By Kevin Delany ’50 Photographs Provided by Kevin F.X

THE SAIGON I LEFT BEHIND

BY KEVIN DELANY ’50 PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY KEVIN F.X. DELANY EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

8 | Williams alumni RevieW | septembeR 2006 After a Williams alumni trip to Saigon, former ABC newsman Kevin Delany ’50 recalls his evacuation 31 years THE SAIGON earlier, as the city fell, and the extraordinary efforts to save his Vietnamese co-workers and their families.

I LEFT BEHIND started looking for something familiar from En route to Hanoi from Bangkok, we spent a the time we touched down at Tan Son Nhut delightful day cruising on serene and lovely Ha Airport on an evening fl ight from Danang. It Long Bay before proceeding to the relatively low- had been nearly 31 years since I left on April keyed capital, which bans trucks from its down- 29, 1975. Saigon was to fall to the North town and has a tolerable number of motorbikes. Vietnamese the next day, symbolized by one of Since the cautious and conservative Vietnamese their tanks smashing through the gates of an Communist leadership lifted the wraps on small already empty Presidential Palace. enterprise a few years ago, it is thriving. It has I had wanted to return for years, but one thing new hotels and some fi ne restaurants to go with or another intervened. Now I was back for a too- visits to Ho Chi Minh’s tomb and the infamous brief visit through a tour of Southeast Asia with Hanoi Hilton, with its heavy handed description 15 Williams alumni. They ranged from my 1950 classmates Sid Moody and Bud Blakey, with their wives, Pat and Judy, all the way to the class of “For me the real destinations were Saigon and Hanoi, 1994, represented by Kila Weaver of Chicago. For most of my trip-mates, it was their fi rst the lair of ‘the enemy’ during my years in Vietnam exposure to the sights and charms of Vietnam, as ABC News bureau chief from 1971-73 and again in Thailand and Cambodia. A notable exception was Dan Cianfarini ’69, who, with his wife, Margaret 1975 during South Vietnam’s ﬁ nal throes.” ’70, was revisiting Danang after a year of Army service there in 1970-71. John Churchill ’63 and his wife, Robin, were also Asian veterans after of the North Vietnamese regime’s “kind” treat- some years living in Japan and Australia. ment of U.S. pilots during the “American War,” We had only a few days in Thailand, enjoy- as it is called in Vietnam. ing Bangkok’s remarkable temples and fl oating Saigon, the main course for me, was getting market, with a side trip to the ancient capital of closer at hand. First, we had brief stops in the Ayuthaya, site of the Emperor’s beautiful summer ancient capital of Hue and Danang, with its palace. Unfortunately I ran out of time trying to famous China Beach. I had a parochial interest in visit the old Peace Corps offi ce where I had served seeing China Beach, as my niece Dana Delany had as director in the late 60s. starred in an eponymous TV series some years We had highlights at every stop on the tour, earlier. but for me the real destinations were Saigon and Finally, I had two nights and a day to renew Opposite: The Caravelle Hotel, Hanoi, the lair of “the enemy” during my years in my acquaintance with Saigon. Nobody, we found, home to ABC News’ Saigon Vietnam as ABC News bureau chief from 1971- calls it Ho Chi Minh City, except for a few proper bureau until 1975 (top, courtesy of Bettman/Corbis) 73 and again in 1975, during South Vietnam’s tour guides and government functionaries. Just and last February, when Kevin fi nal throes. about everything for me had changed in Saigon Delany ’50 revisited Vietnam.

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“ABC wished to assist all Vietnamese who had worked Terry was regarded as the dean of cameramen and was literally on his last day of assignment in so earnestly … at great risk during the war.” Vietnam before heading to Hong Kong to marry a woman in our bureau there. He had volunteered to take someone else’s place on that day’s assignment. but the name. Tan Son Nhut was a very large and It was clearly the low point of my stay in attractive airport that dwarfed its tired predeces- Vietnam. Heavy fighting had continued in the sor. Our glitzy, five-star tourist hotel was not far area of the ambush for three days after they went from Chinatown (Cholon), as there was no longer down, and by the time another cameraman and room in the downtown area for such a large I were able to travel to the scene, we had trouble structure. identifying their remains. I later attended their The real epiphany occurred after we checked funerals in Singapore. It was still difficult, even into our hotel and I tried to get some late news after so many years, to see their pictures and read of the world on my room television. The first a description of their deaths. thing that appeared was The Daily Show with Jon In spite of the changes to Saigon, the visit Stewart in New York. No, Toto, we were defi- brought back a flood of other memories. The real nitely not in Kansas anymore. tension for me in those last days in Saigon came The next day our tour bus joined the noisy and in the week to 10 days before my own evacua- crowded din of traffic, led by a horde of motor- tion by a Marine helicopter on April 29. It was bikes, to visit such sites as Notre Dame Cathedral prompted by a rather cloak-and-dagger evacua- and the Presidential Palace (now renamed the tion of 101 of our Vietnamese staff members and Reunification Palace). At that point I broke away their families in a series of suspense-filled days. long enough to pay a visit to Tu Do Street (now As city after city fell to some 20 divisions of Freedom Street) and take a look at the apartment North Vietnamese, the people of Saigon reluc- house I stayed in for my last six months before tantly began to face the prospect that the capi- Saigon’s fall. It’s been torn down and has become tal was doomed as well. Our Vietnamese staff a lovely children’s park. showed few overt signs of their growing anxiety I continued on a few blocks to the Caravelle until the final days, but we could sense their con- Hotel, which housed our old ABC News bureau cern that they might be left behind. on the sixth floor and was my home for a year on No one could predict what would happen the eighth floor. The Caravelle has been greatly after a North Vietnamese takeover, but every- spruced up, but most significantly its original one assumed that anyone who had worked with 10 floors have had an additional 10 stories built Americans would be dealt with harshly. (That on top of them. It was one more sign that feisty proved to be true and resulted in defeated South Saigon is flourishing. Vietnamese military forces and civilians employed I had one more surprise before our day of tour- by Americans spending from many months to ing ended. We were taken to something called the years in rugged re-education camps.) War Remnants Museum, which houses all manner I began discussions in late March with our New of artifacts related to the war. In it I discovered an York management about the possibility of getting exhibit called “Requiem,” which was a collec- our local staff out. The decision was made that tion of photos by and of the 134 reporters and ABC wished to assist all Vietnamese who had photographers killed during the long war. worked so earnestly and in many cases at great I suspected that the list of the fallen would risk during the war years. include two of our ABC News cameramen who We compiled a list of 17 staffers and their were killed in a North Vietnamese ambush in families. With little time to make a momentous QuangTri near the end of the very bloody Easter decision, 15 staff members said they and their Offensive in 1972. And they were listed: Terry families were prepared to leave. Only two staffers Khoo and Sam Kai Faye, both tough and coura- said they would remain in Vietnam—one a driver geous Singapore Chinese who had produced years and the other an office boy, both of whom spoke of combat footage. little English.

10 | Williams Alumni Review | September 2006 My fi rst list of staff and family members com- we were informed that 22 of our ABC News municated to New York totaled 58. This number Vietnamese group should be ready to leave later grew by leaps and bounds as families “discov- that day. Tearful, anguished scenes took place as ered” sons and daughters they had overlooked. the families loaded into two vans. A mother or a Every few nights I would call in a larger number, younger brother had to be left behind for a future until it reached 101. I kept saying that we were group—assuming there were such shipments. But dealing in human lives and, to their credit, the dubious New York executives accepted the fi nal number. But there was still a catch-22 to getting them out of the country. Exit visas and passports had always been almost impossible to obtain in Vietnam. In addition, government security at the airports and along the coast had been greatly increased to head off any potential exodus for fear it would even further hasten a military col- lapse. The American Embassy, how- ever, became aware that the news media were consider- ing dangerous measures to get their staff out, and, to avoid such freelanc- after much waving of expired Kevin Delany ’50 (center) ing, they worked out a compromise with us. We documents at tough MPs at the gate, our vans with Vietnamese ofﬁ cials. would be given an OK for a certain number of were allowed through and the group successfully staff with families to leave on a given day. If we left the country. got them through the Vietnamese MPs at Tan Three days later—as President Thieu was fl ying Son Nhut gate, they would be driven to the Air out of the country with ease—we were instructed America (CIA) terminal and fl own out of the that 36 more of the ABC group should be ready to country to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. go. Crammed into two large vans, we arrived at the On April 21, the day President Nguyen Van main gate only to have a nasty looking Vietnamese Thieu resigned and Xuan Loc, the last South MP offi cer ignore our pleading and document wav- Vietnamese Army stronghold, was about to fall, ing and order us away from the gate.

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tion; some are still working for ABC News, and others have earned their retirement. By the time it was the Americans’ turn to leave a few days later, it almost seemed anticlimatic to me. Mid-morn- ing on April 29, the embassy put out the word that every- one was to report to assembly points right away—there would be only one We drove evacuation, as the situation was turning desperate around the base to a back gate for the South Vietnamese military. only to be waved off again. The largest group of news personnel headed for Time was running out to get to the nearby collection point on Gia Long Street. the CIA terminal, and we went The fi rst few busloads to Tan Son Nhut went back to the main gate for one smoothly. Then whole families of Vietnamese last try. I asked the heads of civilians started arriving and began pushing onto households to give me all of the buses, determined not to be left behind. their Vietnamese piasters— Cameraman Tony Hirashiki and I crowded soon to become worthless. onto a bus to Tan Son Nhut. We arrived to fi nd We collected a wad of bills, it still under attack by Vietcong units—with probably worth about $100 U.S. Marines fanning out to protect the evacua- U.S. I gave them to cam- tion effort. Exploding shells and small-arms fi re eraman Minh, the senior provided a constant background for the arrival Vietnamese there, and he of group after group. Tony and I were not sure headed for the gate. where the rest of our ABC crews were, so we The MPs tried to send started shooting fi lm and preparing a news story Minh away, but he kept as a matter of course. waving his documents Finally they roared into view—big U.S. Marine and talking at a machine- helicopters, the famous jolly green giants—and one gun pace, all the while getting the could sense the soaring confi dence of the evacuees money into position behind the documents—until that they were going to exit from Vietnam. Top: Kevin Delany (left) with it fi nally touched the head MP’s hand. He hesi- The choppers began loading up, and after a Vietnamese government tated for a moment, and then his fi st suddenly about three hours it was our turn to run for ofﬁ cial (center) and Tran dinh Lam, a newsman in ABC’s closed around the money. “Thank god for corrup- the helicopter. Marines surrounded the chopper Saigon bureau who would go tion,” I thought, “The system still works.” pad with guns at the ready, but the jolly green on to work for ABC News in Washington until his retire- The MP waved us onto the base a minute later, giant blew skyward and rapidly out of range of ment in 1992. and when we were safely inside we all clapped Vietcong missiles bracketing the airport. and pounded each other in sheer joy. I can hardly As Saigon disappeared from view, the enormity Bottom: Delany with co- workers Nghiem thi Loi (left) recall a more thrilling moment. of the event registered on the faces of Americans and Trinh thi Thuan in Saigon. The same scene repeated itself three days later, and Vietnamese alike at the realization that they Loi worked for ABC News in New York until she retired when our last batch of people was shipped out. could be leaving Vietnam forever. in 1997. Thuan still works This time we broke the staff into small groups We passed over small fl eets of boats leaving the for ABC News in Washington after 35 years with the and had to bribe our way through in seven differ- coast line with more fl eeing Vietnamese, and 30 company. ent carloads. There were a few close calls, but all miles from the coast a beautiful sight came into made it to the Philippines. They soon were fl own view—the fl ight deck of the USS Midway, one of Opposite: On the highway to QuangTri during ﬁ ghting in to the refugee center in Guam and continued on 10 Navy ships participating in the evacuation. As 1972. to a new beginning in the States. All 15 of the the day went on, chopper after chopper disgorged staffers were given jobs within the ABC organiza- more than 7,000 Vietnamese and Americans on

12 | Williams alumni RevieW | septembeR 2006 landing pads, making it the largest helicopter evacuation ever. After returning from Vietnam, Kevin Delany ’50 We were able to get our story about Saigon’s directed the day-to-day coverage in ABC News’ demise on a fl ight of news materials to the Washington bureau during the Watergate period, Philippines and on to Hong Kong. It was sent by including the impeachment hearings and Nixon’s satellite from there to New York and led ABC’s resignation. He then became ABC’s director of broadcast that evening. news for Asia in the 1980s and now is a commu- The evacuation was over for many Americans nications consultant in Washington, D.C. and Vietnamese, but not yet for the many South Vietnamese who were left behind and had to resort in succeeding years to all manner of boats to try and escape the country. It was not quite the “We arrived to ﬁ nd [Tan Son Nhut airport] still under end of that somber chapter in American history called Vietnam. ■ attack by Vietcong units. … Exploding shells and small-arms ﬁ re provided a constant background.”

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