Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians by Ralph White

Author:Ralph White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

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Pentagon East was lightly defended and I propped my motorbike on its kickstand just outside the main entrance. Now I was calling it my motorbike. Colonel William Madison wasn’t hard to find, but he was a popular guy and I had to wait my turn. The title on his door read, Commander, Political Section. As I waited I wondered what such a job might entail and how his position differed from all the political officers at the embassy. I thought military types were supposed to stay out of politics. In fact I thought there was a law to that effect. I’d know soon enough.

Madison’s uniform was army olive, in contrast to Lamont’s air force blue. I didn’t have a preference; I’d met sweet and sour officers in both services. If I carried a prejudice into his office it was that a direct report of Defense Attaché General Homer Smith was unlikely to help me. Nothing against Smith personally, but when four different people think you work for them you aren’t really working for any of them. The general’s command structure had been breached.

Colonel Madison didn’t have a dominating presence. I recall short hair, a firm handshake, nondescript features, and “Please have a seat. Sorry for the wait.” I doubted I’d recognize him if I saw him again. I did notice his rank insignia, a silver eagle with its wings outspread. He was a full colonel, a so-called bird colonel. His next promotion would be to one-star general.

I lugged my story out again. It was hard to imagine this Colonel Madison could be any help, except that he came recommended by Colonel Lamont, who came recommended by Lucien Kinsolving, someone I hardly knew but called a friend. “I’m trying to get my people out, meaning my employees at the Chase Manhattan Bank’s Saigon branch. The Evacuation Control Center won’t help me because they only process legal dependents of Americans. Pacific Air Command, over at Tiger Ops, won’t help because my mission doesn’t have the blessing of anyone in either the military or government. I know for a fact that the Mission Warden is getting its local nationals out because I saw employees’ names on a flight manifest. My main guy at the embassy is commercial attaché Jim Ashida, but he’s taken the three-day weekend off. As you’re aware, it’s Hung Kings Day. The Viets are celebrating their independence from China.” I’d made my case but I hadn’t clarified my desperation. “Colonel Madison, I’m going to get my people out of here if I have to steal a plane or a ship. They are as vulnerable to communist reprisal as any intelligence agent or embassy employee, and those categories have been waltzing onto black ops flights. Sorry to whine but Ambassador Martin has made me a committed adversary and I’m getting very fucking close to taking matters into my own hands.”

Madison was unperturbed. I had a problem; he solved problems. “Suppose there was a way to get your people through

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