The Foreign Service Journal, April 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2015 33 At the State Department, a small group of FSOs worked outside normal channels to prevent a potential human tragedy. BY PARKER W. BORG I mages of the final days of the American presence in South Vietnam 40 years ago remain vivid in the minds of everyone who lived through those tur- bulent years, or saw last year’s documentary, “Last Days in Vietnam.” Less is known, how- ever, about what was happening then at the Department of State. In addition to what history books have recorded about the role of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, a small group of Foreign Service personnel without responsibilities for Vietnam began working outside normal channels to address the end game there. Their success illustrates what’s possible when a small, determined group mobilizes to deal with a crisis. When North Vietnamese forces took the town of Ban Me Thuot in March 1975, many of us who had previously served at Embassy Saigon or in the provinces believed South Vietnam’s end was just around the corner. Yet EAP seemed preoccupied with efforts to obtain supplemental funds from Congress to support past commitments to Vietnam, while our ambassador in Saigon, GrahamMartin, was focused on keeping the country together Mobilizing for South Vietnam’s Last Days FOCUS ON THE FOREIGN SERVICE IN VIETNAM Parker Borg, at right, with one of his counterparts in Bing Dinh, circa 1969. and was unwilling to consider any form of evacuation. Ambassador Martin argued that even contingency plan- ning would undermine the confidence of South Vietnamese authorities, triggering the very crisis we were trying to avoid. We remained convinced, however, that the potential human tragedy from the collapse made planning essential. This was our primary concern. Courtesy of P. Borg