David L. Anderson, Vietnamization: Politics, Strategy, Legacy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. xii, 173 pp.
Peter Arnett, Herbert Fix, Joe Galloway, Sydney Schanberg, and Russ Thurman, "The Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh: The End of Folly", in The VVA Veteran, August/September 2001. Transcript of a panel session at an April 6-8, 2000, symposium "Rendezvous with War," sponsored by Vietnam Veterans of America and the College of William and Mary. There are brief introductory remarks by Michael Finn. (Articles published in The VVA Veteran only remain online for about two years.)
Asian Survey, a monthly journal, usually focuses in current or recent events, but at least the articles are written by scholars, and sometimes there are articles dealing with events far enough in the past to allow a real historical perspective. In January or February of each year, it published an article summarizing the events of the previous year in Vietnam, or separate articles for North and South Vietnam. The listing below is incomplete:
George Ginsburgs, "Soviet Sources on the Law of North Vietnam (II)," Asian Survey 13:10 (October 1973), pp. 980-88.
Jerry M. Silverman, "South Vietnam and the Return to Political Struggle," Asian Survey 14:1 (January 1974), pp. 65-77.
William S. Turley, "The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the 'Third Stage' of the Revolution," Asian Survey 14:1 (January 1974), pp. 78-88.
Donald Kirk, "Cambodia 1973: Year of the 'Bomb Halt,'" Asian Survey 14:1 (January 1974), pp. 89-100.
MacAlister Brown and Joseph J. Zasloff, "Laos 1973: Wary Steps Toward Peace," Asian Survey 14:2 (February 1974), pp. 166-74.
Jerry Mark Silverman, "Political Presence and Electoral Support in South Vietnam," Asian Survey 14:5 (May 1974), pp. 397-417.
Earl C. Ravenal, "Was Vietnam a Mistake?" Asian Survey 14:7 (July 1974), pp. 589-607.
Donald Kirk, "Cambodia 1974: Governments on Trial," Asian Survey 15:1 (January 1975), pp. 53-60.
Carlyle A. Thayer, "The Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1974: The Politics of Transition," Asian Survey 15:1 (January 1975), pp. 61-69.
Allen E. Goodman, "South Vietnam: War without End?" Asian Survey 15:1 (January 1975), pp. 70-84.
MacAlister Brown and Joseph J. Zasloff, "Laos 1974: Coalition Government Shoots the Rapids," Asian Survey 15:2 (February 1975), pp. 174-183.
Le Hoang Trong, "Survival and Self-Reliance: A Vietnamese Viewpoint," Asian Survey 15:4 (April 1975), pp. 281-300.
Anthony T. Bouscaren, ed., All Quiet on the Eastern Front: The Death of South Vietnam. Old Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair, 1977. ix, 164 pp. One presumes that the strong anti-Communism of the editor is reflected in the selections.
Walter J. Boyne, "The Fall of Saigon." Air Force Magazine, April 2000 (83:4). The text has been placed online.
Breakdown of the Vietnam Ceasefire: The Need for a Balanced View. Washington, D.C.: Indochina Resource Center, (1974?). 51 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-24, and pp. 25-51.
David Butler, The Fall of Saigon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. Paperback New York: Dell, 1986. viii, 527 pp. Butler was in Saigon as a reporter for NBC.
Philip Caputo, Means of Escape. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. One section of this memoir deals with what Caputo experienced as a journalist in Saigon during the last three weeks before the end of the war in 1975.
Tom Carhart, The Impact of U.S. Domestic Law on the Last Days of American Presence in Vietnam. Paper P-5583. Santa Monica: Rand, 1975. 23 pp. Can be purchased in hard copy from the Rand Corporation online bookstore or read online.
Chien dich Ho Chi Minh giai phong mien Nam, thong nhat dat nuoc. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 486 pp.
Chien thang Xuan Loc-Long Khanh trong cuoc tong tien cong va noi day mua xuan, 1975. [Bien Hoa?]: Nha xuat ban Tong hop Dong Nai, 2003. 806 pp.
Thurston Clarke, Honorable Exit: How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save OUr Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War. New York: Doubleday, 2019. xii, 430 pp. The Americans who evacuated Vietnamese associeated with the US from Vietnam, though for most of the time they were doing this, Ambassador Graham Martin was attempting to stop them from doing so. Well written and very interesting.
Coalition to Stop Funding the War. This anti-war group urged Congress to cut off military aid to Saigon, Phnom Penh, and Vientiane. Some of its documents have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University. There is a detailed description of the makeup of the coalition enclosed in a letter dated March 22, 1974. I did not see names I recognized in the lists of its leaders, but the list of organizations cooperating in the coalition was impressive. It published two newsletters reporting on its efforts, and on congressional debate and action on military aid, sometimes listing names of congressmen voting aye and no on crucial measures.
January 14 1975: "1975: Will Peace Come to Indochina?"
February 14, 1975: "Defeat the Supplementals!"
March 31 1975: "Congress Stalls at Indochina Crossroads!"
June 1975: "What Have We Learned?"
COMUSSAG/7AF Nakhon Phanom Aprt, "USSAG/7AF OPLAN 5060V-1-75, Frequent Wind (Option II)," 220930Z Apr 75 (22 April 1975). A 23-part message, 89 pp., laying out the plan for the evacuation of Saigon. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
"Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law" or, occasionally, "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to Contemporary Law." A collection of material presenting U.S. opinions on issues involving international law appeared in each issue of The American Journal of International Law. It was compiled by someone (usually the Assistant Legal Adviser) in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the full text of this journal through the JSTOR American Journal of International Law browse page. Some of the more interesting Vietnam-related material that can be found in these compilations:
Alan Dawson, 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977. xvi, 366 pp. By a reporter for UPI who was present, and chose not to leave in the evacuation.
Defense Attache Office (DAO). The Defense Attache Office was the principal U.S. military headquarters remaining in Saigon after Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was disbanded in April 1973. It was commanded by Major General John E. Murray from 1973 to August 1974, and by Major General Homer Smith for the remainder of the war. Its main function was arranging the delivery of US military aid, but it also had an intelligence role, trying to keep track of the military situation. Some of its assessments of the situation are available. It should be noted that until late 1974, DAO summaries very seriously undercounted ARVN casualties (see Arnold Isaacs, Without Honor, pp. 310-313). See below under Stuart Herrington and William E. LeGro for accounts by officers who worked in the DAO.
RVNAF Quarterly Assessment, 4th QTR FY 73
RVNAF Quarterly Assessment, 1st QTR FY 74
RVNAF Quarterly Assessment, 1st QTR FY 75
RVNAF Final Assessment, Jan Thru Apr FY 75
Defense Attache Office, Saigon, Quarterly Assessments. Six massive reports (more than 300 pages each), beginning with the one for the last quarter of 1973, and ending with the one for January through April of 1975. These have been gathered on a CD-ROM, published as one item in the collection Carr's Compendium of the Vietnam War, and can be purchased from Carr's Compendiums.
Intelligence Branch, DAO. A variety of documents of the DAO Intelligence branch have been place online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
DAO Intelligence Branch Fact Sheets. A collection of documents, all or most dating from about mid 1973, laying out the organizational structure and missions of the DAO Intelligence Branch and giving some other details. First section; second section (consists mostly of the Monthly Intelligence Estimate Update (MIEU) (see below) for May 1973); third section.
Fact Sheet: "Changes in Enemy Order of Battle in South Vietnam since Ceasefire." 2 March 1974. 4 pp. Showed larger increases in armor and artillery strength than in personnel strength. The text.
Defense Attache Office, Saigon, Monthly Intelligence Estimate Update (MIEU). This publication, issued from April 1973 onward, contains a lot of useful information. There were two versions; the code word edition included material from the most highly classified sources, while the other edition did not.
Monthly wrapup estimate presented to DAO on 27 April 1973, pp. 1-12, pp. 13-22 (incomplete; p. 23 is missing).
May 1973, first part, second part. This copy is not very legible, but it is a more complete version. The more legible copy that was included in the DAO Intelligence Branch Fact Sheets, above, was of the less complete version of the report.
June 1973, first part, second part.
Monthly Intelligence Estimate Update - July 1973, dated 4 August 1973.
Soon after the MIEU began to appear, the general who headed intelligence at USSAG at Nakhon Phanom in Thailand, complained that the DAO was not authorized to issue intelligence estimates. So Colonel William LeGro, Chief of the Intelligence Branch at DAO, changed the title to remove the word "Estimate." It became the Monthly Intelligence Summary and Threat Analysis (MISTA), starting with the report for August 1973.
August 1973 (appears incomplete, missing first page or pages, also portions are not very legible).
September 1973 MISTA, first part and second part, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 6 October 1973.
October 1973 MISTA, pp. 1-13 and pp. 14-27, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 2 November 1973.
"November Threat Assessment" covered November 1973, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 6 December 1973.
"December Threat Assessment" covered December 1973, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 10 January 1974.
"January Threat Assessment" covered January 1974, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 7 February 1974.
"February Threat Assessment" covered February 1974.
"March Threat Assessment" covered March 1974.
"April Threat Assessment" covered April 1974.
"May Threat Assessment" covered May 1974, presented to MG Murray, DATT, on 6 June 1974.
"June Threat Assessment" covered June 1974.
"July Threat Assessment" covered July 1974.
"August Threat Assessment" covered August 1974.
"September Threat Assessment" covered September 1974.
"October Threat Assessment" pp. 1-12, pp. 13-19.
"November Threat Assessment" covered November 1974.
"February Threat Assessment" covered February 1975. Reported a big increase in infiltration.
"March Threat Assessment (As of 10 April 1975)" pp. 1-12, pp. 13-23. The overall conclusion of the report was that the Republic of Vietnam would probably not last to the end of the year, and "may very well fall around June. . . . A Communist victory in this current campaign is virtually certain unless U.S. air power is applied in the south." Ambassador Martin added a disclaimer at the end, predicting that international diplomatic pressure would deter the DRV from pushing its offensive to final victory.
Handwritten notes by Col. William E. LeGro, the officer who had been responsible for the MIEU/MISTA, summarizing key points of MIEUs and MISTAs from April 1973 to December 1974.
Weekly Wrap-up South Vietnam. Produced by the Current Intelligence Section (CIS) of DAO Intelligence. Most issues are signed by Wallace D. Moore, Deputy Chief, CIS/3177. A few issues have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Delegation of the RVN at the Official Meetings Between the Two South Vietnamese Parties, Brief Summary of 90 Days of the Implementation of the Paris Agreement on Viet Nam (January 27th 1973). n.p., n.d. 48 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Paul Dreyfus, Et Saigon tomba. Paris: Arthaud, 1975. 367 pp.
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, Last Men Out: The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 2011. 304 pp. The U.S. personnel, particularly the Marines, who handled the final evacuation from Saigon in 1975.
Colonel G. Alan Dugard, Sawadee Buffs: The Final Chapter of the Vietnam War. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2017. 228 pp. Murieta, CA: BookBlastPRO, 2017. Colonel Dugard arrived in Thailand in late April 1975, to become vice wing commander of the 307th Strategic Wing, a B-52 unit, at U-Tapao Airbase. The first page of the prologue, available on the Amazon.com website, is inaccurate enough about the historical background to leave me suspicous of the book.
Larry Engelmann, Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of Saigon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xiii, 375 pp.
Yen Le Espiritu, "The 'We-Win-Even-When-We-Lose' Syndrome: US press Coverage of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the 'Fall of Saigon,'" American Quarterly 58:2 (2006), 329-352.
James Fenton, All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of the Pacific Rim. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. 269 pp. By a British journalist. A substantial chunk of the book deals with the last stages of the war in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Russell H. Fifield, The Liquidation of a War: The United States and Vietnam. Bruxelles: Centre d'Etude du Sud-Est Asiatique et de l'Extreme-Orient, 1978.
Brigitte Friang, La mousson de la liberté: Vietnam, du colonialisme au Stalinisme. Paris: Plon, 1976. 319 pp. Pages 29-94 are a summary by Friang, a French journalist who covered the war, of the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975. Pages 99-290 are the diary from May 1975 to May 1976 of Huynh Tran Duc, a South Vietnamese who had been sympathetic to the Communists until he found himself under their rule.
Tom Glenn, "Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon, April 1975," Studies in Intelligence 59:4 (December 2015), pp. 9-20. Glenn rans NSA's SIGINT activities in South Vietnam 1974-75. He was able to get his American personnel out of Vietnam before the fall of Saigon, despite Ambassador Martin's obstruction, but he was not able to get many Vietnamese SIGINT personnel out.
Albert Grandolini, Target Saigon, 1973-75. Solihull, West Midlands, UK: Helion, 2017-2022.
Volume 1: The Pretence of Peace. 2017. 88 pp.
Volume 2: The Fall of South Vietnam: The Beginning of the End, January 1974 – March 1975. 2020. 104 pp.
Volume 3: Disaster at Da Nang 1975. 2022. 80 pp.
Volume 4: The Final Collapse, April–May 1975. 2022. 80 pp.
Albert Grandolini, Fall of the Flying Dragon, South Vietnamese Air Force 1973–75. Houston, TX: Harpia, 2011. 253 pp. Extensively illustrated.
"A Group of French University Professors" [Madeleine Rebérioux et. al.], The Forgotten Prisoners of Nguyen Van Thieu. Paris: privately printed, May 1973. 47 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: pp. 1-24, and pp. 25-47. The French Original was Saigon: les prisonniers. Paris: Maspéro, 1973.
Philip C. Habib, et. al., an interesting assortment of February 1975 State Department and CIA documents about United States aid to the Republic of Vietnam. The date February 19, 1973, on the first document, a briefing paper in which Habib prepared the Deputy Secretary of State for a meeting with RVN figures, is a typo; the actual date was February 19, 1975. Attached were brief biographical summaries on the RVN figures: RVN Senate Chairman Tran Van Lam, Senatory Tran Minh Tung, and Ambassador Tran Kim Phuong. The texts have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University
Richard W. Hale, "A CIA Officer in Saigon." Vietnam Magazine, June 2003. Hale arrived in Vietnam in June 1973. The text was formerly online at HistoryNet.com.
P. Edward Haley, Congress and the Fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia. Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press and Associated University Presses, 1982. 227 pp. Deals mostly with the year 1975.
Charles Henderson, Goodnight Saigon: The True Story of the U.S. Marines' Last Days in Vietnam. New York: Berkley Caliber (Penguin), 2005. xvii, 420 pp.
Jan K. Herman, The Lucky Few: The Fall of Saigon and the Rescue Mission of the USS Kirk. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013. 192 pp. USS Kirk first was one of the ships that received helicoper loads of people fleeing South Vietnam in late April 1975, and then was assigned to escort Vietnamese Navy ships from the Vietnamese coast to the Philippines.
Major Stuart A. Herrington, "The Third Indochina War, 1973-1975: A Personal Perspective." Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Air University, May 1980. ix, A thesis written at the Air Command and Staff College (the item immediately below is a revised version of this). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: front matter and pp. 1-41, pp. 42-92, pp. 93-146, pp. 147-204, pp. 205-268, pp. 269-334, pp. 335-394.
Stuart Herrington, Peace With Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam, 1973-75. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1983. viii, 253 pp. (there is also a book club edition, xii, 210 pp.) Memoir by a military intelligence officer who was in Vietnam during this last phase of the war, after the US ceased to have a combat role.
Bruce Herschensohn, An American Amnesia: How the U.S. Congress Forced the Surrenders of South Vietnam and Cambodia. New York: Beaufort Books, 2010. xi, 180 pp. Herschensohn had been a member of the White House staff under Nixon. The book is actually a broader denunciation of those who opposed the Vietnam War than the title suggests.
The Ho Chi Minh Campaign: Reminiscences of Revolutionary Commanders and Political Commissars. Hanoi: The Gioi, 2012. v, 302 pp. (I am not sure whether this is a translation of the work listed under Nguyen Huu Duc, below.)
Hoang Van Thai, The Decisive Years: Memoirs of Vietnamese Senior General Hoang Van Thai. JPRS-SEA-87-084. Springfield, VA: NTIS, 1987. (Translated from General Thai's memoirs as serialized in the Ho Chi Minh City newspaper Saigon Giai Phong, March 13 to May 14, 1986.) Deals mainly with the period 1972 to 1975. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: front matter and pp. 1-47, pp. 48-97, pp. 98-147, and pp. 148-156.
Alistair Horne, Kissinger: 1973, the Crucial Year. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. xvi, 457 pp. Written with Kissinger's cooperation. My brief glance at this book did not give me a favorable impression.
Stephen T. Hosmer, Konrad Kellen, and Brian M. Jenkins, The Fall of South Vietnam: Statements by Vietnamese Military and Civilian Leaders. Santa Monica: Rand, December 1978. xviii, 131(?) pp. R-2208-OSD. Rand has placed the text (apparently missing the last two pages or so) online. An October 1977 preliminary draft, significantly different from the final published version, has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in five parts: front matter and pp. 1-46, pp. 47-96, pp. 97-145, pp. 146-185, and pp. 186-203.
Stephen T. Hosmer, Konrad Kellen, and Brian M. Jenkins, The Fall of South Vietnam: Statements by Vietnamese Military and Civilian Leaders. New York: Crane, Russak, 1980. 264 pp. I am not sure to what extent, if at all, this has been modified from the final version of the previous item.
Major General Ira A. Hunt, Jr., Losing Vietnam: How America Abandoned Southeast Asia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2013. xiv, 399 pp. Hunt was deputy commander of USSAG.
Arnold Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. xv, 559 pp. Really excellent study of how the war finally ended.
T. Christopher Jespersen, "Kissinger, Ford, and Congress: The Very Bitter End in Vietnam." Pacific Historical Review 71:3 (August 2002), pp. 439-73.
James Jones, Viet Journal. New York: Delacorte, 1973.
Pierre Journoud and Cécile Menétrey-Monchau, eds., Vietnam, 1968–1976: La sortie de guerre/Exiting a War. Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2011. Enjeux Internationaux/International Issues, no. 17. 378 pp. plus CD.
Nguyen Vu Tung, "Driving the USA Away and Toppling the Saigon Regime: Strategic Thinking in Hanoi on National Reunification and Liberation between 1973 and 1975" (pp. 257-268
Ilya Gaiduk, "After Peace: Moscow, Hanoi and the Implementation of the Paris Peace Accords, 1973" (pp. 269-285)
Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, "La question des réparations de guerre enter les États-Unis et le Vietnam et l'évolution du droit international" (pp. 297-311)
Johannes Kadura, The War after the War: The Struggle for Credibility during America's Exit from Vietnam. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016. xvi, 231 pp.
Julie Kane, "Secret Evacuation of the VNN Fleet." Vietnam Magazine, April 1995, pp. 30-37, 68.
David Kennerly, "Inside the Final Days of Vietnam," Politico Magazine (online), April 29, 2015. A photo essay. Kennerly was the White House photographer, but also accompanied General Frederick Weyand on Weyand's trip to Vietnam in late March and early April 1975. He sat on some very interesting conversations, in Washington and Saigon.
Henry Kissinger, Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. 564 pp. The section "The Last Month of Indochina" (pp. 421-544) consists mostly of transcripts of Kissinger's telephone conversations between March 27 and April 29, 1975.
Lam Quang Thi, Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam. Phoenix: Sphinx Publishing, 1986. iii, 212 pp. Lt. Gen. Thi, a VNA/ARVN officer since 1951, was deputy commander of I Corps in 1975.
Jean Larteguy, L'adieu è Saigon. Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1975. 222 pp.
"Last Days in Vietnam." Oral histories under this title were collected under Project 82-2 of the U.S. Army War College in 1982. Three of these were online in the Army Heritage Collection Online for a while, but that collection was reorganized a while ago, and I have not been able to relocate these items in that collection.
Alan Carter, "Last Days in Vietnam". iii, 52 pp. plus appendices. The final evacuation of Saigon in 1975. Carter was Minister and Counselor of Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Saigon.
Wolfgang J. Lehmann, "Last Days in Vietnam". iii, 45 pp. plus appendices. The final collapse and evacuation in 1975. Lehmann was deputy U.S. ambassador in Saigon from March 1974 to April 1975. He was acting ambassador during the evacuation of the Central Highlands in March 1975.
Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr., "Last Days in Vietnam". v, 71 pp. plus appendices. The final evacuation of Saigon in 1975. Summers was Chief of the Negotiations Division of the U.S. Delegation to the Four-Party Joint Military Commission, July 1974 to April 1975. (For an abridged version, see below under Summers.)
Le Hai Trieu, Anh hung trong chien dich Ho Chi Minh. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 359 pp.
J. Edward Lee and Toby Haynsworth, eds., White Christmas in April: The Collapse of South Vietnam, 1975. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. xiii, 256 pp.
J. Edward Lee and H.C. "Toby" Haynsworth, Nixon, Ford, and the Abandonment of South Vietnam. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002. 216 pp.
Marc Leepson, "Escape To The Sea", in The VVA Veteran, April/May 2000. The story of how Terry McNamara, U.S. Consul General in Can Tho at the time the war ended in 1975, got hundreds of Vietnamese associated with the United States out by boat down the Bassac River (see McNamara's book, below). (Articles published in The VVA Veteran only remain online for about two years.)
Col. William E. LeGro, Vietnam from Ceasefire to Capitulation. Washington: Center of Military History, 1981. vi, 180 pp. Covers the period from 1973 to 1975. The text has been placed online by the Army.
Col. William E. LeGro, U.S. Army, Retired, "Intelligence in Vietnam After the Cease-Fire." INSCOM Journal, 20:2 (March-April 1997). The text has been placed online at a Federation of American Scientists web site. LeGro went to Vietnam in December 1972 as adviser to the ARVN's director of training. Early in 1973 he shifted jobs, assigned to organize the intelligence branch of the Defense Attaché Office (DAO). He remained until 1975.
Wolfgang J. Lehmann, oral history. Lehmann was deputy U.S. ambassador in Saigon from March 1974 to April 1975. He was acting ambassador during the evacuation of the Central Highlands in March 1975. Online in the American Memory website of the Library of Congress.
Jana K. Lipman, "'A Precedent Worth Setting...' Military Humanitarianism: The U.S. Military and the 1975 Vietnamese Evacuation," Journal of Military History 79:1 (January 2015), pp. 151-79.
Timothy Lomperis, The Vietnam War from the Rear Echelon: An Intelligence Officer's Memoir, 1972-1973. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011. xviii, 270 pp. Lomperis, a military intelligence lieutenant, arrived in Vietnam in March 1972 and worked at MACV. Early in 1973 he left the Army so he could be officially a civilian, not counted under the quota of U.S. military personnel allowed in Vietnam under the terms of the Paris Agreement, while working as liaison betweeen the U.S. Defense Attaché Office (DAO) and several Vietnamese intelligence organizations.
George McArthur, "'It Became Sinful': A Reporter's Story." Vietnam Magazine, April 1995, pp. 22-28, 66. McArthur was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, previously Saigon bureau chief for AP.
Francis Terry McNamara, with Adrian Hill, Escape with Honor: My Last Hours in Vietnam. Washington: Brassey's, 1997. xii, 227 pp. McNamara was US Consul General in Can Tho; he evacuated a substantial number of Vietnamese from Can Tho by boat down the Bassac when the RVN collapsed in 1975.
Julian Manyon, The Fall of Saigon. London: Collings, 1975. 147 pp.
Earl S. Martin, Reaching the Other Side. New York: Crown Publishers, 1978. Martin, a Mennonite aid worker, stayed in South Vietnam through the last months of the war and for a few months after the Communist victory of 1975.
Jeffrey H. Michaels, "Delusions of survival: U.S. deliberations on support for South Vietnam during the 1975 'Final Offensive'," Small Wars & Insurgencies 26:6 (2015), pp. 957-75.
Carolyn P. Miller, Captured. Chappaqua, NY: Christian Herald Books, 1977. 288 pp. Missionaries captured by Communist forces during the 1975 offensive.
Major General John E. Murray, notes of conversations with CINCPAC (Admiral Noel Gayler) and other officers, Hawaii, August 20, 1974. Murray was stopping off in Hawaii on his way back to the United States, after completing his tour as Defense Attache (commander of the DAO) in Saigon. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Major General John E. Murray, USA (Ret.), "Vietnam: The Map Turns Red." Air Force Magazine, February 1975. Reprinted in the Congressional Record, March 6, 1975, pp. 5560-61.
Maj. Gen. Nguyen Duy Hinh, Vietnamization and the Cease-Fire. McLean, VA: General Research Corporation [on a contract with the U.S. Army], 1976. v, 194 pp. At the time of the Paris Peace Agreement, General Hinh had been commander of the ARVN 3d Infantry Division, in Quang Nam and Quang Tin provinces of I Corps. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: front matter and pp. 1-44, pp. 45-94, pp. 95-144, and pp. 145-194.
Nguyen Huu Duc and Nguyen Thi Thanh, Chien dich Ho Chi Minh qua hoi uc cac tu lenh va chinh uy. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 380 pp.
Nguyen Luu Vien, Recapitulation of Events after the 45 Day Time Limit as Stipulated in the Joint Communique of June 13th 1973, "As Presented By Dr. Nguyen Luu Vien, Deputy Prime Minister, Chief of Delegation Of The Republic Of Viet Nam At The 19th Session On August 2nd, 1973, Of The Conference Between The Two South Vietnamese Parties At La Celle Saint-Cloud". 24 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Nguyen Xuan Phong, Hope and Vanquished Reality. New York: Center for a Science of Hope/Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2001. 374 pp. Phong, head of the RVN delegation in Paris, returned to Vietnam April 25, 1975 and witnessed the fall of Saigon. He remained in Vietnam, and was imprisoned. Chapter 7, nominally about his experiences in prison, contains extended flashbacks to his role as a member of the RVN cabinet in the 1960s, and American policies during that period.
Richard Nixon. The Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, has begun to put online some of President Nixon's correspondence with President Nguyen Van Thieu of the Republic of Vietnam.
Nixon letter to Thieu, June 6, 1973. Nixon said he was "astounded" at Thieu's letter of June 6, in which Thieu said his government would not sign a communique that had been negotiated in Paris between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho.
Nixon letter to Thieu, as passed to Thieu by the U.S. Embassy on June 8, 1973, strongly urging Thieu to sign the communique. Nixon said the consequences of that refusal would be disastrous.
Nixon letter to Thieu, as passed to Thieu by the U.S. Embassy on June 9, 1973, strongly urging Thieu to sign the communique. Nixon told Thieu "in total confidence" (and rather implausibly) that the communique was part of a package deal that would include a withdrawal of PAVN force from Laos over a sixty-day period beginning July 1.
James E. Parker, Jr., Last Man Out. Camden, SC: John Culler & Sons, 1996. xxi, 450 pp. Parker went to Vietnam in 1965 as a 2d lieutenant with the 1st Infantry Division. He joined the CIA in 1970, served in Laos (this part of his career is covered by his book Codename Mule), and was in the Mekong Delta during the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.
James E. Parker, Jr., The Vietnam War Its Ownself. CreateSpace, 2015. 686 pp. Parker went to Vietnam as a platoon leader in the 1/28 Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, in 1965. He joined the CIA in 1970, and was sent to Laos in 1971. He was in the Mekong Delta 1973-75. This book is based mainly on his previously published memoirs, but some new material has been added.
Shirley Peck-Barnes, The War Cradle: Vietnam's Children of War: Operation Babylift--The Untold Story. Denver, Colorado: Vintage Pressworks, 2000. 318 pp.
Pham Huy Duong and Pham Ba Toan, eds., Chien dich Ho Chi Minh, trang su vang qua cac tran danh. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 864 pp.
Pham Huy Duong and Pham Ba Toan, eds., Dai thang mua xuan 1975: ket thuc cuoc khang chien chong My, cuu nuoc cua dan toc Viet Nam. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 734 pp.
Pham Kim Vinh, Cai chet cua Nam Viet Nam: nhung tran danh cuoi cung. Los Alamitos, CA: Xuan Thu, 1988. 430 pp.
Camvan Phan, Lemon Tears/May tho dai. San Jose, CA: self-published, 2005. The volume contains both the English (263 pp.) and the Vietnamese (262 pp.) text. Mr. Phan was teaching at a school in Dalat when the RVN collapsed in 1975. He fled to Saigon, then to Rach Gia, to Phu Quoc Island, and after an extended time at sea finally reached Thailand.
Phan Nhat Nam [Phan Ngoc Khue], Peace and Prisoners of War: A South Vietnamese Memoir of the Vietnam War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2020. ix, 197 pp. Phan Nhat Nam had served for many years as an ARVN airborne officer, but by the time of the events described in this book, 1973-74, he was a highly respected war reporter.
Douglas Pike, "South Vietnam's Prospects in the Immediate and Near Future." Draft dated March 31, 1975. 7 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
John Pilger, The Last Day. New York: Vintage, 1976. The author was a correspondent for the London Daily News.
D. Gareth Porter, A Peace Denied: The U.S., Vietnam, and the Paris Agreements. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1975. ix, 357 pp. A rather left-wing view.
Jacques Portes, La fin de la guerre du vietnam (1968-1975): Washington-Hanoi-Saigon-Paris. Paris: les Indes Savantes, 2016. 214 pp.
Paul Quinn-Judge, "Inside Saigon: Eye-Witness Report." A pamphlet, reprinting an article in Commonweal, 26 September 1975, pp. 429-432. An interesting discussion of the behavior of "third force" elements in Saigon immediately before and after the end of the war in 1975, and their willingness to talk, much more openly than before, about their contacts with the NLF. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Paul and Sophie Quinn-Judge, "Socializing the Revolution in Saigon." 50 pp. An oral history interview, dated September 1975, covering events from when the couple left Quang Ngai about March 20, 1975, through the early period of Communist rule in Saigon. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Republic of Viet Nam, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Communist Violations of the Paris Agreement of January 27, 1973. Saigon: June 1973. 189 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: pp. 1-38, pp. 39-77, pp. 78-116, pp. 117-155, and pp. 156-189. The last section includes (pp. 168-181) the text of the Joint Communique signed in Paris June 13, 1973, by the signatories of the Paris Agreement of January 27, 1973, and also a map (following p. 189) showing the locations of ICCS teams in South Vietnam.
Republic of Vietnam (?), [documentary collection for which I have not so far found the title]. Portions at least of this have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University: II: "Statement by H.E. Tran-Van-Lam, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Viet-Nam, and Text of a Draft Accord on a Political Solution for South Viet-Nam, April 25th, 1973 (pp. 16-19); III (p. 19); IV: "The First Ninety Days of the Paris Agreement: Communique of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Vietnam, April 28th, 1973" (pp. 20-24).
Republic of Vietnam, "Proclamation of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Partition of Viet Nam," July 20, 1974. 4 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
The Republic of Viet Nam Penitentiary System and the Civilian Prisoner Question. Saigon: Republic of Vietnam National Commission for Information, June 1973. 33 pp., plus numerous pages of photographs without page numbers. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Alain Sanders, Chien fou: Maroc 1971, Congo ex-belge (Zaire), 1972, Sud Vietnam, 1974-1975. Paris: Godefroy de Bouillon, 1998. 116 pp.
Sau muoi ngay thi hanh hiep dinh. (Alternate title: 60 ngay thi hanh hiep dinh.) Hanoi: Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 1973. 46 pp.
Robert Schulzinger, Ceasefire, War, and Peace: Vietnam and the United States, 1973-1976. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield (forthcoming).
George W. Schwarz, Jr., April Fools: An American Remembers South Viet Nam's Final Days. Baltimore: AmErica House, 2001. 282 pp. Schwarz, a former U.S. Army officer, seems to have arrived in Vietnam in 1972, as a civilian working for Alaska Barge and Transport, a major U.S. contractor, running port facilities, initially at Newport (the new port of Saigon), next at Cam Ranh.
Robert Shaplen, "Letter from Saigon," New Yorker, January 6, 1975, pp. 64- . The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
"The Sixth Annual An Quang Congress and Prospects for An Quang Opposition Activity." March 5, 1975. 12 pp. The authorship of this report on the congress of the An Quang Buddhists, December 25-27, 1974, is unclear. Probably it was written by someone in the U.S. Embassy. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Henry S. Sizer, "Government vs Opposition vs Communists: Vietnam from Three Perspectives." July 29, 1974. An informal end of tour report by the Second Secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, leving after four years in Vietnam. The text, with a cover memo by Ambassador Graham Martin, has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Melvin Small, "A Plan to Save South Vietnam in April 1975: Nguyen Huy Han's Aborted Coup." SHAFR Newsletter, 32:4 (December 2001), pp. 13-31. About two-thirds of this is an account by Ngyuen Huy Han (edited by Small) of a plot Han says he organized in 1975, shortly after resigning as the RVN's director-general of taxation, to overthow Nguyen Van Thieu and put in power a government capable of turning the war around and defeating the Communists. The remainder is written by Small.
Major General Homer D. Smith, "The Final Forty-Five Days in Vietnam." Unpublished paper, 22 May 1975, 18 pp. Maj. Gen. Smith was the Defense Attache, the chief U.S. adviser in Saigon, at the end of the war in 1975. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University. A substantially revised version was published under the same title in Vietnam Magazine, April 1995, pp. 46-52, 72, 74.
Major General Homer D. Smith, "End of Tour Report." 30 May 1975. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Frank Snepp, Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1977. xii, 590 pp. Reprinted, with foreword by Gloria Emerson: Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. xxv, 590 pp. Excellent book by a CIA man who was in Saigon during the last part of the war. He was very careful not to spill the identities of agents, or other facts that he regarded as genuine secrets, but he didn't go through the review process he was legally supposed to go through to let the government make sure he wasn't spilling any secrets. He believed (in my opinion correctly) that if he had gone through the review the government would have tried to cut out of his book his statements that the government behaved with disgusting stupidity and immorality in not making adequate preparations to get Vietnamese who had worked for the CIA, or who were for other reasons in danger, out of South Vietnam before the Communists took over. The U.S. didn't even bother to destroy a central file listing the names of Vietnamese who had cooperated with our intelligence operations; the Communists captured this file intact. The government sued Snepp for not putting his book through the review, and won.
Frank Snepp, Irreparable Harm: A Firsthand Account of How One Agent Took on the CIA in an Epic Battle over Secrecy and Free Speech. New York: Random House, 1999. xvii, 391 pp. Story of the legal battle over the preceding item.
"Special Report on the Paris Agreement," February 1974. The only indication of the authorship of this document, from the files of Douglas Pike, is a handwritten annotation "US Embassy Saigon". Very interesting on military operations after the supposed cease-fire of 1973, especially at Sa Huynh. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Cecil E. Spurlock, The Fall of Vietnam. OCMH-137. Unpublished contract study, Center of Military History, 1978. 132 pp typescript. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in three parts. Most of the Chapter I "Before the Fall" and pp. 1-12 of Chapter II "The Central Highlands Campaign"; pp. 13-33 of Chapter II, and Chapter III "Hue, Danang, and the Central Coast"; Chapter IV "The Ho Chi Minh Campaign".
I.F. Stone, "Toward a Third Indochina War." New York Review of Books, 20:3 (March 8, 1973).
Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr., "The Bitter End." Vietnam Magazine, April 1995, pp. 38-45, 69-70.
Charles Eugene Taber, Get Out Any Way You Can: The Story of the Evacuation of House Seven. Infinity, 2003. 84 pp. In March 1975, Taber, a CIA officer, was responsible for getting the Vietnamese employees of the Agency's propaganda radio operation out of Vietnam.
Liz Taylor, Dust of Life: Children of the Saigon Streets. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1977. viii, 199 pp. Ms. Taylor went to work in an orphanage in Saigon in 1972, and stayed until December 1975.
Tiziano Terzani, Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon. New York: St. Martin's, 1976. 317 pp. Italian original Giai phong! la liberazione di Saigon. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1976. 315 pp. Eyewitness account of the Communist takeover in Saigon by an Italian journalist who stayed when the Americans left.
Carlyle Thayer, "The Communist Movement in South Viet-Nam in 1973," preliminary draft intended for publication in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1974). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
The Thieu Regime Put to the Test: 1973-1975. Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1975. 120 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: pp. 1-32; pp. 33-63; pp. 64-93; pp. 94-120.
John T. Thomas, "Negotiating with the North Vietnamese: A Military Perspective." Master's thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1975. 136 pp. Deals with interaction 1973-1974 between U.S. and DRV representatives on the Four Party Joint Military Team established under the terms of the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement. To order from the National Technical Information Service, 1-800-553-6847, specify item ADB006749.
3 Mile Limit / Three Mile Limit. A daily news sheet published aboard USS Midway (CVA-41). A
few issues have been placed on-line in
the Virtual Vietnam
Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:
April 30, 1975 "Bombs Rock Saigon";
April 30, 1975 Special Edition
"RVN Surrenders";
May 1, 1975 "Evacuation Complete".
Major General Charles J. Timmes, USA, Ret., "Viet-Nam Summary: Military Operations After the Cease-Fire Agreement," Part I, Military Review, 56:8 (August 1976), pp. 63-75, and Part II, 56:9 (September 1976), pp. 21-29.
Brigitte Tison, Sud-Vietnam 1973: Un pays, des enfants et la guerre. Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire: Éditions Alan Sutton, 2005. 127 pp. A photo book with captions. Dr. Tison was director of "le centre Terre des Hommes-France de Saigon," a charitable institution caring for children, in 1973. The photos are good, and quite diverse; street scenes, children, and Montagnards, but also temples, imperial tombs, etc. But the comment on the back cover about the sound of B-52s taking off every day from the Saigon airport does not fill me with confidence.
Tran Van Tra, Nhung chang duong lich su cu B2 thanh dong, 5 vols. projected. Vol. 5, Ket thuc cuoc chien tranh 30 nam, was published first, (Ho Chi Minh City: Van Nghe, 1982), and was translated as Vietnam: History of the Bulwark B-2 Theatre, vol. 5: Concluding the 30-Years War, JPRS 82783 (Springfield, VA: NTIS, 1983). The text is available online at an Army website. This volume covers the period from 1973 to 1975. It was widely rumored that General Tra got in trouble for having published this.
Olivier Todd, trans. by Stephen Becker, Cruel April: The Fall of Saigon. New York: Norton, 1990. viii, 470 pp. French original Cruel Avril. Paris: Laffont, 1987.
United States Information Agency, Media Reaction Report: Worldwide Treatement of Current Issues. A summary of commentary appearing in the media (mainly newspapers) of a wide range of countries. A few issues have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:
No. 17, February 27, 1975, 14 pp.
No. 26, Indochina and the Future of U.S. Policy, April 1, 1975. 21 pp.
No. 27, Indochina and U.S. Policy Review, April 3, 1975. 187 pp.
No. 28, Indochina and U.S. Policy Reassessment, April 7, 1975. 17 pp.
No. 29, Reassessing U.S. Foreign Policy, April 10, 1975. 16 pp.
No. 30, President's Foreign Policy Address, April 14, 1975. 21 pp.
No. 32, Thieu's Resignation, April 22, 1975. 17 pp.
USIS [United States Information Service] - Vietnam, Current Issues Briefing Note. I have hopes that more issues will be placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:
War Material Shipments to Vietnam, February 25, 1974. 3 pp.
The PRG: Governmental Entity?, March 20, 1974. 2 pp.
Cease-fire Implementation in Viet-Nam, June 17, 1974. 2 pp.
Assessment of GVN and Communist Positions on Major Peace Issues, June 17, 1974. 3 pp.
Communist Violations of the Viet-Nam Peace Agreement, June 17, 1974. 2 pp.
Communist and U.S. Assistance to Viet-Nam Compared, July 11, 1974. 2 pp.
Talking Points for Viet-Nam Military Aid, July 11, 1974. 2 pp.
South Viet-Nam and Implementation of the Paris Agreement, July 11, 1974. 2 pp.
George J. Veith, Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75. New York: Encounter Books, 2012. xxvi, 587 pp. The main focus of this volume is military operations; Veith plans another volume on the political and diplomatic aspects of the struggle. I don't agree with everything in this book, but it is convincing on a very important issue: that the ARVN put up a lot more of a fighti, in the last months of the war, than most authors give it credit for. This is an important book and people need to read it.
George J. Veith and Merle L. Pribbenow II, "'Fighting Is an Art': The Army of the Republic of Vietnam's Defense of Xuan Loc, 9-21 April 1975," Journal of Military History, 68:1 (January 2004), pp. 163-213. Uses Vietnamese sources from both sides. The text is available to subscribers on Project Muse.
Vietnam Courier/Le courrier du Vietnam was a magazine published in English and French, in Hanoi. A few issues from 1974 and 1975 are available online.
Vo Van Sung, Chien dich Ho Chi Minh giua long Paris (The Ho Chi Minh Campaign in Paris). Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 167 pp. Vo Van Sung was the DRV ambassador in Paris in 1975.
Hieu D. Vu (Vu Dinh Hieu), Republic of Vietnam Army Ranger. Self-published, 2011. 421 pp. Most chapters were written by Vu; some by other officers. Most of the book deals with the period from January 1973 onward.
Ralph S. Watts, Saigon: The Final Days. Boise: Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., 1990. 87 pp. Watts directed the evacuation of Seventh Day Adventist personnel.
Ralph S. Watts, Escape from Saigon: How the Church Survived the Final Days of the Vietnam War. Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., 2005. 110 pp.
General Fred C. Weyand, "Report to the President of the United States on the Situation in South Vietnam and Options Open to the United States." 4 April 1975. 27 pp., with a 2 pp. cover memo. General Weyand, after an inspection trip to South Vietnam, recommended $722 million in supplementary military aid for the RVN. He said that if no such US support was forthcoming, the United States should prepare for an evacuation of Americans, South Vietnamese, and Third Country Nationals from South Vietnam. He added, astonishingly, that "this evacuation plan would require a major multi-division U.S. military task force, supported by tactical air to suppress North Vietnamese artillery and aircraft." The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Ralph White, Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old American Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians. New York: Knopf, 2023. The Chase Manhattan Bank sent White to Saigon in April 1975 to head its branch there, and close the branch if necessary.
James H. Willbanks, "Neither Peace nor Honor: Vietnamization, U.S. Withdrawal, and the Fall of South Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, History, University of Kansas, 1998. viii, 655 pp. DA 9903177.
James H. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost its War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. xi, 377 pp. I have only looked at the first few pages, where I saw more errors than I would have preferred. Thus p. 3 says that in October 1974, "the U.S. Congress appropriated only $700 million for the defense of South Vietnam and Cambodia, indicating that the amount would be drastically cut in the future." P. 4, discussing the situation of early 1975, says "Congress had further reduced military aid to Saigon." The reality is that the figure of $700 million voted in October 1974 was only the South Vietnam component of the Fiscal Year 1975 military aid package for South Vietnam and Cambodia. The Cambodia component, $200 million, was added in a second vote in December. The Congress did not reduce aid below this $900 million. Right up until the time the war was ended by the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, U.S. aid continued to flow on the basis of the $900 million figure, which indeed had been augmented, not reduced, since the Congress had given the Defense Department permission to give South Vietnam items that were considered surplus to U.S. military need--tens of thousands of tons of artillery shells, for example--without counting their value as part of the $900 million figure for military aid.
A substantial (259 pp.) collection of miscellaneous material relating to the final evacuation from Saigon and its aftermath, including newspaper clippings, wire service reports, texts of press briefings, etc., has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
A variety of documents relating to the last stages of the Vietnam War have been placed online by the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. See General list of collections, Memoranda of Conversations, Minutes of six 1975 Cabinet Meetings, and Vietnam Assessment Report by General Fred C. Weyand, April 9, 1975 (2 pp. cover memo, 15 pp. report, 5 pp. appendices).
Clayton K. S. Chun, The Last Boarding Party: The USMC and the SS Mayaguez 1975. Oxford and Long Island City, NY: Osprey, 2011. 80 pp.
Captain Thomas D. Des Brisay, Fourteen Hours at Koh Tang This makes up the second half (pp. 83-161) of Major A. J. C. Lavalle, ed., The Vietnamese Air Force, 1951-1975, an Analysis of its Role in Combat, and Fourteen Hours at Koh Tang, USAF Southeast Asia Monograph Series, Volume 3, Monographs 4 and 5 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1977). The text has been placed online by Hathi Trust.
Mattias Fibiger, "Remaking the Imperial Presidency: The Mayaguez Incident of 1975 and the Contradictions of Credibility," Diplomacy & Statecraft 31:1 (March 2020), pp. 118-142.
John F. Guilmartin, Jr., A Very Short War: The Mayaguez and the Battle of Koh Tang. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995. xxv, 238 pp. A very good account by an almost-participant (Guilmartin would have been a pilot in the operation if his helicopter had not been down for maintenance) of the effort to rescue the crew of an American merchant ship siezed by the Khmer Rouge May 12, 1975. Good on capabilities of aircraft, especially Air Force H-53 helicopters.
Richard G. Head, Frisco W. Short, and Robert C. McFarlane, Crisis Resolution: Presidential Decision Making in the Mayaguez and Korean Confrontations. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1978. xxv, 323 pp.
Christopher J. Lamb, Belief Systems and Decision Making in the Mayaguez Crisis. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1989. xv, 304 pp.
Christopher J. Lamb, The Mayaguez Crisis: Mission Command and Civil-Military Relations. Washington, DC: Joint History Office, Office of the Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2018. xxiii, 284 pp.
Robert J. Mahoney, The Mayaguez Incident: Testing America's Resolve in the Post-Vietnam Era. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2011. xxiii, 336 pp.
Cécile Menétrey-Monchau, "The Mayaguez Incident as an Epilogue to the Vietnam War and Its Reflection of the Post-Vietnam Political Equilibrium in Southeast Asia," Cold War History 5:3 (August 2005), pp. 337-67.
Gerald Reminick, An Act of Piracy: The Seizure of the American-Flag Merchant Ship Mayaguez in 1975. Palo Alto, CA: Glencannon Press, 2009. xvi, 330 pp.
Ralph Wetterhahn, The Last Battle: The Mayaguez Incident and the End of the Vietnam War. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. ix, 384 pp. pb New York: Plume (Penguin), 2002. xiii, 384 pp.
James E. Wise, Jr., and Scott Brown, The 14-Hour War: Valor on Koh Tanh and the Recapture of the SS Mayaguez. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011. 320 pp. xix, 297 pp.
Congressional Committee Documentation on the Last Stage
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only by permission. Opinions expressed in this bibliography are my own. They could hardly be the opinions of Clemson University, since Clemson University does not have opinions on the matters in question. Revised January 4, 2024.