On May 8, AFSA is pleased to host a screening of the 2014 documentary, “Last Days in Vietnam,” at the Department of State’s Marshall Auditorium. The event begins at noon. All AFSA members are welcome to attend this event, though RSVPs are required. Please email events@afsa.org to RSVP. Spaces will be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. (In the interest of time, we will be showing a special 50-minute cut of the film, which originally runs just over 90 minutes.) 

This screening is part of AFSA’s commemoration of the 40^th anniversary of the closing of the U.S. embassy in Saigon as the city fell to North Vietnamese forces. The April issue of The Foreign Service Journal contains 10 articles on Vietnam then and today, in addition to a robust online-only supplement composed of written and photographic contributions from AFSA members.

Rory Kennedy’s Academy Award®-nominated documentary chronicles the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War as the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon and South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. The United States has only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country. As Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. readies to withdraw, some Americans begin to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends. Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnamese becomes terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. Ambassador. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans take matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible.
 
Again, space is limited for this event so RSVPs are required. Please email events@afsa.org to RSVP. NOTE that if you do not have a State Department badge, you MUST submit your date of birth as well as driver’s license number and state of issuance in your RSVP email. This information is necessary to pre-clear attendees into the State Department and speed up your entry to the venue.