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Saigon Falls; The War Ends

April 30, 1975

1975-04-30_SaigonFalls_FreqWindandEaglePull035
1975-04-30_SaigonFalls_FreqWindandEaglePull035
A Marine officer escorts Vietnamese refugees during evacuation operations in the South China Sea, April 1975. (U.S. Marine Corps History Division)

Operation FREQUENT WIND ends, though U.S. vessels continue to pick up numerous refugees escaping Vietnam by sea. The departure of the Seventh Fleet marks the conclusion of three decades of American involvement in Vietnam.

Saigon falls to North Vietnamese troops, and organized South Vietnamese resistance to Communist forces ceases. President Duong Van Minh, who has only been in office for days, announces the unconditional surrender of the Republic of Vietnam.1

1Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 318, 402, 1011; Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1994), 363–68; Mai Việt Hà, Steel and Blood: South Vietnamese Armor and the War for Southeast Asia (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008), 253.