JAYFORCE

Documentarian Rory Kennedy gives us an in-depth look at the final days of the American presence in Saigon. It’s a story where simply following orders would play opposite to doing the right thing. And what do you think heroes do? Could those soldiers and support personnel have lived with themselves getting out safely while leaving South Vietnamese in harm’s way? Even if ordered to do so?

In April of 1975, the North Vietnamese Army was closing in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance was crumbling. Approximately 5,000 Americans remained with roughly 24 hours to get out. Their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends faced certain imprisonment and possible death if they remained behind. With no official evacuation plan in place, the clock ticking, and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans took matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many people as possible. In those last days in Vietnam, 135,000 men, women and children managed to escape.
– American Experience PBS

Orders be damned!

LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (NETFLIX)

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