách cập vào xà lan để lên tàu Mỹ.

 Vào chiều tối ngày 1 tháng 5 tất cả đã được lên những tàu trên đó có sự bào vệ của Thủy Quân Lục Chiến Hoa Kỳ trực chỉ xuôi nam về Subic Bay căn cứ Quân Sự của Hoa Kỳ tại Phi Luật Tân một trong những chuyến tàu đó là chiếc GREEN FOREST sau khi cập bến Subic Bay một số tàu có vận tải lớn hơn và đi xa hơn đã đậu sẵn và tất cả được chuyễn sang chiếc tàu mới Chiếc AMERICAN RACER có thể chuyên chở đến 5,000 người, và tiếp tục hành trình Subic Bay là nơi một số các tàu Hải Quân VN cập bến làm lễ Hạ Kỳ và bàn giao cho Hải Quân Hoa Kỳ, Chính phủ Phi Luật Tân hạn chế số ngưòi trên Subic Bay là 5,000 ngưòi trong lúc chờ đợi lên Tàu để về Guam số còn lại phải di chuyển qua những hòn đảo khác lân cận.

Chặng đầu tiên chiếc American Racer cập đến Đảo Guam, thuộc lãnh thổ của Hoa Kỳ thuộc Quần Đảo Thái Bình Dương nơi đây những căn lều dã chiến được dựng nên và cũng là trung tâm lập thủ tục cho ngưòi tỵ nạn như I94 đây là một loại thẻ đặc biệt cho ngưòi tỵ nạn như thẻ căn cước thời bấy giờ (không có hình) và có đóng dấu có thể làm việc tại Hoa Kỳ, nơi đây dấu tích của Căn cứ Không Quân Anderson và những phi vụ B52 oanh tạc trong chiến tranh Việt Nam. Sau khi thiết lập thủ tục và thẻ căn cước một số người tỵ nạn được đưa thẳng đến các trại tỵ nạn tại Hoa Kỳ. 

 Một số khác được vận chuyển bằng phi cơ quân sự C141 đến Đảo Wake (khoảng cách giữa Guam và Hawaii) có khỏang vài ngàn ngưòi tạm trú tại đây trong khi những trại tỵ nạn tại những căn cứ Quân Sự Hoa Kỳ tìm những ngưòi bảo lãnh để có chổ trống di chuyễn những ngưòi bên đão vào đất liền, thời gian ở đảo wake có ngưòi ở khoảng vài tháng.
Lúc bây giờ có 4 trại tiếp nhận ngưòi Tỵ nạn Cộng Sản Việt Nam chính là: 

Eglin Air Force Base in Florida,
Fort Chaffee in Arkansas,
Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania
và trại lớn nhất là Camp Pendleton in California
Đã có 50,424 ngưòi đi qua trại nầy và có một lúc trại này đã tiếp nhận 19 ngàn ngưòi.
Tồng số ngưòi tỵ nạn Cộng Sản vào thời điểm 30 tháng 4 năm 1975 là 133,000 người và người tỵ nạn đầu tiên đến Hoa Kỳ đầu tiên vào ngày 2 tháng 5 năm 1975, riêng các em bé mồ côi Việt Nam và Cam Bốt đã được di chuyển bằng máy bay đến Căn Cứ Bộ Binh tại Presidio of San Francisco, California Fort Benning, Georgia và Fort Lewis, Washington State cũng như căn cứ Thủy Quân Lục Chiến Hoa Kỳ Camp Pendleton, California .

 Trong các trại tỵ nạn hoàn tất các thủ tục giấy tờ và được bảo lãnh bởi những ngưòi Hoa Kỳ giàu lòng nhân ái và qua trung gian của những Cơ Quan Thiện Nguyện gọi là VOLAG như:
Tolstoy Foundation,
American Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees,
YMCA,
United States Catholic Conference (USCC),
Church World Services (CWS),
Lutheran Immigration Aid Society (LIRS),
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS),
International Rescue Committee (IRC),
World Relief Services,
American Council for Nationalities Services (ACNS)
và cơ quan cuối cùng là Persons Granted Asylum.
Hai trại tỵ nạn đông đảo anh em Sở Công tác Nha Kỹ Thuật là Fort Chaffee Tiểu bang Arkansas
Và Camp Pendleton Ocenside, California 

 Tiêu chuẩn xuất trại cho những anh em có thân nhân và gia đình được ra sớm số còn lại đa số lúc ra trại cũng vừa trại sắp đóng cửa, có anh em mãi đến tháng 9 hoặc tháng 10 năm 1975 mới ra khỏi các trại tỵ nạn
(To Be Continue)

Fort Chaffee 1975 The Refugees

The Gates at Camp Pendleton Welcome the Vietnamese Refugee

Camp Pendleton 1975 / Vietnamese Refugee Camp

TAI LIEU DI TAN


DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 - 1975

During the period from 29 March 1973 to 30 April 1975, the Defense Attaché Office (DAO), Saigon, administered the American military assistance to the Republic of Vietnam. Limited by the Paris Agreement to 50 or fewer military personnel, the activity was staffed predominantly by civilians and contractors. The DAO was responsible for providing supplies and material to the 42,000-man Vietnamese Navy, which operated 672 amphibious ships and craft, 20 mine warfare vessels, 450 patrol craft, 56 service craft, and 242 junks. The quality of personnel in the naval service remained adequate over the two-year period. A drastic cut in U.S. financial support, however, hurt the navy's overall readiness. The U.S. Congress appropriated only $700 million for fiscal year 1975, forcing the Vietnamese Navy to reduce its overall operations by 50 percent and its river combat and patrol activities by 70 percent. To conserve scarce ammunition and fuel, Saigon laid up over 600 river and harbor craft and 22 ships. The enemy did not target the waterways during 1973 and 1974, but such would not be the case in 1975 when the coastal areas of South Vietnam became the war's main operational theater.



Naval Evacuation of I and II Corps

The final test of strength between the Republic of Vietnam and its Communist antagonists that many observers had long predicted occurred in the early months of 1975. Seeking to erode the government's military position in the vulnerable II Corps area, on 10 March Communist forces attacked Ban Me Thuot, the capital of isolated Darlac Province, and routed the South Vietnamese troops there. The debacle convinced President Nguyen Van Thieu that even the strategic Pleiku and Kontum Provinces to the north could not be held and must be evacuated. Accordingly, on the fifteenth, government forces and thousands of civilian refugees began an exodus toward Tuy Hoa on the coast but that degenerated into a panicked flight when the enemy interdicted the main road. The enemy dispersed or destroyed many of the South Vietnamese II Corps units in this catastrophe.

These events set off a chain reaction as the demoralized South Vietnamese troops abandoned port after port along the South Vietnamese coast to swiftly advancing North Vietnamese forces. Learning of the disaster in II Corps and confused by contradictory deployment orders from Saigon, the defenders of I Corps also began to crack. Giving up Hue on 25 March, Vietnamese troops retreated in disorder toward Danang. The Vietnamese Navy rescued thousands of men cut off on the coast southeast of Hue, but heavy weather and the general confusion limited the sealift's effectiveness. On the previous day (24 March) government units evacuated Tam Ky and Quang Ngai in southern I Corps and also streamed toward Danang. Simultaneously, the navy transported elements of the 2d Division from Chu Lai to Re Island 20 miles offshore. With five North Vietnamese divisions pressing the remnants of the South Vietnamese armed forces and hundreds of thousands of refugees into Danang, order in the city disintegrated. Looting, arson, and riot ruled the city as over two million people sought a way out of the ever-closing trap.

During this period of growing chaos in South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy readied for evacuation operations. On 24 March, the Military Sealift Command (MSC), formerly the Military Sea Transportation Service, dispatched the following tugs, pulling a total of six barges, from Vung Tau toward Danang:

Asiatic Stamina
Chitose Maru
Osceola
Pawnee
Shibaura Maru

On 25 March, the following ships were alerted for imminent evacuation operations in South Vietnam:


SS American Racer
SS Green Forest
SS Green Port
SS Green Wave
SS Pioneer Commander
SS Pioneer Contender
SS Transcolorado
USNS Greenville Victory
USNS Sgt Andrew Miller
USNS Sgt. Truman Kimbro

Noncombatants were chosen for the mission because the Paris Agreement prohibited the entry of U.S. Navy or other military forces into the country.

With the arrival at Danang of Pioneer Contender on 27 March, the massive U.S. sea evacuation of I and II Corps began. During the next several days four of the five barge-pulling tugs and Sgt. Andrew Miller, Pioneer Commander, and American Challenger put in at the port. The vessels embarked U.S. Consulate, MSC, and other American personnel and thousands of desperate Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. When the larger ships were filled to capacity with 5,000 to 8,000 passengers, they individually sailed for Cam Ranh Bay further down the coast. By 30 March order in the city of Danang and in the harbor had completely broken down. Armed South Vietnamese deserters fired on civilians and each other, the enemy fired on the American vessels and sent sappers ahead to destroy port facilities, and refugees sought to board any boat or craft afloat. The hundreds of vessels traversing the harbor endangered the safety of all. Weighing these factors, the remaining U.S. and Vietnamese Navy ships loaded all the people they could and steamed for the south. MSC ships carried over 30,000 refugees from Danang in the four-day operation. American Challenger stayed offshore to pick up stragglers until day's end on 30 March, when the North Vietnamese overran Danang.

In quick succession, the major ports in II Corps fell to the lightly resisted Communist advance. Hampered by South Vietnamese shelling of Qui Nhon, Pioneer Commander, Greenville Victory, Korean-flag LST Boo Heung Pioneer, and three tugs were unable to load evacuees at this city, which fell on 31 March. The speed of the South Vietnamese collapse and the enemy's quick exploitation of it limited the number of refugees rescued from Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang. Before the latter port fell on 2 April, however, Boo Heung Pioneer and Pioneer Commander brought 11,500 passengers on board and put out to sea.

Initially, Cam Ranh Bay was chosen as the safe haven for these South Vietnamese troops and civilians transported by MSC. But, even Cam Ranh Bay was soon in peril. Between 1 and 4 April, many of the refugees just landed were reembarked for further passage south and west to Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam. Greenville Victory, Sgt. Andrew Miller, American Challenger, and Green Port each embarked between 7,000 and 8,000 evacuees for the journey. Pioneer Contender sailed with 16,700 people filling every conceivable space from stem to stern. Crowding and the lack of sufficient food and water among the 8,000 passengers on board Transcolorado led a number of armed Vietnamese marines to demand they be discharged at the closer port of Vung Tau. The ship's master complied to avoid bloodshed, but this crisis highlighted the need for the Navy to provide better security.

As the magnitude of the calamity in I and II Corps became apparent, the Seventh Fleet deployed elements of the Amphibious Task Force (Task Force 76) to a position off Nha Trang. Because of the political restrictions on the use of American military forces in South Vietnam and the availability of MSC resources, however, Washington limited the naval contingent, then designated the Refugee Assistance Task Group (Task Group 76.8), to a supporting role. For the most part, this entailed command coordination, surface escort duties, and the dispatch of 50-man Marine security details to the MSC flotilla at sea. By 2 April, the task group--Dubuque, Durham (LKA 114), Frederick (LST 1184), and the Task Force 76 flagship Blue Ridge (LCC 19)--was monitoring operations at Cam Ranh Bay and Phan Rang. That same night the first Marine security force to do so boarded Pioneer Contender. A second contingent was airlifted to Transcolorado on the fourth. Dissatisfied with the condition of reception facilities on Phu Quoc and ill-tempered after the arduous passage south, armed passengers in Greenville Victory forced the master to sail to Vung Tau. Guided missile cruiser Long Beach (CGN 9) and escort Reasoner (DE 1063) intercepted the ship and stood by to aid the crew, but the voyage and debarkation of passengers proceeded uneventfully. In addition, Commander Task Group 76.8 immediately concentrated Dubuque, guided missile destroyer Cochrane (DDG 21), storeship Vega (AF 59), and the three ships of Amphibious Ready Group Alpha at Phu Quoc to position security detachments on each of the MSC vessels and to resupply the refugees with food, water, and medicines. Naval personnel also served as translators to ease the registration process. By 10 April, all ships at Phu Quoc were empty, thus bringing to a close the intracoastal sealift of 130,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens. With stabilization of the fighting front at Xuan Loc east of Saigon and the Communists preparation for the final offensive, the need to evacuate by sea diminished. By the fourteenth all naval vessels had departed the waters off South Vietnam and returned to other duties.

Eagle Pull

Meanwhile, the Seventh Fleet focused its attention on Cambodia, in imminent danger of falling to the Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Since 1970, the United States had aided the government of President Lon Nol in its struggle with the indigenous enemy and with North Vietnamese forces arrayed along the border with South Vietnam. The American support included a bombing campaign launched from Navy carriers and Air Force bases as far away as Guam and the delivery to Phnom Penh of arms, ammunition, and essential commodities through airlift and Mekong River convoy. Material assistance to the 6,000-man Cambodian Navy included the transfer of coastal patrol craft, PBRs, converted amphibious craft for river patrol and mine warfare, and auxiliary vessels. Despite this aid, by early 1975 the Communists in Cambodia controlled every population center but Phnom Penh, the capital. As the enemy tightened his ring around the city, the resistance of Cambodian government forces began to crumble.

Concluding that it was only a matter of time before all was lost in Cambodia, American leaders prepared to evacuate American and allied personnel from Phnom Penh. Fleet commanders revised and updated long-standing plans and alerted their forces for this special mission, designated Operation Eagle Pull. On 3 March 1975, Amphibious Ready Group Alpha (Task Group 76.4), and the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit (Task Group 79.4) embarked and arrived at a designated station off Kompong Som (previously Sihanoukville) in the Gulf of Siam. By 11 April, the force consisted of amphibious ships Okinawa, Vancouver, and Thomaston (LSD 28), escorted by Edson (DD 946), Henry B. Wilson (DDG 7), Knox (DE 1052), and Kirk (DE 1087). In addition, Hancock disembarked her normal complement of fixed-wing aircraft and took on Marine Heavy Lift Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463 for the operation. Anticipating the need to rescue as many as 800 evacuees, naval leaders decided that they needed all of the squadron's 25 CH-53, CH-46, AH-1J, and UH-1E helicopters and Okinawa's 22 CH-53, AH-1J, and UH-1Es of HMH-462. The amphibious group also carried the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, which would defend the evacuation landing zone near the U.S. Embassy, and reinforced naval medical-surgical teams to care for any casualties. Land-based U.S. Air Force helicopters and tactical aircraft were also on hand to back up the naval effort. Commander U.S. Support Activities Group/7th Air Force (COMUSSAG) was in overall command of the evacuation operation.

On 7 April 1975, the American command put Amphibious Ready Group Alpha on three-hour alert and positioned the force off the Cambodian coast. In the early morning hours of 12 April Washington ordered execution of the daring mission. At 0745 local time, Okinawa began launching helicopters in three waves to carry the 360-man Marine ground security force to the landing zone. One hour later, after traversing 100 miles of hostile territory, the initial wave set down near the embassy and the Marines quickly established a defensive perimeter.

Within the next two hours, U.S. officials assembled the evacuees and quickly loaded them on Okinawa and Hancock helicopters. Because many already had left Cambodia by other means prior to the twelfth, the evacuees numbered only 276. The group included U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean, other American diplomatic personnel, the acting president of Cambodia, senior Cambodian government leaders and their families, and members of the news media. In all, 82 U.S., 159 Cambodian, and 35 other nationals were rescued.

By 1041 all the evacuees had been lifted out, and little more than one-half hour later the ground security force also was airborne and heading out to sea. At 1224 all aircraft and personnel were safely on board Amphibious Ready Group Alpha ships. Although one Khmer Rouge 75-millimeter shell landed near the embassy landing zone, no casualties were suffered during the entire operation. The following day, task group helicopters flew the evacuated personnel to Thailand and the naval force set sail for Subic Bay. Thus through detailed planning, preparation, and precise execution, the joint evacuation force successfully accomplished the military mission in Cambodia.

The Fall of South Vietnam

The experience gained in Operation Eagle Pull and in the refugee evacuations from South Vietnam's I and II Corps served the fleet well when the Republic of Vietnam, after 20 years of struggle, collapsed under the Communist onslaught. During the latter half of April, U.S. naval leaders prepared ships and men for the final evacuation of American and allied personnel from South Vietnam. The ships of the MSC flotilla were cleaned, restocked with food, water, and medicine; and deployed off Vung Tau in readiness. In addition, Marine security detachments embarked in each of the vessels and prepared to disarm boarding refugees and ensure order. Rincon (T-AOG-77) stood by to provide fuel to Vietnamese and American ships making the exodus from South Vietnam's waters.

The Seventh Fleet also marshalled its forces in the Western Pacific. Between 18 and 24 April 1975, with the loss of Saigon imminent, the Navy concentrated off Vung Tau a vast assemblage of ships under Commander Task Force 76.

Task Force 76
Blue Ridge (command ship)
Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha)
Okinawa
Vancouver
Thomaston
Peoria (LST 1183)
Task Group 76.5 (Movement Transport Group Bravo)
Dubuque
Durham
Frederick
Task Group 76.9 (Movement Transport Group Charlie)
Anchorage (LSD 36)
Denver (LPD 9)
Duluth (LPD 6)
Mobile (LKA 115)

The task force was joined by Hancock and Midway, carrying Navy, Marine, and Air Force helicopters; Seventh Fleet flagship Oklahoma City; amphibious ships Mount Vernon (LSD 39), Barbour County (LST 1195), and Tuscaloosa (LST 1187); and eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense. The Enterprise and Coral Sea carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support. The Marine evacuation contingent, the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade (Task Group 79.1), consisted of three battalion landing teams, four helicopter squadrons, support units, and the deployed security detachments.

After a dogged defense at Xuan Loc, the South Vietnamese forces defending the approaches to Saigon finally gave way on 21 April. With the outcome of the conflict clear, President Thieu resigned the same day. On the 29th, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces closed on the capital, easily pushing through the disintegrating Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. Although U.S. and South Vietnamese leaders had delayed ordering an evacuation, for fear of sparking a premature collapse, the time for decision was now at hand.

At 1108 local time on 29 April 1975, Commander Task Force 76 received the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the allied effort. At 1244, from a position 17 nautical miles from the Vung Tau Peninsula, Hancock launched the first helicopter wave. Over two hours later, these aircraft landed at the primary landing zone in the U.S. Defense Attache Office compound in Saigon. Once the ground security force (2d Battalion, 4th Marines) established a defensive cordon, Task Force 76 helicopters began lifting out the thousands of American, Vietnamese, and third-country nationals. The process was fairly orderly. By 2100 that night, the entire group of 5,000 evacuees had been cleared from the site. The Marines holding the perimeter soon followed.

The situation was much less stable at the U.S. Embassy. There, several hundred prospective evacuees were joined by thousands more who climbed fences and pressed the Marine guard in their desperate attempt to flee the city. Marine and Air Force helicopters, flying at night through ground fire over Saigon and the surrounding area, had to pick up evacuees from dangerously constricted landing zones at the embassy, one atop the building itself. Despite the problems, by 0500 on the morning of 30 April, U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin and 2,100 evacuees had been rescued from the Communist forces closing in. Only two hours after the last Marine security force element was extracted from the embassy, Communist tanks crashed through the gates of the nearby Presidential Palace. At the cost of two Marines killed in an earlier shelling of the Defense Attaché Office compound and two helicopter crews lost at sea, Task Force 76 rescued over 7,000 Americans and Vietnamese.

Meanwhile, out at sea, the initial trickle of refugees from Saigon had become a torrent. Vietnamese Air Force aircraft loaded with air crews and their families made for the naval task force. These incoming helicopters (most fuel-starved) and one T-41 trainer complicated the landing and takeoff of the Marine and Air Force helicopters shuttling evacuees. Ships of the task force recovered 41 Vietnamese aircraft, but another 54 were pushed over the side to make room on deck or ditched alongside by their frantic crews. Naval small craft rescued many Vietnamese from sinking helicopters, but some did not survive the ordeal.

This aerial exodus was paralleled by an outgoing tide of junks, sampans, and small craft of all types bearing a large number of the fleeing population. MSC tugs Harumi, Chitose Maru, Osceola, Shibaura Maru, and Asiatic Stamina pulled barges filled with people from Saigon port out to the MSC flotilla. There, the refugees were embarked, registered, inspected for weapons, and given a medical exam. Having learned well from the earlier operations, the MSC crews and Marine security personnel processed the new arrivals with relative efficiency. The Navy eventually transferred all Vietnamese refugees taken on board naval vessels to the MSC ships.

Another large contingent of Vietnamese was carried to safety by a flotilla of 26 Vietnamese Navy and other vessels. These ships concentrated off Son Island southwest of Vung Tau with 30,000 sailors, their families, and other civilians on board.

On the afternoon of 30 April, Task Force 76 and the MSC group moved away from the coast, all the while picking up more seaborne refugees. This effort continued the following day. Finally, when this human tide ceased on the evening of 2 May, Task Force 76, carrying 6,000 passengers; the MSC flotilla of Sgt Truman Kimbro, Sgt Andrew Miller, Greenville Victory, Pioneer Contender, Pioneer Commander, Green Forest, Green Port, American Challenger, and Boo Heung Pioneer, with 44,000 refugees; and the Vietnamese Navy group set sail for reception centers in the Philippines and Guam. Thus ended the U.S. Navy's role in the 25-year American effort to aid the Republic of Vietnam in its desperate fight for survival.


The final test of strength between the Republic of Vietnam and its Communist antagonists that many observers had long predicted occurred in the early months of 1975. Demoralized South Vietnamese troops abandoned port after port along the South Vietnamese coast to swiftly advancing North Vietnamese forces. With five North Vietnamese divisions pressing the remnants of the South Vietnamese armed forces and hundreds of thousands of refugees into Danang, order in the city disintegrated. During this period of growing chaos in South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy readied for evacuation operations. On 25 March 1975, a number of ships were alerted for imminent evacuation operations in South Vietnam. Noncombatants were chosen for the mission because the Paris Agreement prohibited the entry of US Navy or other military forces into the country.

With the arrival at Danang of Pioneer Contender on 27 March 1975, the massive U.S. sea evacuation of I and II Corps began. During the next several days four of the five barge-pulling tugs and Sgt. Andrew Miller, Pioneer Commander, and American Challenger put in at the port. The vessels embarked U.S. Consulate, MSC, and other American personnel and thousands of desperate Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. When the larger ships were filled to capacity with 5,000 to 8,000 passengers, they individually sailed for Cam Ranh Bay further down the coast. Hampered by South Vietnamese shelling of Qui Nhon, Pioneer Commander, Greenville Victory, Korean-flag LST Boo Heung Pioneer, and three tugs were unable to load evacuees at this city, which fell on 31 March. The speed of the South Vietnamese collapse and the enemy's quick exploitation of it limited the number of refugees rescued from Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang. Before the latter port fell on 2 April, however, Boo Heung Pioneer and Pioneer Commander brought 11,500 passengers on board and put out to sea.

On the evening of 2 May 1975 the MSC flotilla of Sgt Truman Kimbro, Sgt Andrew Miller, Greenville Victory, Pioneer Contender, Pioneer Commander, Green Forest, Green Port, American Challenger, and Boo Heung Pioneer, with 44,000 refugees, set sail for reception centers in the Philippines and Guam. Thus ended the 25-year American effort to aid the Republic of Vietnam in its fight for survival.