Operation Eagle Pull
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Operation Eagle Pull was the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 12, 1975. The plan was developed and refined as Khmer Rouge forces closed in on the Cambodian capital city, starting as early as 1973. In a period of less than two hours, Marine Corps and Air Force helicopters transferred 82 Americans, 159 Cambodians, and 35 other nationals to U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Thailand. No casualties were sustained in the operation.
Henry Kissinger observed in his Vietnam War memoir that the operation "served as a dress rehearsal for the much more complex evacuation of Saigon two weeks later." (528) Further, he noted that the Ford administration was astonished and shamed by the fact that top Cambodian officials refused to leave the country. These included Premier Long Boret and Lon Non, the brother of the Prime Minister. Both men were on the Khmer Rouge's advertised death list. (529)
[edit] References
- Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. ed. Spencer Tucker, s.v. "EAGLE PULL, Operation"
- Kissinger, Henry. Ending the Vietnam War.
U.S. Navy SEALs also took part in this by providing security fo the evacuating forces as well as transporting civilians to the extraction zones
