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Chapter 6 - Helping the Americans help the Vietnamese?

Defence engagement with the Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975

from Part 2 - Lessons from past relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2021

Craig Stockings
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Peter Dennis
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
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Summary

In the early afternoon of 25 April 1975, the Australian Embassy to the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) shut its doors for the last time. One Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-130 Hercules had departed Tan Son Nhut air base earlier that morning, carrying a mixture of Vietnamese nuns, refugees and United Nations personnel to RAAF Fairbairn in Canberra. Two more left in the late afternoon, carrying the embassy’s Australian staff, their equipment and a handful of other Australians and Vietnamese to the safety of Bangkok. The embassy’s Vietnamese staff were, over the objections of Ambassador Geoffrey Price, not evacuated. Eschewing dramatics, Price sent his final cable to Canberra at 1 pm local time: ‘So I suppose all I need say now is thank you for all your support and close up the shop. Goodbye from Saigon.’ Thus ended – among other things – Australia’s defence engagement with the RVN.

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An Army of Influence
Eighty Years of Regional Engagement
, pp. 115 - 139
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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