Blog

Introduction of Kennerly Archive Project Archivist, Randa Cardwell

November 1, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

Progress Report from the Kennerly Archive

We are so fortunate to have been able to bring Randa Cardwell on to the Kennerly Archive team last year – a team that now numbers three, counting Rebecca, Randa and myself. Randa graduated from UCLA with a Masters in Library and Information Sciences, with a subspecialty in digital and photos! She has a fantastic instinct for pictures and doesn’t seem the least phased by the size of my monster collection. Her skills and expertise have pushed the Kennerly Archive Project into overdrive and her judgement has allowed us to effectively sift through piles to locate and protect the gems.

Thank you, Randa!

Excited to see some of my creative work on display at Getty Images — even in an election year!

October 15, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

The World Squared: A quirky little series looking at the world through the iPhone lens. View the collection on Getty Images:

http://www.gettyimages.com/search/sets/yc_U48dMbU29embxmvICkQ#license

It Started With A Flood In The Basement

October 13, 2016 By Rebecca Kennerly

(image above is not the Kennerlys, but illustrate the dilemma)

Most photo collections don’t start with a flood; they end that way. And, of course, the David Hume Kennerly collection didn’t actually start with the flood, but my role in it did.

At the time of the flood, David and I had been married for less than two years. I was a busy screenwriter, David was a freelancer and we had a one-year-old son, Nick. On a Saturday morning in late 1995, with David out of town on a project, I was taking our baby son on an outing to a museum. As I backed the car out of our garage, I saw water seeping into the garage from its adjacent store room. I remember pausing for a second, trying to convince myself that the flow could have been normal, but of course, I knew it was not. I stopped the car and checked the storeroom to see that a pipe had broken pouring water over a wall stacked high with boxes. I knew the boxes were David’s, but had no idea what they contained. With our son safely strapped into his car seat, I was able to find the control for that pipe and turn off the water. Then, I got into the car and started to back out again, determined to take the baby to the museum for the day. I tried to convince myself that leaving the boxes in the garage until David returned would be fine. However, once again hit the brakes.

Calling someone on the road wasn't that easy back then. I had to go back into the house to use the land line in hopes that David was near his cell phone which, in those days, were still nearly the size of a brick. Once I contacted him, he confirmed what I had feared. Those soaked boxes were filled with his original negatives, slides and prints.

The baby had been crying for half an hour already while I kept him strapped into his car seat as I struggled with the broken pipe and then called his dad, so I figured he couldn’t be any more upset if made him sit a bit longer. It took me another 30 minutes to move the dozen or so sopping wet boxes into the back of the car.

I immediately drove the boxes to the other side of LA, to Arnaud Gregori’s wonderful Paris Photo Lab, where David had all of his film and printing work done at the time. I spent the next few hours working with staff at the lab to quickly pull apart the contents of the boxes and move the original material into water. In the end, that quick work saved nearly all of the negatives and transparencies and even some of the prints. However, had David not been immediately reachable or if I hadn’t seen the water pooling out from under the store-room door, or had the flood happened on Sunday when the lab was closed rather than on Saturday, all of that material would have been destroyed – lost forever. These slides and negatives came from a dozen years of work at Time magazine and contained stunning images of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, rare images of China and so much more.

When David was a very young shooter working for the Oregon Journal and The Oregonian, he controlled most of his film. So, he always kept boxes of negatives and caption envelopes stored somewhere in his house. Whenever he moved, his film moved with him. In 1967, he started shooting for UPI where he stayed through 1972, shortly after he won the Pulitzer Prize. After UPI, he went to work for TIME for a few years before he went into the White House. David left the White House in 1977 and worked steadily for TIME, Newsweek and other publications.

When I met David in 1992, he would have worked as an independent contractor for sixteen years, with just two significant breaks. So, where were all of those slides and negatives from those sixteen years, I wondered? Why were there just a few boxes in the basement? After the flood, I got schooled very quickly about how the magazine business managed picture sales and how completely the publications and the agencies controlled the physical media that the photographers produced – and, in fact owned.

In 1990, David had contacted the agencies he had worked for to get his prints and negatives returned to him so that he could start work on a retrospective book project (that would ultimately become Photo Op in 1995, published by the University of Texas Press). Up until that point, he had just those ten or so boxes that travelled with him, and were occasionally augmented by sporadic agency returns. However, the rest of his hundreds of thousands of original slides and negatives were still in the hands of the magazines and agencies with which he had worked for so many years and decades. In those analog days, photo agencies, whose business models were built on the regular licensing of images, had to send slides, negatives and prints all over the world for review, publication and possible loss. The integrity of photographer’s material was left at the mercy of agency and publication mergers and changes in ownership with haphazard record-keeping and tragically high loss rates. So the rest of David’s pictures, I came to understand, were still at large.

Since the flood in the basement, I have worked continuously with David to recover those slides and negatives. It was difficult, almost detective-like work, which has resulted in hundreds of thousand negatives, transparencies and prints being returned from magazines and agencies around the world. However, simply collecting the physical material didn’t mean that the images could be easily accessed. Even making the investment to keep all of that material safe and protected represented nothing more than a good first start.

And then, when we were looking around for enough space to store the hundreds of boxes of returns, David started shooting digital, which introduced hundreds of thousands of additional images into the collection. We were swimming in a sea of images and realized that a huge additional investment needed to be made order to fulfil David’s wish for his images to become an ongoing and accessible resource for the understanding of history.

In 1998, David and I realized a small financial windfall. Instead of saving those funds for our kids’ college educations (which, with two kids now in college, sure feels like it might have been the wiser choice), we invested that money into organizing David’s photo collection. We purchased hardware to store the vast digital library. I researched best practices in the digital asset management arena and established a program specifically for this collection. To date, we have more than 400,000 digital images moving through our digital management pipeline. We also hired photo editors over the years to work with David to cull some of the best images out of the collection for digital processing, and additional staff to scan, caption and catalogue digital images into our digital asset management program. We have created nearly 50,000 scans from original analog media, all of which has wended its way through our management protocols and now lives in our digital library. Of course, with technological changes, we have had to continually upgrade hardware and software as well as adjust our management processes.

Sadly, we had to suspend our operations altogether after the financial crash in 2007 and if it hadn’t been for the ingenuity of our tech guru, Benjamin Levy, who helped us keep our server and digital storage limping along when we couldn’t afford upgrades, we might have lost the collection altogether.

Last year, David and I made the commitment of marking the 50th anniversary of his astonishing career by launching the David Hume Kennerly Archive Project. I am proud of the work we’ve done together to protect this historically important collection. We’ve come a long, long way since that flood in the basement, and we keep going because of a shared commitment to transform David’s rare and historically significant collection into a vibrant archive that can provide an invaluable educational resource to future generations.

A Pulitzer Story

September 2, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

View Pulitzer Prize Portfolio

The big announcement in the spring of 1972 came via a telex message to the United Press International office in Saigon where I was the photo bureau chief. It read: “01170 Saigon-Kennerly has won Pulitzer for Feature Photography, which brings congrats from all here. Now need effort some quotes from him and pinpoint his location when advised for sidebar story, Brannan/NXCables.”

I didn’t believe it. How could I have won my profession’s highest award and not even known I had been entered? I thought it was a mistake or, worse, a prank. Bert Okuley, the news chief at the Saigon bureau, fired back a note. “EXHSG Brannan’s 01170. Are you kidding? If so it isn’t much of a joke. Is there a Pulitzer awarded to a UNIPRESS photographer, and is it Kennerly? Okuley”

Muhammad Ali knocked down in 15th Round by Joe Frazier, Madison Sq. Garden

Then the wire machine broke down. It wasn’t possible in those days just to pick up the phone and call the states. For three hours we were cut off from the world. Without warning the telex sprung back to life, and a torrent of messages flooded forth. The first said, “01181 Okuley’s 02054 No kidding and can you reach Kennerly for sudden comment need to know where he was when he got the news, Wood/NXCables”

My favorite cable was from my Associated Press competitor Eddie Adams who won a Pulitzer for his famous photo of the chief of the Vietnamese National Police shooting a Viet Cong suspect in the head. Before I left for Southeast Asia Eddie told me that I was wasting my time, and rather immodestly suggested that, “All the good photos in Vietnam had been taken.” His message to me after I won simply said,

“I was wrong. Congratulations. Eddie.”

So, no joke, I had just joined the Pulitzer Club.

Weeks later I saw the official citation: “For an outstanding example of feature photography, awarded to David Hume Kennerly of United Press International for his dramatic pictures of the Vietnam War in 1971.” It also noted that, “he specializes in pictures that capture the loneliness and desolation of war.” The representative photo from the portfolio, (not knowing a portfolio was entered, I had no idea what was in it), was a photo that I had taken of an American soldier walking across a shattered hillside near the A Shau Valley up in the mountains outside of Hue. It definitely fit the lonely, desolate, and dangerous bill.

What I found out later is that Larry DeSantis, chief photo editor for UPI, and a man whose laser-guided criticism had helped to make me a better photographer, had submitted me for the Pulitzer. During 1971, as photos of mine that he liked came across his desk, Larry would toss copies into the drawer. At the end of the year he scooped them up and entered them in the contest, underscoring how we can’t always make it on our own, but need some help and faith from others along the way. Larry’s gone now, but before he left I had the chance to tell him that he was the greatest photo editor on earth. I also told him that it was our award, not just mine.

Years later I visited the Pulitzer archive at Columbia University in New York to see for myself what pictures had won. I discovered that my portfolio contained eleven photographs. Included was a single color photo taken at a little firebase named LZ Lonely that was similar to a black and white picture of the same situation, and to my knowledge is the first color photo that was part of a winning Pulitzer entry. To my surprise there was also a photo from the Ali-Frazier, “Fight of the Century,” in Madison Square Garden taken on March 8, 1971. That picture, in the 15th round of the world heavyweight title bout, showed Mohammad Ali in mid air falling to the canvas after being walloped by a vicious Joe Frazier left hook. The fight was my last domestic assignment before I left to cover the war in Vietnam, and that picture appeared on dozens of front pages around the world the next day, including the New York Times, (that also happened to be my 24^th birthday). The other photos were from Vietnam, Cambodia, and of refugees in India who had escaped from East Pakistan. It was a wide and inclusive array of my year in pictures.

The Feature Photography prize debuted in 1968 when the Pulitzer board split photography into two categories, Feature and Spot News. Spot News became Breaking News in 2000. The Feature category was created for a single photo, essays, or in my case a portfolio of pictures taken during a calendar year. The award was principally designed for professional photographers.

The first winner in the Feature category was my late friend and colleague Toshio Sakai who won for Vietnam coverage in 1968. The Spot/Breaking News category has contained some astonishing and memorable images over the years. Three of the best ever are Joe Rosenthal’s Marines raising the flag atop Mount Surabachi on Iwo Jima, Nick Ut’s napalmed Vietnamese girl running down the road, and of course Eddie’s Saigon execution photo. I was happy and honored to join the ranks of these great photographers.

But that isn’t the end of the saga of my Pulitzer-winning pictures. The rest of it illustrates how valuable, and in many cases vulnerable, photography can be.

All the images I made for UPI resided in their files. Somehow the original negative for the GI traversing the devastated hill went missing, and was never found. To this day I don’t have an original print of that photo, but fortunately have an excellent copy from a print made at the time.

A common practice at UPI was to cut the strip of 36 black and white negatives into sections of three frames each, usually keeping the selected image in the middle with a photo on each side. That was done to allow the more modern 35mm film to fit into yellow envelopes that were designed to accommodate the 4 x 5-inch negatives shot during an earlier era. Astonishingly UPI chucked the other negatives. In other words 90 percent or more of the images I shot during my five years as a UPI photographer were discarded, including at least a year and a half’s worth of Vietnam pictures. It was heartbreaking.

Photojournalism is a hybrid form. Early news photography was used mainly to illustrate the written stories. Pictures were not always seen as news documents in their own right. For decades, bulky negatives and prints were disposed of in stunning quantities. To cite just one example, several years of photographs of events covered by The Washington Post’s excellent photographers, including classic images from the Watergate hearings and the White House, were trashed by a zealous bean counter. To save space.

This year, I’ve embarked on a mission to prevent that from happening to me. I hope to collect, preserve and scan my entire collection. For 12 years, my wife Rebecca and I have been pulling together and organizing everything I have shot, written and collected, during my 50-year career as a professional photographer, (and the archive continues to grow, I’m still out there shooting!).

The images I’ve made are not just pictures to me. Each one represents a sliver of my soul. I’ve seen joy and sorrow, horror and heroism, triumph and defeat. I have witnessed and documented the human experience at its worst and best. It has been my mission to tell those stories. The pictures I took in 1971 that won the ’72 Pulitzer were deeply meaningful to me. They encompassed a galaxy of human emotions and conditions. It’s hard to imagine that I was in four different war zones that year. Sure, it took a personal toll, but nothing like the price the participants pay, particularly innocent children and civilians. I do it for them.

I will always be grateful to the Pulitzer committee for selecting my work as worthy of our profession’s highest honor. It not only acknowledged me, but all of the other photographers from conflicts past and present. Many of them died in pursuit of showing the truth of what war is really about. I will never forget them, and the impact they made on the world.

On this day 42 years ago… August 9th

August 9, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

I remember August 9, 1974 less as the day President Richard Nixon left the presidency, but as the day Gerald R. Ford assumed it.

The morning started on the South Lawn of the White House where I was assigned by TIME Magazine to photograph one of the most dramatic events in U.S. history. This was the first time any U.S. president had resigned, and the national was reeling. From the moment Nixon stepped onto the first step of his helicopter, glanced up for the last time at the Truman Balcony, waved his arms with the familiar “V” sign, then disappeared inside Marine One, only ten seconds had elapsed. I caught every one of them. As the film ratcheted through my camera I only had one thought on my mind, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing, and I don’t want to miss a moment of the spectacle.” I didn’t. In fact with my motor drive cranking I freeze-framed 17 exposures of the historic scene.

As Nixon’s helicopter lifted off I trained my lens on Vice President and Mrs. Ford. They stood next to David and Julie Eisenhower, Nixon’s daughter and son-in- law as they watched him recede into the distance. A White House butler completed the tableau.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- AUG 9: A somber President Gerald R. Ford addresses the nation from the East Room in the White House shortly after being sworn in as the nation's 38th Chief Executive after the resignation of Richard Nixon, August 9, 1974. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

A short time later, at high noon in the East Room of the White House, Gerald R. Ford was sworn as the 38 th President of the United States by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Ford then declared our long national nightmare over. I caught that moment. He looked not only grim, but also resolved to deal with what lay ahead.

That evening I was invited to the Ford’s modest home in Alexandria. After the other guests left the president wanted to talk to me about becoming his chief White House photographer. The next day I became the third civilian to ever have that job.

DAVID HUME KENNERLY ARCHIVE PROJECT – Why Now?

July 29, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

Every so often, I wake up in the middle of the night from a recurring nightmare. In it, I am watching the final scene of Citizen Kane. The camera slowly glides over hundreds of boxes and crates in a giant dark warehouse, a room that stretched to infinity. Then, the lens settles on a box marked, “Kennerly photos.” I realized that this warehouse contains my life’s work and I watch helplessly as workmen lift boxes filled with images and historic records and pitch them into a roaring fire. My pictures are Rosebud.

Throughout my fifty-year career, I have pursued a relentless mission to document history in the making. With a combination of hard work, research, and a little intuition I have been able to, on numerous occasions, get myself into the room where history is being made. Often, I am the only person there other than the history makers themselves. My photographs have documented the fields of fire during the Vietnam War and the President of the United States as he ended that bitter conflict. I was ringside when Frazier dealt Mohammed Ali his first knock-out at Madison Square Garden and stepped around hundreds of dead bodies in Jonestown. I documented Reagan and Gorbachev during their historic Fireside Summit and, on election night 2000, I was with Bush and Cheney as they realized their presidential contest had ended in a tie.

MONTANA - 1982: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES NO SALES UNTIL JULY 1, 2003) President Ronald Reagan bids farewell after campaigning for a congressman 1982 Billings, M.T. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

As a young shooter, barely out of high school, I wanted people to see my pictures; not because they were cool – well, not only because they were cool – but because they revealed moments of history that otherwise would have gone unseen. I am just as driven now to document history with my camera – to peer inside closed doors, to reveal an individual’s character through a portrait or a slice of our country that might be fading away. And I am just as determined to make sure that those images realize their mission of revealing that history to future generations.

In this digital era, images have the potential to provide visceral, visual primary source historic information. They provide dynamic new ways to teach history to future generations in any region around the globe. However, photography collections are expensive and cumbersome to manage. Too often, I have seen collections destroyed, lost, or stored away in a basement or conventional analog archive never to be seen again – their historic content and educational potential lost forever.

LOS ANGELES -- 1968: UPI Photographer David Hume Kennerly and Governor Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles, 1968, (courtesy of David Hume Kennerly)

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, signs the head of Newsweek photographer David Hume Kennerly during the flight to launch his presidential campaign in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

WASHINGTON -- 2008: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and David Hume Kennerly at the U.S. Capitol, 2008 (Courtesy dhk)

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of my career as a professional photographer. To celebrate that extraordinary milestone, I am launching the David Hume Kennerly Archive Creation Project with the objective of transforming my half-century of visual history into a cutting-edge digital educational tool that is fully searchable and available to the public for research and artistic appreciation.

Seeing this collection available to the public would be the realization of my lifelong dream for the possibilities for my collection. It is the flipside of that dark nightmare that haunts me about the many threats to these fragile historic objects. However, I know too well how real my nightmare could be and that making this dream a reality will take an all-out effort and a race against time.

Portions of my work are already housed in wonderful institutions, including the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and my White House photos at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum & Library. And for more than a decade my wife, Rebecca Soladay Kennerly, and I have worked to make this good dream come true, investing every dollar we could to protect, organize and process my photographs and related materials. A year ago, we hired Randa Cardwell, an extraordinary curator who had recently graduated from UCLA with a Masters Degree in Library and Information Sciences to help with this project. And my collection, spanning a half-decade and containing more than a million items, the size of a small presidential library, is a real monster – impossible to tame by us alone. Our small team is now ready to take the next big steps in helping the Kennerly Collection fulfill its potential as an historic educational resource.

Check out our work in detail at the Archive Page on Kennerly.com.

And please, SIGN UP at the bottom of the Archive Page now to follow our progress in this ambitious project. By signing up you will receive –
• project updates
• archive stories
• ways to help
• appearance dates
• exhibition information
• print sales opportunities
• early sneak peeks at photos we unearth along the way – such as this unpublished collection of images I made of a young lawyer who I first photographed at an impeachment hearing of President Richard Nixon in the House Judiciary Committee in 1974.

It’s going to be quite a journey. Would love to have you along for the ride.

CNN Special: Covering 50 years of presidential politics by David Hume Kennerly

July 1, 2016 By David Hume Kennerly

A witness to history: 50 years of presidential politics

Editor's note: CNN has partnered with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly to cover the 2016 election. Kennerly has spent 50 years photographing U.S. politics. At age 27, he became the youngest chief White House photographer when he started working for President Gerald Ford. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click on the image to read the article on CNN.

Just to prove that this older, experienced dog is still in the hunt, CNN has brought me aboard to cover the 2016 elections. This will be the 12th national contest that I’ve covered, and is my 50th year in the pro photo business. CNN is by far the biggest platform I’ve ever had for my photography, and I’m looking forward to getting started working with such a great team.

Here are some CNN facts:

• CNN’s two dozen branded networks and services are available to more than 2 billion people in more than 200 countries and territories.
• CNN has 42 editorial operations around the world and around 4,000 employees worldwide.
• CNN’s coverage is supplemented and carried by more than 1,000 affiliates worldwide.
• CNN reaches 96.2 million households in the U.S.
• CNN Digital is the number one online news destination, routinely recording more than 1.5 billion multi-platform page views each month
• CNN International reaches more than 315 million households around the world

From the Kennerly Archives

December 16, 2015 By David Hume Kennerly

In early 1971 ten million refugees streamed into India from East Pakistan to escape political and religious persecution. The total number of displaced people from that conflict is estimated at twenty million, fleeing from one of the most concentrated acts of genocide of the twentieth century. I covered that refugee crisis for UPI. When I returned to cover the India-Pakistan war later that year, I witnessed the transformation of East Pakistan into an independent Bangladesh.Blind, aged, and displaced from his home in search of safety, this man emanates peace and dignity. His image serves as a reminder of the perpetual tragedy of those forced to leave behind everything they know simply to survive.

Holiday wishes from David & Rebecca Kennerly

The Kennerly Archive Creation Project

My 1971 Pulitzer Prize-winning portfolio contained another, better known, image from this day. However, this shot, never before published or seen by the public, has haunted me for decades. I was afraid it had been lost. Days ago, I was thrilled to rediscover the precious piece of film that contained this image -- one of only two frames I made of this magnificent man. Uncovering this image at the bottom of a box where it had been hiding for so many years felt like discovering buried treasure.This discovery was only possible because of the work that Rebecca and I have done to assemble and organize my million-image plus collection of historic photos and objects. Look for the launch The Kennerly Archive Creation Project in the coming year with the ultimate goal of turning my vast and unweildy collection into a vibrant archive that might make an important contribution to the understanding of fifty years of history.

Kennerly Remarks Accepting 2015 Lucie Award

October 29, 2015 By David Hume Kennerly

NEW YORK– OCT 27: David Kennerly accepts The Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism, Carnegie Hall, New York, New York, October 27, 2015. (Photo by Byron Hume Kennerly)

Thanks Ann Curry!

We both graduated from Oregon high schools, and also started our professional careers there–it was a great launching pad! My love to my wife and business partner Rebecca and son Byron who are here, and also to my other two boys Nick and James who aren’t due to their educational responsibilities back home in California. Hurrah to my fellow honorees, particularly Bart Silverman whom I have known since 1969, and who is one of the most inspiring photographers on the planet. And a special thanks to Lucie Founder Hossein Farmani for creating this wonderful and significant award, co-founder Susan Baraz, and executive director Cat Jimenez .

I shouldn’t even be standing here. I went to Vietnam when I was 24 and after many close calls in combat did not expect to make 25. Everyday since has been a windfall.

But many of us weren’t that lucky. Right before I took off for Saigon in early 1971 to cover the war, a Vietnamese army helicopter carrying four photographers was shot down over Laos. Everyone was killed including Kent Potter of UPI, the person I was heading out there to replace. Another was Larry Burrows of LIFE Magazine. I never met him, but he had a huge impact on my career. His astonishing and dramatic photos from Vietnam struck a note with me that resound to this moment.

Forty years after that tragedy, my friend and colleague Chris Hondros, along with Tim Hetherington, perished in Libya covering the action. They, and so many other dedicated photographers died pursuing their passion.

It’s essential that real photographers roam the world casting light into corners where others fear to go. Their images carry emotion and insight directly to your heart and soul. A keen eye and the ability to condense a story into one searing image is irreplaceable. We will always need that cadre of professionals who hang it out there to show the truth.

Photographers who have documented the dark side of humanity also know the pain that lies beneath their photos. The pictures may never be able to convey the visceral experience of what it took to get them, or the photographer’s commitment to the importance of making these images.

We don’t make history, but our photographs help to change it. They inform, arouse, and inspire action. They tell stories that range from the joy of life to tragedy. We are the witnesses who keep history’s visual flame. It is our charge to accurately and honestly portray those whom we photograph, and to create pictures that are fair, objective and made with a compassionate eye.

I salute those who continue to take photos that startle the world, pictures that make us sit up and take notice. My deepest respect goes to those who died trying. Their sacrifice and their photographs have helped make the world a better place.

Thank you.

Ann Curry and David Kennerly before Lucie Awards at Carnegie Hall

In the Room — The Final Days of Vietnam

April 27, 2015 By David Hume Kennerly

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona: David Hume Kennerly Archive.

In early 1971 United Press International assigned me to their Saigon bureau to replace photographer Kent Potter who was rotating out. On Feb. 10, 1971, Potter and three other photographers perished when their chopper was shot down over Laos during the Lam Son 719 operation. Larry Burrows of Life, Henri Huet of the AP, and Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek were among those who died. I don’t know any of those great photographers, but Burrows was a personal hero, and his photos inspired my desire to cover the war. A few weeks later, and shortly after I turned 24, I was on a plane bound for Saigon.

I spent over two years photographing combat in Indochina, and In 1972, I was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for my previous year’s work in Vietnam, Cambodia, and India where I photographed refugees escaping across the border from East Pakistan.

Vietnam became part of my DNA, and everything that has happened to me since has been informed by that experience. I was 24, and my first year as a combat photographer was so intense, and there were so many close calls, I never figured to see 25. When I celebrated that birthday in Saigon, I felt that every one after was a bonus. So far that windfall has added up to an extra 43 years! I have tried to use them well.

I returned to the states in mid-1973 to go to work for TIME Magazine. One of my early assignments was the Watergate melee, and I was also assigned to photograph House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford after Vice President Agnew resigned in the fall of that year. A portrait that I took of Ford ran on the cover of TIME when President Nixon announced that he would replace Agnew as the new vice president. TIME then assigned me to cover Ford full-time. When President Nixon resigned, and Ford replaced him, he asked me to be his chief photographer. With that job came total access, not just to the President and his family, but to everything that was going on behind the scenes. It was quite an honor, wildly exciting, and one of the most professionally and personally rewarding times of my life.

On March 3, 1975, six months into the Ford Presidency, South Vietnam began to unravel when the North Vietnamese Army attacked the Central Highlands city of Ban Me Thuot. After a few days of heavy fighting that saw thousands of casualties, particularly among the civilian population, that key city fell to the North Vietnamese. This was the beginning of the end for South Vietnam.

My previous life as a combat shooter was running head-on into my latest career as a presidential photographer. I documented the events of the next few weeks as any professional news photographer would, but with a major exception. I was deep inside the White House as the president’s photographer, and was given an unparalleled opportunity to see a war implode from within the halls of power. This special access also led to a secret trip back to Vietnam on a special mission for the President of the United States, and then back to the White House for the finale of the Vietnam drama.

April 28 and 29^thof 1975 were personal days of hell as the last act of the Vietnam tragedy unfolded. I didn’t sleep, and was consumed with making sure that I photographed every minute that I could of these tense final days. I was uniquely qualified to record this series of events, but I was also emotionally drained by the circumstances. During the war itself I played through my pain to document the story, and I did the same during those final days. I always knew that just a handful of people with tremendous power made the decisions that shaped our lives. They were the ones who started and ended wars. As someone who had always been an outsider it was startling to see that process in action. Just a few short years earlier, I was consumed with a drive to document events from the other end – and to be out on the front lines where the action was. Or so I thought. Not much later, I found myself in the center of action of another kind – watching and recording the agony of decisions about life, death and the future of nations being made one at a time by a president until there were no more decisions to make. And then, the Vietnam War was over.

This is my account and photos of the final days of Vietnam. Direct quotes from the participants are from declassified minutes of National Security Council meetings, Memorandums of Conversations, Cabinet meetings, White House press conferences, President Ford’s book, “A Time to Heal,” Donald Rumsfeld’s book “Known and Unknown,” and my autobiography, “Shooter.”

The North Vietnamese were now in Hue, and moving on Da Nang. It looked as if all of the northern provinces of S. Vietnam would fall to the advancing Communist forces. On March 25^th President Ford met in the oval office with U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Frederick Weyand and U.S. Ambassador to S. Vietnam Graham Martin. The president discussed dispatching the general on a fact-finding mission to Saigon to see if anything could be done to stem the advancing North Vietnamese tide. Gen. Weyand had heroically served several tours in Vietnam and knew the intricacies of the conflict. The president felt confident he would give him the best assessment of the situation. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, and his deputy Gen. Brent Scowcroft participated in the meeting also. The photo I took of Deputy National Security Advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft on March 16 in his White House office as he talked on the phone to a colleague reflected the gravity of the situation.

WASHINGTON -- MAR 16: Deputy National Security Advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft in his White House office reacts to the news that the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thuot has fallen to the North Vietnamese, March 16, 1975, Washington D.C. Ban Me Thout was a decisive battle of the Vietnam War and led to the complete destruction of South Vietnam's II Corps Tactical Zone and exposed the incredible weaknesses in the South Vietnamese Army. This was the beginning of the end of South Vietnam. The defeat at Ban Me Thuot and the disastrous evacuation from the Central Highlands came about as a result of two major mistakes. In the days leading up to the assault, the S. Vietnamese high command ignored intelligence which showed the presence of several North Vietnamese combat divisions around the district, and then President Nguyen Van Thieu's strategy to withdraw from the Central Highlands was poorly planned and implemented, resulting in a civilian catastrophe.

The president told Gen. Weyand, “Fred, you are going with the ambassador. This is one of the most significant missions you ever had. You are not going over there to lose, but to be tough and see what we can do.” The president continued, “We want your recommendation for the things which can be tough and shocking to the North. I regret I don’t have the authority to do some of the things President Nixon could do.” (These quotes are taken from recently declassified notes of that meeting). Secretary Kissinger asked, “What is the real situation and why? What can be done?” Weyand replied, “We will bring back a general appraisal and give them a shot in the arm.”

WASHINGTON -- MAR 25: (9:22-10:25 a.m.) President Gerald R. Ford talks to U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office the White House. March 25, 1975. President Ford dispatched Gen. Weyand on a mission to Vietnam to see if anything could be done to help the South Vietnamese government stem the tide of the advancing North Vietnamese Communists. Ambassador Martin, who was in the states for a medical problem, would return to Saigon with Weyand.

After they left I took this photo of the president alone in the office, clearly frustrated. We talked about the trip, and I told him that, because of my extensive experience in Vietnam, I would like to go with Weyand. The president agreed, and said that he would depend on me to deliver to him my usual impartial and candid point of view when I got back.

WASHINGTON -- MAR 25: (9:22-10:25 a.m.) President Gerald R. Ford walks to the door with (L-R) Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office the White House. March 25, 1975. President Ford dispatched Gen. Weyand on a mission to Vietnam to see if anything could be done to halt the advancing North Vietnamese Communists. Amb. Martin would fly with him.

My office was on the ground floor of the White House, and I dropped in to tell my staff that I was leaving early on a trip the next day. I hung a sign on my door that said, “Gone to Vietnam. Back in two weeks.” My staff thought I was joking until I didn’t turn up the next day, or for almost two weeks. Later that evening I went to say goodbye to the Fords and asked the president for a loan. These were the pre ATM days. “The banks are closed, and I’ll be gone before they open, “ I said. President Ford pulled all the bills that he had in his wallet. “Here’s forty seven dollars,” he said. “Don’t spend it all at once!”, Then he turned serious, put his arm around my shoulder, and said, “be careful.”

WASHINGTON -- MAR 25: (10:30 a.m.) President Gerald R. Ford after meeting with Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand, Ford, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office the White House. March 25, 1975. President Ford dispatched Gen. Weyand and Amb. Martin on a mission to Vietnam to see if anything could be done to stop the advancing North Vietnamese Communists.

General Weyand’s plane, an Air Force C-141, made two refueling stops in Anchorage and Tokyo before reaching Saigon 24 hours later. I got to know Ken Quinn on board the plane, a young National Security Council staffer who specialized in Southeast Asia. I also spent time on the trip, and there was plenty of it, talking to George Carver and Ted Shackley, two senior CIA officials. They were men who worked in the deep shadows, and were major players in the Vietnam saga. Once in Vietnam, Ken Quinn and I were assigned to be roommates at Ambassador Martin’s residence in Saigon. At that time, there was no official evacuation of Vietnamese underway. However, Ken and his buddies knew that the end was in sight. I discovered that Ken and some fellow NSC staffers were running an effective, vast and very unofficial underground network that was spiriting thousands of Vietnamese allies out of the country and to safety. At the same time, the American news organizations were frantic about the safety of their Vietnamese employees and dependents. I arranged an off the record meeting with the ambassador and Art Lord who represented the media that resulted in an unofficial process to start getting some of those individuals out of the country. The ambassador thought some of these news organizations were hypocritical because while they were asking for help to get their own people to safety, they were reporting that there would be no reprisals against the southern Vietnamese if the northerners took over. The downside wasn't an exaggeration, and many southerners who were still trapped after the fall of Saigon were subject to severe reprisals.

OVER THE PACIFIC -- MAR 26: U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand looks at a map of Vietnam as he heads to that war torn country on a special mission for the President of the United States aboard a U.S. Air Force C-141, March 26, 1975.

SAIGON -- MAR 27: U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand talks to U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin shortly before landing in Saigon aboard a U.S. Air Force C-5A. Weyand was on a special mission for President Gerald R. Ford to give recommendations on how to save S. Vietnam from the advancing North Vietnamese Army. Saigon, Vietnam, March 27, 1975.

SAIGON -- MAR 27: A pensive U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Graham Martin shortly before landing in Saigon aboard a U.S. Air Force C-5A. In the background is Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand. Saigon, Vietnam, March 27, 1975.

I was not part of Gen. Weyand’s official briefings, but at the same time I had a very personal directive from the president to give him my private assessment of the situation. After a day in Saigon I decided to head up north. Da Nang was out of the question as it was effectively in North Vietnamese control, so I made my way to Nha Trang, a small city 300 miles south of Da Nang that was already overrun with refugees. When I arrived, I found Montcrieff Spear, the U.S. Consul General in Nha Trang, preparing to leave. His wife was actually packing when I arrived. However, before he could go, he needed to find his colleague and fellow consul general Al Francis who had escaped from Da Nang.

Nha Trang -- March 29: Frightened civilians flee the advancing Communist forces, Nha Trang, South Vietnam, March 29, 1975.

Spear and I took an Air America chopper up to Cam Ranh Bay to search for Al Francis who had managed to flee from Da Nang on a ship that had been hijacked by fleeing South Vietnamese troops. We saw a large vessel crammed with thousands of troops, and at least one of them, in frustration at the situation I guess, fired at our American-flagged chopper. They missed, but caused the pilot to make one helluva U-turn. That story also made AP, and was seen by my parents who didn’t know I was back in Vietnam (it was, after all, a secret mission). They called the White House, and were surprised that they were put right through to the president himself (the operators there knew me well!). He had just been briefed on the incident, and told them I was just fine, but still overly adventurous.

CAM RANH BAY -- MAR 30: The Pioneer Commander, a U.S. ship carries thousands of Vietnamese soldiers who had hijacked the vessel from Da Nang in front of the advancing Communists, pulls into Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, March 30, 1975. This photo was taken from a U.S. helicopter by President Gerald R. Ford's official White House photographer David Hume Kennerly who was on a mission from the president to document the deteriorating situation, and to report back directly to him with his account. The frustrated fleeing troops fired on Kennerly’s chopper, but neither he or the U.S. Consul General Montcrieff Spear who was also aboard were hit.

Al Francis had made it onto a tugboat from the big ship, and that’s where we spotted him. He waved as we flew over, and we landed in Cam Ranh Bay to pick him up before he and his Spear headed back to Saigon. Nha Trang was abandoned that day, and I made a detour over to Phnom Penh.

CAM RANH BAY -- MAR 30: U.S. Consul Al Francis waves from a tugboat after escaping from Da Nang in front of the advancing Communists, March 30, 1975, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam. Francis was the U.S. Consul to DaNang, and boarded a ship there that had been taken over by fleeing S. Vietnamese soldiers and headed south to Cam Ranh Bay where he made it off to the smaller vessel.

I was in Vietnam on a presidential pass, so I could have waved my White House orders at the CIA transport guys for a ride to Phnom Penh, and they would have had to do what I wanted. I thought the polite approach was better, however. I found a few pilots in the Air America hanger, and I asked, “Would any of you guys be willing to give me a lift over to Phnom Penh? I know it’s kind of dangerous . . .” They all jumped up, and said in unison, “I’ll take you!” Nothing like a little machismo moment among the CIA’s secret pilot’s society!

PHNOM PENH -- MAR 31: A wounded Cambodian woman is comforted by her husband in a hospital, and later died in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 31, 1975. Phnom Penh was under attack by the Khmer Rouge, who took over the Cambodain capital less than three weeks later. (photo David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

PHNOM PENH -- MAR 31: A wounded Cambodian woman is comforted by her husband in a hospital, and later died in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 31, 1975. The city was under attack by the Khmer Rouge, who took over the capital less than three weeks later.

My old friend and colleague, Vietnamese-Lao-Thai-Khmer speaking colleague Matt Franjola was in Phnom Penh working for the Associated Press at the time, so I sent him a message and told him that I was getting a lift over there by a ballsy and intrepid pilot, and asked whether he could pick me up. (I had the good sense not to mention that chauffer was a CIA-employed aviator, flying an Agency-owned aircraft).Pochentong Airport was essentially closed and under constant fire. It was so bad there that the pilot told me as we approached in his Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) airplane that he was going to taxi by the terminal, and that he would slow down, but not stop. In other words, I would have to jump out as he cruised by the sandbagged terminal. And that’s what I did. There was nobody to be seen--except Matt, who was sitting there in his jeep, nonchalant as always, as rockets exploded nearby. We hightailed it out of there, and he took me first for drinks at the old Le Phnom Hotel, our favorite haunt, where I had the special of the day, Martinis and mortars. I also met up with photographer Al Rockoff and some other compatriots from my time working there. Matt caught me up on what was happening, then took me to an overcrowded where I witnessed hundreds of suffereing people wounded in the fighting. I photographed a woman being comforted by here husband. She had been hit by shrapnel, and died while I was there.I made a portrait of a Cambodian refugee girl who was among thousands of people crammed into an unfinished hotel on the banks of the Mekong River. I saw that she wore a dog tog, and its reflection is what caught my eye. Her photo has remained a symbol for me of all the suffering that kids the world over experience because of senseless wars. I have been haunted by her ever face ever since, and even traveled back to Phnom Penh several years ago to try and find her, but with no luck.

Later that afternoon Matt dropped me at the U.S. Embassy where I recieved a Top Secret briefing on the grave situation in Cambodia by Ambassador John Gunther Dean and his staff. I vividly recall being in the tactical operations center looking at a map showing large red arrows representing the advancing Khmer Rouge coming from all directions toward the capital of Phnom Penh. We were surrounded. The embassy staff was already preparing a helicopter exodus for U.S. citizens and some allies if the situation deteriorated further. Dean painted a horrible and compelling picture about what might happen to Americans and their Cambodian counterparts who chose to remain. When Matt collected me after the briefing I told him way off the record that there was going to be an evacuation soon, and urged him not to play hero and stay, but get his ass out. He had never heard me sound so serious, and that got his attention. A few days later the U.S. commenced Operation Eagle Pull, and evacuated all the Americans and high risk Cambodians who wanted to leave Phnom Penh. Matt had considered staying, but with my voice ringing in his ears, decided to take the last helicopter out, and went from the frying pan into the fire, ending up in Saigon where he stayed after it fell to the Communists. After reporting that story, he safely got out of there also.

PHNOM PENH -- MAR 31: A little Cambodian refugee girl with a dog tag as a trinket in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 31, 1975. Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge a few weeks later, and her fate is unknown. This picture won a first prize in the 1976 World Press Photo contest.

PHNOM PENH -- MAR 31: A Cambodian refugee child in a hospital, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 29, 1975. Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge a few weeks later, and her fate is unknown.

I returned to Saigon in time to attend a meeting at which General Weyand and his crew met with the beleaguered South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in his office at Saigon’s Presidential Palace. It wasn’t a pleasant meeting and the Americans didn’t have much to offer him. As I took a photo of Thieu at his desk, a traditional Vietnamese painting behind him, I wondered how much longer he would be in that chair. Only eighteen days more as it turned out.

SAIGON -- APR 3: South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in his office at the Presidential Palace in Saigon, South Vietnam, April 3, 1975. Thieu was waiting for a meeting with U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Fredrick Weyand and U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin who were there on orders from U.S. President Gerald R. Ford to see if anything could be done to slow down or halt the advancing North Vietnamese Communists.

Later I that night I reconnected with Ken Quinn. He and his collaborators were real heroes, saving countless lives of high-risk Vietnamese who had worked with the Americans and might well have been executed had Quinn and his team been unable to facilitate their evacuation. Ken and his contacts around the country were incredibly pessimistic about the outcome for Vietnam. His comments and observations, combined with my firsthand look at a country coming unspooled, was going to lead to a tough report for the president.

SAIGON -- APR 3: South Vietnamese President Ngyen Van Thieu in his office at the Presidential Palace in Saigon, South Vietnam, April 3, 1975 meets with U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Fredrick Weyand and U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin who were there on orders from U.S. President Gerald R. Ford to see if anything could be done to stop a Communist takeover.

Gen. Weyand made his presentation to President Ford at the president’s home in Palm Springs. Weyand wasn’t optimistic, but held out some hope that the encroaching North Vietnamese might be held off if Congress allotted more money for assistance. The president clearly didn’t like what he was hearing.

PALM SPRINGS -- APR 5: An unhappy U.S. President Gerald R. Ford meets with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand after his return from a fact finding mission to South Vietnam that was being attacked by the advancing North Vietnamese army. Weyand briefed the president on his trip in Palm Springs, California, April 5, 1975. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

PALM SPRINGS -- APR 5: U.S. President Gerald R. Ford meets with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand after his return from a fact finding mission to South Vietnam that was being attacked by the advancing North Vietnamese army. Weyand briefed the president on his trip in Palm Springs, California, April 5, 1975.

My new friends from the CIA pretty much corroborated the assessment I had given the president. In this rare photo of CIA officials directly briefing the president, Chief of the East Asia Division of the CIA Ted Shackley, (who was known as “the Blond Ghost,” According to Wikipedia, Shackley's work included being station chief in Miami, during the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as head of the Cuban Project, known as Operation Mongoose, which he directed. He was also said to be the director of the Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War, as well as the CIA station chief in Laos between 1966–1968, and ran the secret war there. He was also CIA Saigon station chief from 1968 through February 1972. In 1976, he was appointed Associate Deputy Director for Operations, and put in charge of the CIA's worldwide covert operations. His nickname should really have been, "Super Spook." ). CIA Deputy Director for National Intelligence Officers George Carver who was in the meeting also weighed in, and the two of them gave the president their straightforward assessment.

PALM SPRINGS -- APR 5: 2:57-4:54 PM. President Gerald R. Ford meets with (L-R) Erich F. von Marbod, Comptroller and logistics expert, Department of Defense, Theodore G. Shackley, Chief, East Asia Division, Central Intelligence Agency, George A. Carver, Jr., Deputy to the Director of Central Intelligence for National Intelligence Officers, CIA, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Weyand led a group of CIA and Defense Department officials to Saigon to assess the deteriorating situation there, and reported back to the President in Palm Springs, California, April 5, 1975.

The President and Mrs. Ford flew up to San Francisco after his briefing by Gen. Weyand and his associates to greet a planeload of Vietnamese orphans arriving in the U.S. It was a sobering sight. Many of the kids had American fathers, and were considered to be at risk if the Communists took over. Those "Amerasian" kids who didn’t make it out were treated like second-class citizens or worse.Operation Babylift was the mass evacuation of children ordered by President Ford from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries at the end of the Vietnam War on April 3–26, 1975. By the final flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.

President Ford With Operation Babylift Child

SAN FRANCISCO -- APR 5: President Gerald R. Ford carries one of the first children evacuated from Vietnam during Operation Babylift at San Francisco Airport. The president was taking the child from a chartered Pan Am flight, San Francisco, California, April 5, 1975.Operation Babylift was the mass evacuation of children ordered by President Ford from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries at the end of the Vietnam War on April 3–26, 1975. By the final flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.

SAN FRANCISCO -- APR 5: President Gerald R. Ford on a bus with one of the first children evacuated from Vietnam during Operation Babylift, San Francisco Airport, April 5, 1975.Operation Babylift was the mass evacuation of children ordered by President Ford from South Vietnam to the United States and other countries at the request of the Vietnamese government and non governmental organizations who ran orphanages and relief agencies toward the end of the Vietnam War. The operation ran from April 3 through 26, 1975. By the final flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world. There was one tragedy associated with the airlift, an Air Force C-5A with orphans crashed killing 138 people, including 78 children.

The next day, armed with a stack of black and white photographs that I had taken on my Vietnam expedition, I presented President Ford with an extremely unpleasant show and tell. We went through the photos one by one. He saw the evacuation of Nha Trang, the ships full of fleeing South Vietnamese soldiers in Cam Ranh Bay, and the refugee children in Cambodia. I said, “Anyone who says that Vietnam has more than three or four weeks left is bullshitting you.” I told him that what I saw, along with the observations of the people in Vietnam that I respected, and my knowledge of the country, added up to only one conclusion for the future of the conflict -- “the party’s over.” When we got back to the White House a couple of days later I had all the colorful photos of cheery presidential social events replaced with large stark black and white pictures of my documentation of the impending end of Vietnam and Cambodia. During the night an offended White House staffer took them down. The president was furious, and ordered them put back on the West Wing walls. “Leave them up,” he said emphatically, “everyone should know what’s going on over there.” (The power of photography: The president later told me that those photos and my account of the suffering influenced his thinking on allowing more than 125,000 Vietnamese refugees to enter the United States).

PALM SPRINGS -- APR 5: 2:05 PM. President Gerald R. Ford reads Gen. Frederick Weyand's report about the deteriorating situation in Vietnam. Weyand wasn't at all optimistic, but thought there was still a chance to prop up the S. Vietnamese government with more aid. Palm Springs, California, April 5, 1975.

Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world. There was one tragedy associated with the airlift, an Air Force C-5A with orphans crashed killing 138 people, including 78 children.

SAN FRANCISCO -- APR 5: An Amerasian child, one of the first children from Operation Babylift arrives at San Francisco Airport aboard a chartered Pan Am 747, April 5, 1975.

By the time we got back to the White House, the North Vietnamese forces were getting closer to Saigon. Most of the northern part of the country had already fallen, and only a part of the south is left. Both CIA Director Colby and Secretary of Defense Jim Schlesinger appeared a bit morose when I photographed them in the Cabinet Room prior to an NSC meeting on Indochina.

WASHINGTON -- APR 9: CIA Director William Colby and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger in the Cabinet Room at the White House next to a map of Vietnam before a meeting of the NSC regarding the Communist advances in Xuan Loc, S. Vietnam, Washington, D.C., April 9, 1975

CIA Director Bill Colby is pointing to a map of Vietnam and directing attention to Xuan Loc, a town only fifty miles east of Saigon. He briefs about heavy fighting in the area after attacks from a North Vietnamese Army division using armor and artillery. Colby quotes intelligence that says fighting will intensify and the North Vietnamese are trying to achieve victory this year, not 1976 as earlier predicted. He says Communist victories have “far exceeded their expectations and have created ‘the most opportune moment’ for total victory this year.” They will press the attack in surrounding province, and attack Saigon when the time comes. Colby continued by saying that 18 infantry divisions were already in the south, and more on the way. “On paper, the GVN’s (Government of Vietnam’s) long-term prospects are bleak, no matter how well Saigon’s forces and commanders acquit themselves in the fighting that lies ahead.” (quoted from NSC minutes of the meeting). He went on to say, “Another factor is U.S. aid. A prompt and large-scale infusion would tend to restore confidence.

WASHINGTON -- APR 9: CIA Director William Colby points out Communist advances in Xuan Loc on a map of Vietnam in the Cabinet Room at the White House during a meeting of the NSC regarding the Communist advances in S. Vietnam, Washington, D.C., April 9, 1975. Colby said that long term prospects for the government of South Vietnam "were bleak."

The converse is obviously also true. The most likely outcome is a government willing to accept Communist terms, i.e. surrender.”Colby also reported that Cambodia couldn’t hold on for more than another week. (In fact the American evacuation of Phnom Penh was ordered two days later.)The discussion turned to how many people to evacuate and whether to ask Congress for money to fund an evacuation in the president’s speech the following night in front of a joint session. President Ford said, “If we have a disaster, Congress will evade the responsibility. Let us get some language. I am sick and tired of their asking us to ignore the law or to enforce it, depending on whether or not it is to their advantage.”

President Ford allows some anxiety to show after ordering the execution of Operation Eagle Pull that will evacuate all Americans from Cambodia, On April 21, and more than a week after the Cambodian operation was complete, the president and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger focused on the continuing problems in Vietnam. In a classified conversation, Kissinger said he talked to Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin about arranging a ceasefire to get Americans out. He then discussed problems with American ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin going rogue.

WASHINGTON -- APR 11: U.S. President Gerald R. Ford is briefed by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh, Cambodia called, "Operation Eagle Pull," in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1975.

Kissinger said, “I worried about Martin being Chinese Gordon* and causing a panic to prove he was right. So we have to treat him with care. I am afraid Martin accelerated Thieu’s departure.” Brent Scowcroft added, ”His (Martin’s) talk with Thieu must have been provocative because of his quick action and blast at you.” Kissinger said, “Martin should be told that our judgment is as soon as the airport comes under fire, the DAO personnel at Tan Son Nhut should be immediately taken out by C-130, not helicopters . . . he should not delay a move at Tan Son Nhut until it is irretrievably closed.”*Charles “Chinese” Gordon was a British army officer and administrator who made his military reputation in China, where he was placed in command of the "Ever Victorious Army," a force of Chinese soldiers led by European officers. In the early 1860s, Gordon and his men were instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion, regularly defeating much larger forces. For these accomplishments, he was given the nickname "Chinese" Gordon and was honored by both the Emperor of China and the British. (From Wikipedia)On April 23, the situation in Vietnam was clear to the president, and he wasn’t afraid to acknowledge the fact. At a speech to students at Tulane University he said, “Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned. As I see it, the time has come to look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the Nation's wounds, and to restore its health and its optimistic self-confidence.” This was the first time he publicly said that the war was “finished.”

During an NSC meeting, and as the Vietnam situation was heading off the edge of the cliff, the president was told by Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger that there were approximately 1700 Americans left in Saigon. The president said he wanted that number down to 1090 by Friday night. Schlesinger said, “That is a lot in one day.” The president replied, “That is what I ordered. There will be another order that by Sunday all non-essential anon-governmental personnel must be out of there. The group that is left will stay until the order is issued to take them all out.” The president’s main concern was that the rate of evacuation not induce panic among the Vietnamese.

WASHINGTON -- APR 24: 4:45 to 5:15 PM. President Gerald R. Ford meets with the National Security Council in the Cabinet Room at the White House and is briefed on how the evacuation of Americans from Saigon was going. (L-R) Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. George Brown. CIA Director William Colby, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Ingersoll, President Ford, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, April 24, 1975.

This emergency meeting of the National Security Council was convened after the president got news that two U.S. Marines were killed by enemy fire at Ton San Nhut Airport and that North Vietnamese were within artillery range of the airport. Clearly, the US had very little time left to act and Ford had decided to bring the war to a conclusion. Seated around the table were America’s heavy hitters -- the president, vice president, secretary and deputy secretary of state, secretary and deputy secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, director of the CIA, and the White House chief of staff. This discussion of the final phase of the evacuation of Vietnam was not only a dramatic situation of great historical importance, but was also deeply personal for me. I was in the room and watching a war that I covered for over two years end in real time and before my eyes. Granted, we all knew it was coming, but this meeting was the last formal gathering of the men who would execute the president’s orders to pull the plug on a ten-year long debacle.

WASHINGTON DC - APRIL 28: 7:23-8:08 PM: At a meeting of the National Security Council in the Roosevelt Room, Ford makes the decision to continue to evacuate Americans and high risk Vietnamese from Vietnam from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, April 28, 1975 in Washington DC. Also in the meeting, (from left), CIA Director William Colby, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Ingersoll, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Clements, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General George Brown.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. George Brown talked about bringing in 70 sorties of C-130s into Tan Son Nhut, with 35 aircraft coming in twice to evacuate the remaining 400 members of the Defense Attaché Office based there. He said the controller on the ground would have the discretion about whether this operation was feasible. Brown’s concern was, “the report of an aircraft being shot down by an SA-7 [a shoulder-fired surface to air missile]. Choppers or aircraft are defenseless against the SA-7” He continued, “Of course we have to do our mission, but if the risk becomes too great, we may need to turn off the lift.”

WASHINGTON DC - APRIL 28: 7:23-8:08 PM: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General George S. Brown at a meeting of the National Security Council in the Roosevelt Room as President Gerald R. Ford makes the decision to continue to evacuate Americans and high risk Vietnamese from Vietnam from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, April 28, 1975 in Washington DC. Also in the meeting, (from left), CIA Director William Colby, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Ingersoll, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Clements, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.

(Direct quotes are from official minutes of the meeting, now declassified): CIA Director William Colby opened the discussion at this NSA meeting with a report that, “the Viet Cong have rejected [now S. Vietnamese President] Minh’s cease-fire offer. They have added a third demand, which is to dismantle the South Vietnamese armed forces.” He went on to say that the situation had become more dangerous, and that enemy artillery was, “within range of Tan Son Nhut airport. At 4:00 a.m. they had a salvo of rockets against Tan Son Nhut. This is what killed the Marines.” He also said that surface to air missiles had been deployed in the area further increasing the risk factor.

WASHINGTON DC - APRIL 28: 7:23-8:08 PM: As a key member of the National Security Council, CIA Director William Colby is part of the discussion at a meeting of the NSC in the Roosevelt Room, President Gerald R. Ford makes the decision to continue to evacuate Americans and high risk Vietnamese from Vietnam from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, April 28, 1975 in Washington DC.

At the end of the meeting on April 24th the president said, “I understand the risk. It is mine and I am doing it. But let’s make sure we carry out the orders. Vice President Rockefeller said, “You can’t insure the interests of America without risks.” The president said, “With God’s help.” Vice President Rockefeller said, “It take real courage to do what is right in these conditions.”The NSC meeting ended.

WASHINGTON -- APR 24: 4:45 to 5:15 PM. President Gerald R. Ford reacts during meeting with the National Security Council in the Cabinet Room of the White House after he was briefed on how the evacuation of Americans out of Saigon was going. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. George Brown, CIA Director William Colby, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Ingersoll, and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger were in the meeting, April 24, 1975.

News came that no one wanted to hear. Henry Kissinger reported that the runways at Tan Son Nhut could not be used for evacuation. Worse, the population had gotten out of control and had flooded the runways. It was now impossible to land any more fixed wing aircraft. It was time to consider implementing Option 3, codenamed, “Operation Frequent Wind,” the final evacuation of Saigon by helicopter was at hand

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 10:28 PM. President Gerald R. Ford meets with Kissinger to discuss the progress of the evacuation from Saigon in the 2nd floor family quarters of the White House, Washington, D.C., April 28, 1975.

The discussion then turned to what would happen if the U.S. fired on the advancing North Vietnamese to protect the evacuation. Secretary Kissinger said, “I think that, if we fire, we have to pull out the entire Embassy . . . The North Vietnamese have the intention of humiliating us and it seem unwise to leave people there.” The President said, “I agree. All should leave. We have now made two decisions: First, today is the last day of Vietnamese evacuation. Second, if we fire, our people will go. Are we ready to go to a helicopter lift?Gen. Brown replied, “Yes, if you or Ambassador Martin say so, we can have them there within an hour.”Kissinger said, “We should not let it out that this is the last day of civilian evacuation.”There was more discussion about how this would work, and if Tan Son Nhut was closed, starting the helicopter evacuation. General Brown said, “I do not want to see Americans standing there waiting for the last plane.” He also recommended that air cover come in to secure a helicopter lift.The president concluded the meeting by saying, “We can wait until we see whether the C-130s can get in. If they cannot we go to Option 3, (final evacuation by helicopters). The decision will be forced by whether the C-130s can or cannot operate. Is that agreed?” All Nod.

WASHINGTON DC - APRIL 28: 7:23-8:08 PM: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a meeting of the National Security Council in the Roosevelt Room as President Gerald R. Ford makes the decision to continue to evacuate Americans and high risk Vietnamese from Vietnam from Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, April 28, 1975 in Washington DC.

America has lost the war in Vietnam. The weight of that reality is evident as President Ford talks to Secretary of Defense Schlesinger and orders the implementation of “Operation Frequent Wind,” the final evacuation of Americans from Vietnam. Mrs. Ford and I were the only other people in the room with the president when he made the final call, and although he had no choice, it was a tough one for him.

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 10:33 PM. President Gerald R. Ford orders his Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger to trigger, "OPERATION FREQUENT WIND," the final evacuation by helicopter from Saigon effectively ending the Vietnam War for America. April 28, 1975.

White House Chief of Staff Don Rumsfeld keeps track of the fast moving situation. A few months later he would become President Ford’s Secretary of Defense, the nation’s youngest ever, and then almost 25 years later President George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary, and with it the Guinness World Record of being the nation’s oldest SECDEF.

Rumsfeld in Kissinger's Office During VN Evacuation

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 11:22 PM. White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld is briefed by Sec. of State Henry Kissinger in the NSC advisor's office at the White House about the final evacuation of Americans from Saigon, April 28, 1975.

The President of the United States is the person who has the final word on the big decisions. I always found humanity to be the foundation of every judgment that President Ford made. On this night he made one of the toughest decisions of his life. Here he contemplates the ramifications with his wife First Lady Betty Ford at his side. It was sad to see this honorable person have to make such a difficult, but necessary call.

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 9:15 PM. President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford in the 2nd floor family quarters of the White House as he ponders his decision to order the final evacuation of Americans by helicopter from Saigon. Washington, D.C., April 28, 1975.

By the time this cabinet meeting was convened the evacuation was well underway and only 200 Americans were awaiting a ride out of the U.S. Embassy is Saigon. The president appeared pretty down as the impact of the last few days sunk in.

Ford Meets Cabinet on End of Vietnam War

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 9:47 AM. President Gerald R. Ford meets with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and the rest of his cabinet in the Cabinet Room at the White House to brief them on the progress of the final evacuation of Saigon that was rapidly drawing to a close. Washington, D.C. April 29, 1975.

Of all the Administration officials since those who served Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Henry Kissinger is one of the most controversial and the most closely identified with the Vietnam War. He was a proponent of Nixon’s “Vietnamization” of the conflict and also played a key role in the bombing of Cambodia to disrupt attacks on South Vietnam by the Communists. Kissinger, along with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to establish a ceasefire and the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Tho refused to accept the award, perhaps knowing that they had no intention of honoring the commitment. Not surprisingly the agreement didn’t hold up. The expression on Kissinger’s face reflects this bitter conclusion for a failed U.S. policy and war in the late hours of the final evacuation of Americans from Vietnam.

Kissinger After Final Evacuation From Vietnam Ordered

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 11:22 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his office at the White House reacts to President Gerald R. Ford's decision to commence the final evacuation of Americans from Saigon by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War, April 28, 1975.

Secretary of State Kissinger, who is also the National Security Advisor to the president, can only wait for news of the evacuation now happening halfway around the world.

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 11:25 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his White House Office reacts to President Gerald R. Ford's decision to commence the final evacuation of Americans from Saigon by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War, April 28, 1975.

Prior to the meeting of Bi-partisan leaders in the Cabinet Room, the president sat down with Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. This meeting with Byrd and the other Congressional leaders was to answer their questions about the evacuation, and some funding issues that the president was requesting for refugee assistance. The president told them that more than 45,000 high risk Vietnamese had been taken out over the last few days. Secretary Kissinger told them he estimated that 90% of that group would come to the states, but that other countries had been approached to take some as well. He thought that 50,000 would be the top number coming to the states. One of the congressmen said that 50 thousand was all this country could absorb. Secretary Kissinger said, “There is no way the total number can go much beyond 50,000.” He was a bit off in that estimate. By 1980 the number of Vietnamese who escaped Communist rule in their country to U.S. shores was over 230,000, and today’s population of Vietnamese is more than 1,250,000, the sixth largest foreign-born population in the United States.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 11:38 AM. President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger meet with Senator Robert Byrd, (D-WV), in the Cabinet Room at the White House just before Congressional leaders were briefed on the progress of the final evacuation of Saigon that was rapidly drawing to a close. Washington, D.C. April 29, 1975.

Kissinger burst into the president’s economic meeting to tell him that the evacuation of Saigon was almost complete, and he thought Ambassador Martin would be out shortly. I was always amazed that with all the excitement and tension swirling around this operation, it was still business as usual in the White House. The president’s schedule for that day had many meetings related to the Vietnam situation, but many that were not, such as this one.

Kissinger Interupts Meeting to Update President

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 4:23 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger interrupts a meeting with President Gerald R. Ford and his economic advisors in the oval office at the White House to update the president on the progress of the final evacuation of Saigon that is rapidly drawing to a close. (L-R) (back to camera) Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration Frank Zarb, the president, Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Alan Greenspan, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, Kissinger, April 29, 1975.

I spent the rest of the evening tracking the main participants who were overseeing the nuts and bolts of the final evacuation. Gen. Scowcroft was at the control center, and all information flowed through him to Secretary Kissinger and other White House officials right up to the president. What I noticed more than anything was the helplessness after the decision was made—there was nothing more they could do, it was up to the military people in the field now.

Scowcroft After Final Evacuation From Vietnam Ordered

WASHINGTON -- APR 28: 11:22 PM. Deputy NSC Director Brent Scowcroft on the phone facilitating President Gerald R. Ford's decision to commence the final evacuation of Americans from Saigon by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War, April 28, 1975.

An air of celebration filled the air when Henry Kissinger gave President Ford the good news that the evacuation was wrapped up. The U.S. Ambassador had finally left, and it was time to move on to the next crisis. I have photographed a few thousand handshakes in my time and find that they tend to pretty much all look alike. This one was no different visually -- the President of the United State congratulating his National Security Advisor/Secretary of State for overseeing the successful evacuation of Americans and thousands of Vietnamese from Vietnam. Unfortunately, this particular "well done" was a bit premature.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 5:18 PM. (L-R) Ambassador Robert Anderson, Secret Service Agent, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, unidentified staff, Press Secretary Ron Nessen, and Deputy NSC Advisor Brent Scowcroft head to the Old Executive Office Building where Kissinger will give a press conference announcing the successful conclusion of the helicopter evacuation of the last Americans from Saigon. Unfortunately he was a bit hasty in his proclamation, because after his press conference it was discovered that 11Marines were left stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. They were ultimately rescued less than three hours later, but the war ended as untidily as it started. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

Less than an hour after Kissinger made the decisive statement, “I am confidant that every American who wanted to come out is out . . . “ to the press and the rest of the world, Deputy NSC Advisor Brent Scowcroft drops the bombshell to his boss that 11 Marines were left on the U.S. Embassy roof in Saigon. According to Donald Rumsfeld’s book, “Known and Unknown, “Kissinger and Schlesinger each considered the other’s department responsible for the miscommunication. The president felt Schlesinger bore responsibility and said he was ‘damn mad’ about it”. Rumsfeld thought that what had been told to the American people in the press conference “simply was not true.” He said, “This war has been marked by so many lies and evasions that it is not right to have the war end with one last lie.” The president agreed. Later that year President Ford replaced Schlesinger with Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:11 PM. Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft tries to explain to his boss Secretary of State Henry Kissinger why 11 Marines were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Fortunately they were rescued a few of hours later. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

I shadowed Secretary Kissinger during most of the two-day Vietnam evacuation drama. He is where the action was, and was in non-stop motion. I ping ponged back and forth from his NSC quarters, to the oval office, the cabinet room, and wherever the story took me. Not surprisingly, the story was usually Kissinger. A few hours earlier Ambassador Martin had been pleading for more choppers to evacuate more Vietnamese, but time and the president’s patience was running out. He issued a direct order to Martin to get the last Americans out of there, and him with them. Kissinger made a humorous and admiring reference to Martin that, “he got five hundred of his last 100 Vietnamese evacuees out.” At 4:58 pm Washington, DC time Ambassador climbed aboard a helicopter and flew out to the U.S. fleet. For him, and the United States, the Vietnam War was over. Kissinger acknowledged that Martin “ was in a very difficult position. He felt a moral obligation to the people with whom he had been associated, and he attempted to save as many of those as possible. That is not the worst fault a man can have.”As the evacuation was drawing to a close (or so we all thought), I caught the energetic NSC chairman/Secretary of State rounding the corner as he headed into the oval office with an update for the president.

Kissinger Races to Meeting With President Ford

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 4:21 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger heads toward the oval office in the West Wing of the White House to update President Gerald R. Ford on the progress of the final evacuation of Saigon that is rapidly drawing to a close. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

NSC staffers in Kissinger’s office scramble to get information on what was going on, and when – and if – the eleven stranded Marines would be rescued.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:31 PM. NSC staffers monitor progress of the rescue of 11 Marines who were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon after the helicopter evacuation had been completed. Fortunately they were rescued a couple of hours later. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

Tension grows as Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Kissinger’s military assistant Bud McFarlane wait for news of the stranded Marines. McFarlane, a Marine himself, and a two-tour Vietnam combat veteran, became President Reagan’s national security advisor in 1983, and resigned two years after that when he got caught up in the Iran-Contra affair.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:13 PM. Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and NSC staffer Robert "Bud" McFarlane in Kissinger's office await word of the fate of 11 Marines who were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Fortunately they were rescued a couple of hours later. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

Sec. Kissinger and his entourage walked to the Old Executive Office Building to announce to the press that our latest national nightmare was over after the successful and safe evacuation of all the Americans who wanted to leave Saigon.

Kissinger Announces Conclusion of Vietnam Evacuation

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 5:25 PM. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with White House Press Secretary behind him, announces the successful conclusion of the helicopter evacuation of the last Americans from Vietnam in the conference room at the Old Executive Office Building on the White House complex. The announcement was premature after it was learned later that 11 Marines were left stranded on the U.S. Embassy roof in Saigon. They were successfully rescued a few hours after, however, April 29, 1975, Washington, D.C.

Secretary Kissinger and Scowcroft synch their watches as they await word of the eleven Marines being rescued from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The choppers were on their way back to Saigon to get them.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:30 PM. Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discuss when 11 Marines who were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy will be rescued. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

Secretary Kissinger, dressed in formal attire prior to attending the dinner for King Hussein of Jordan, and his deputy Gen. Scowcroft anticipate new of the rescue of the eleven stranded Marines from the embassy in Saigon.

Kissinger After Marines Rescued From Saigon

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 7:50 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his deputy NSC advisor Brent Scowcroft in their White House Office awaiting news that the last Marines in Saigon had been evacuated, by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

Finally, cause to celebrate. Sec. Kissinger reacts to the news that the 11 Marines have lifted off from the U.S. Embassy safe and sound

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 8:00 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his White House Office reacts to the news that the last Marines in Saigon had been evacuated, by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War. At left White House chief of staff Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Smyser, NSC staffer, and Deputy NSC advisor Brent Scowcroft, seated White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen, and White House Counselor Jack Marsh in foreground, Washington, DC, April 29, 1975.

It’s over. The Marines were safely rescued, now time to go to dinner with King Hussein. Press Secretary Nessen released this statement after the Marines had been successfully rescued: “Earlier today we announced that the evacuation had been completed. At that time we were not aware that an element of the ground security force remained to be evacuated. Therefore, the completion of the evacuation of these personnel actually occurred after the conclusion of the press conference. Latest reports indicate that the remaining security forces now have been evacuated.”And that was that.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 8:01 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his White House Office reacts to the news that the last Marines in Saigon had been evacuated by helicopter, signifying the end of the Vietnam War. At right White House chief of staff Donald Rumsfeld, at left Richard Smyser, senior NSC staffer, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

A few minutes after receiving word that the last Marines were finally rescued from the U.S. Embassy, and that the evacuation was this time really over, President Ford stepped back into the dinner with King Hussein. His relief was evident. It was now time for the toast. The president raised his glass and spoke to the close and important relationship with the Kingdom of Jordan. They clinked, had a sip, and everyone applauded. The name “Vietnam” was never mentioned.
After a really long couple of days, I headed to my favorite bar to clink glasses of my own with friends who had also covered the war in Vietnam. And to shed a few tears.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 8:11 PM. President Gerald R. Ford toasts His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan at an official dinner for the king in the State Dining Room at the White House. The president had learned minutes earlier that the evacuation of Vietnam was complete, and that all Americans who wanted to leave were safely out, including the U.S. Marines who had been left behind on the embassy roof, April 29, 1975.

Kissinger paces around his office awaiting some word from Saigon about the fate of the trapped Marines. There was major anxiety in the room.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:15 PM. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger paces in his White House office as Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and he discuss why 11 Marines were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Fortunately they were rescued a coupe of hours later. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages).

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 6:15 PM. Deputy National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discuss why eleven Marines were stranded on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. They were rescued a couple of hours later. Washington, D.C., April 29, 1975.

President Gerald R Ford stepped out of his dinner with King Hussein of Jordan to take a call in the White House ushers office from Sec. of Defense Jim Schlesinger who told him that at last the eleven Marines who had been left behind on the U.S. Embassy roof in Saigon had finally been rescued, and that the American in involvement in Vietnam was now truly finished. The president is profoundly relieved to learn that all the Marines were safe with no casualties in the final evacuation.

WASHINGTON -- APR 29: 8:01 PM. President Gerald R. Ford takes a call from Defense Secretary James Schlesinger in the White House usher's office informing him that the evacuation of U.S. Marines from the American Embassy in Saigon has been completed, and that the evacuation of Vietnam is finally over. The president was took the call in the middle of a state dinner for His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, April 29, 1975.