On April 30, 1975, the day after Hubert van Es photographed the Huey Helicopters on top of the CIA-owned Pitman Towers, one of the images he captured would appear on the front page of The New York Times. It would be under the headline: “Minh Surrenders, Vietcong in Saigon: 1,000 Americans and 5,500 Vietnamese Evacuated by Copter to U.S Carriers.1” The photo’s caption will describe the scene as “A Crewman from an American helicopter helping evacuees to the top of a building in Saigon for flight to a U.S carrier.” Since the shooting of these hastily filmed images forty years ago, the Pittman Towers photographs have become forever associated with the Fall of the Saigon the same way Jeff Widener’s photographs of “Tank Man” attempting to block four Type 59’s have become forever associated with the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. In many ways, good or bad, the images of the events themselves have become the context by which most people understand the war itself.
The Vietnam War, a.k.a. the American War, a.k.a. The Second Indochina War, a.k.a. War of Liberation, a.k.a. Anti-U.S. War of National Liberation, a.k.a The Vietnam Conflict, was finished. The two divided Vietnam's, bifurcated on account of conflicting visions regarding what ideological, economic system would better serve the interests of the Vietnamese people, were once again united. This time under a communist government with Soviet backing. Meanwhile, just fourteen months shy of its bicentennial, or four-hundred and thirty-one (431) days to be exact, the United States of America was about to grapple with something unprecedented: defeat. Where and when did things go wrong? “...Was there ever a realistic chance for a negotiated settlement?2” or was the United States fighting an unwinnable war?”
Selected Bibliography
1= The New York Times 30 Apr. 1975: n. pag. Print.
2 = Lawrence, Mark Atwood. 2010. The Vietnam War a concise international history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 3
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