From the rooftops of Saigon to Kabul Airport

Vietnam veteran present at latest US fiasco

Pablo Soriano Linares

The helicopter we see in image 1 is the Sea Knight CH-46 in service with the U.S. Marine Corps since 1964. It has the particular honor of being the one of the already known images of the American embassy in Saigon evacuating the last Americans from the country. This model has been in service in the Marines until being replaced by the V22 Osprey from 2009 (DefenseAviation, 2021). The thing is that this was not the end of their operational history, since from that same year they were assigned to support the embassies in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is in the latter place where, one last time, they have served as a means to evacuate the personnel of the American embassy in the country.

Image 1: Sea Knight CH-6 helicopter. Source: Defensa y Aviación, 2021.

The use of this particular model in both situations (see image 2), has only added even more similarities to these two embarrassing moments in American history. For I will not be the first to assert the similarities and resemblances between the fall of Saigon and the Taliban takeover of Kabul, but is the situation really that similar?

Image 2: one of the last Sea Knight landing on the roof of the embassy in Saigon in

1975. Source: American Experience, 2015.

Both events were preceded by peace agreements that sought to put an end to wars that had been going on for years, with thousands of deaths and of which the American public was tired of hearing about in the news. In the case of Vietnam, the Paris Peace Accords and in the case of Afghanistan, the Doha Accords of 2020. These negotiations had in common that they sought to remove American forces from the ground, establishing a legal framework that would ensure a peace to make this possible. In both cases, compliance with the agreements was and has been poor.

Not to go into too much depth, in the Vietnamese case, the desire to forget a long war with a great loss of American lives was combined with the internal problems in the U.S. The scandals after the outbreak of Watergate (which ended up making Nixon resign) caused the U.S. Congress not to support the sending of more economic and military aid to South Vietnam and even a year before this aid was reduced by 30% (Spector, 1998). Thus, while the South collapsed during the offensive of early 1975, a situation similar to that experienced today in Afghanistan occurred, where little more than the evacuation of personnel and collaborators was planned from Washington.

The reasons for the rapid collapse of the South Vietnamese army have always been blamed on an excessive dependence on the American media, a total lack of morale on the part of the South Vietnamese and a disastrous leadership of President Thieu. If these arguments sound familiar to you, it is because they are the same ones that have been pointed out by different specialized authors to justify what is happening in Kabul. I will not be the one to contradict them, their reputation precedes them and they are renowned academics who know what they are saying. However, there is a vital point to differentiate between the two cases and that is the speed of the collapse (see graph 1). In Vietnam, from the total withdrawal of American forces to the capture of Saigon, almost two and a half years passed. In contrast, the decomposition of the Afghan state can be seen in these images:

Figure 1: Situation in Afghanistan on July 9, 2021 and August 16, 2021. Source: the Visual Journalism Team, 2021.

In April the United States announced the last reduction of troops present to around 2500 (not counting the rest of the international forces) that would be fully withdrawn by September 11 (Ryan & DeYoung, 2021). In little more than two months the situation in the country was that of the inevitable takeover by the Taliban, with Kabul falling by mid-August.

In the days following the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul, the American forces added a total of 7,000 soldiers concentrated at the international airport to ensure the evacuation efforts, joined by some 1,000 British and hundreds of other nationalities.

Image 3: American helicopters trying to land at the American embassy in Kabul . Source: Defense and Aviation, 2021.

This evacuation was chaotic in its first moments, and it was a case of every man for himself. By August 15, with the Taliban at the gates of Kabul, the first images of helicopters on the rooftops of the American embassy in the direction of Kabul airport could already be seen (while some governments, such as the Spanish one, spoke about the security of Kabul and that there was no urgency to evacuate), imitating the images seen in Saigon in the seventies. In this case, however, the initial chaos resulted in one of the most logistically challenging and important evacuation operations that many countries have faced in recent history.

The initial chaos resulted in one of the most significant and logistically challenging evacuation operations that many countries have ever faced.

Image 4: Sea Knight landing at the American embassy in Kabul . Source: the Visual Journalism , 2021

Thus, thanks mostly to the efforts of the American troops in controlling the airport, one of the largest airlifts ever seen to evacuate as many people as possible began. No one can reproach anyone present at the Kabul International Airport; from the French, British and Spanish ambassadors who stayed until the last moment to process visas for the Afghan collaborators to all the troops present. From here came true acts of heroism, such as that of special forces from different countries leaving for Kabul in search of those who had not been able to reach the airport. Thus there are images that are history (see image 4) such as that of hundreds of Afghans occupying the runways looking for a plane to board or that of the Spanish troops pulling out from the crowd their collaborators who were holding up red scarves symbolizing a ticket to Spain.

Many people have been evacuated, but not all those who were wanted to be evacuated. Just as in Saigon the Sea Knight took out the last Marines and South Vietnamese, these days in Kabul have been part of a similar effort that will be the last that these helicopters will live. Since they were going to be withdrawn soon, it has been decided to leave them unused at the Kabul airport in order to remove more valuable material and as many people as possible. Therefore, on those same runways that have seen so much movement, moments of hope for many families and anguishing moments; now these veterans rest as a reminder of a failure, of heroic moments and of the end of an entire era that reminds us of the past.

Bibliography

American Experience (18 de abril de 2015) Last days in Vietnam. Obtenido online el 20/09/21 de: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/lastdays/

Defensa y Aviación. (15 de 8 de 2021). Defensa y aviación. Obtenido online el 19/09/21 de CH-46 y CH-47: dos veteranos de Saigón que también participan en la evacuación de Kabul: https://www.outono.net/elentir/2021/08/15/ch-46-y-ch-47-dos-veteranos-de-saigon-que-tambien-participan-en-la-evacuacion-de-kabul/

Ryan , M., & DeYoung, K. (13 de Abril de 2021). Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. The Washington Post. Obtenido online el 15/09/21 de: https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fnational-security%2fbiden-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan%2f2021%2f04%2f13%2f918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html

Spector, R. H. (20 de Julio de 1998). The fall of South Vietnam. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Visual Journalism Team. (16 de Agosto de 2021). BBC News. Obtenido online el 12/09/21 de Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57933979

The Visual Journalism Team. (16 de Agosto de 2021). BBC News. Obtenido online el 12/09/21 de Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57933979