Word: saigon
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Every U.S. embassy in the world, as a matter of course, has an emergency evacuation plan should "situations arise which might endanger American citizens." The program to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon is being rapidly updated; details are classified top secret. For potential Vietnamese evacuees, serious contingency planning began only last week. So far no final decisions have been made, and the names of those chosen to go remain secret, lest they be marked for execution by the enemy...
...past three weeks, 1,000 Americans, including businessmen and diplomats, have fled Saigon. Some left on commercial flights, which are booked solid through the end of April; others went as aides on chartered orphan flights. But for those who must stay until the last possible moment-probably around 1,000 key personnel and journalists-the exit may be dangerous...
...thing, there is the logistic problem of how to get the Americans from downtown Saigon to either Tan Son Nhut Airbase (five miles distant) or another possible evacuation site, Newport, a cargo area near the port of Saigon. During the rush last week to get home before the special 24-hour curfew was imposed, traffic in Saigon was her-ringboned at every intersection. What then might happen in the midst of the real hysteria that will almost surely come in the capital's final hours...
...excruciating difficulties, as does making arrangements for where the evacuees will go: presumably the U.S. will try to persuade some of its allies in Asia and the Pacific to accept refugees as immigrants. Worst of all, there will be the nightmarish problem of ferrying huge numbers of people from Saigon to evacuation vessels waiting offshore to receive them...
...necessary, U.S. forces could be flown into Saigon, shoot their way to a secure position and ferry evacuees out by helicopter to ships. Pentagon experts estimate that this would require at least three divisions (of 18,000 men each), and more if the situation got worse than anticipated-in addition to air cover, seapower and dozens, if not hundreds, of airlift helicopters...