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Article: The Last Days of Saigon: SPECIAL REPORT: The communist takeover of South Vietnam's capital was a low moment in the American century. Twenty-five years later, the collapse still haunts the menpoliticians, soldiers and spieswho were caught up in the maelstrom of the escape from the U.S. Embassy. The human story of the war's bitter end.(SPECIAL REPORT)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
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Frank Snepp was overwhelmed. Like his fellow spooks in Saigon, Snepp, a CIA analyst in the American Embassy, was desperately looking for ways to get his friends and informants out of the country before the South Vietnamese regime collapsed and the communist reprisals began. The North Vietnamese Army was closing in, and the embassy was in turmoil. That afternoon in late April 1975, Snepp got a call from a former girlfriend, a Vietnamese "tea girl" named Mai Ly who claimed to have borne Snepp's son. Could Snepp help the woman and child flee? Busy writing a report for the ambassador, Snepp told Mai Ly to call back in an hour. When she did, the CIA man was away from his desk. ...