Chapter Reading: November 1974
“What if it's 'Get Americans Day'??”
Greetings,
Welcome to the chapter November 1974, excerpted from my 2023 publication, For the Love of Vietnam: a war, a family, a CIA official, and the best evacuation story never heard.
It’s a blend of the personal experiences of my family and the historical circumstance of the time. Read to the end to find out about the very exciting events in teen basketball in Saigon throughout 1974-75.
Click here if you would like to see a full synopsis and how I tell the distinctly different stories of :
how my father ended up in Vietnam running a propaganda radio station beginning in 1972,
our family life blended with historical context from July 1974-April 1975, and
the incredible evacuation of 1000 South Vietnamese that my father orchestrated in late April 1975.
I hope you enjoy this glimpse of history—if you do, please leave a comment so I know!
Chapter: November 1974
In late November, my mother was contemplating how bad the Vietnam situation seemed when my father suggested a short road trip.
“We should all go visit Bien Hoa soon,” he said one afternoon over martinis. “It’s just a short drive, 15 miles or so.”
“Why’s that?” my mother asked.
“Well, we’d better go before we can’t go anymore,” he replied simply.
Bien Hoa was home to one of the largest military bases in South Vietnam and had been a primary target in the 1968 Tet Offensive, a climactic attack on American and South Vietnamese forces by the Viet Cong. As a strategic holding, it was a regular target for military skirmishes and if the “uneasy peace” continued to escalate, it would certainly be closed for business sooner than later. However, it wasn’t the airfield my father wanted to visit but the town, for sightseeing, lunch, and some shopping, perhaps.
Plans were made for the following week. The day before, though, my mother had second thoughts—what if it was “Get Americans Day” in the little town? She had just learned from another CIA wife that there was a random, but persistent, Viet Cong system of establishing such times.
My mom wrote home to her parents in November 1974 explaining how travel was sometimes limited due to “Get Americans Day.” She wrote home:
“This seems to be a city of rumors, one does not know what to believe.”
Instead of going to Bien Hoa, she planned another trip to Vung Tau, the favorite beach spot for Embassy families in 1974-75 and for military personnel before the cease-fire.
Photo caption: The four Welch brothers (l-r, Jimmy, Chris, Mike, and John) on the beach at Vung Tau. About 60 miles south of Saigon, it was one of our favorite recreational destinations. My mother said it was “always a wonderful place to go to get out of the city and breathe the sea air.” In April 1975 it would become a main evacuation site and quickly fall to the North Vietnamese Army.
It was indeed a beautiful spot and holds a favorite place in my heart as one of the wide open spaces that seemed as safe as any place I’d ever been. Michelle, however, tells a different story.
She and another 15-year-old friend were enjoying the chance to roam and had taken off alone down the wide, silvery beach. Thinking they might explore the cool shade of the trees bordering the sand, they headed toward them. Just then a soldier appeared out of the dark shadows.
“Unh! Unh! Unh!” he exclaimed gutterally. “Unh! Unh! Unh!”
Michelle and her friend froze in their tracks and the man in uniform repeated his intense barks.
“Unh! Unh! Unh!” He shook his gun at them in tempo with his grunts. He shot out a warning in words they could not understand, but they got his meaning: “Do not come into this forest, little girls. DO NOT!”
My sister said that after that, beach visits were never quite the same. In fact, nothing in South Vietnam was ever to be quite the same again after November 1974, though no one at the Embassy could get past their presuppositions enough to see the writing on the wall. A great deal of intelligence was being received indicating communist troop movement, but while the information about the North Vietnamese preparing an offensive was endlessly pored over, the analysts and leaders could not come to an agreement about what it meant.
On the Washington front, Kissinger raised the issue of Vietnam in meetings with both China and the Soviet Union but the Communist superpowers had decided that the Saigon regime was doomed and were now preoccupied with their growing rivalry for increased influence in the region; they were not interested in discussing diplomatic solutions with the U.S.
Meanwhile, North Vietnamese reinforcements were quietly but quickly moving down their well-established trail systems, filing into position in the South. Their approach did not appear as methodical in the past but their fixation on taking Saigon as soon as possible had propelled them into high gear more quickly than anyone had anticipated. In contrast to their usual meticulous methods of preparing for an offensive, they were losing no time; they were certainly intent on their goal, not just to “get Americans,” but to get Americans completely out of Vietnam, once and for all.
Basketball in Saigon
. . . the boys are playing basketball and the last two Sundays they have played against Chinese teams from Cholon. We lost both games but our team consists of a few that want to play and the kids meet with their “coach” twice a week for organized practice. Chris played almost the whole game and did very well—it is his best sport. If you think I got excited during the baseball games—you should see me during the basketball games.
– Mother’s Letter Home, October 25, 1974
The beat goes on with basketball games each Sunday. The 10-speed bikes are fixed now so Chris and Mike ride to and from school at times and also out to the Defense Attache’s Office (DAO) where the basketball gym is. All of the kids ride here but the traffic is wild and unpredictable.
– Mother’s Letter Home, November 22, 1974
Chris is really playing good basketball now—they finally won a game and lost on Sunday by one point. Mike does well too, but his best sport is baseball which he misses. John is now on a basketball team too.
– Mother’s Letter Home, February 4, 1975
The boys are still furiously playing basketball every day. Hopefully this weekend they will have a couple of games against the Chinese.
Mike had the stitches [from appendix operation] out last Friday but feels good and is chomping at the bit to get back to basketball. It was a blow for his basketball team as he is the best player.
Our teams have been invited to go to Bangkok for a meet with the International School Bangkok team in April and we are trying to raise some money for them. We are having bake sales this weekend and the next and hope to get some pledges or donations from the business community. It is time they realize that we have a “going” American school here.
– Mother’s Letter Home, February 24, 1975
Thank you for sharing this fifty-year-old walk down memory lane with me. To follow me through until the ultimate end—the Fall of Saigon in April 1975—subscribe to “Stories of Vietnam.”
Until next time—do take care,
Kat
Excerpt taken from the 2023 publication of For the Love of Vietnam: a war, a family, a CIA official, and the best evacuation story never heard.
If you already have a copy, consider buying one for a local library or high school teacher! The more people who are thinking about the 50-year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the better.
