Last Days in Vietnam (2014) — Vietnam

By Dan Clendenin

           In the Paris Peace Accords that ended the Vietnam war in 1973, the United States promised to protect South Vietnam from any aggression by the communist North Vietnam. We broke that promise. After Nixon resigned from office after Watergate, North Vietnam began its assault on the south. By 1975 they were at Saigon, and the real end of thirty years of war was apparent to all. Chaos enveloped the city. Citizens and soldiers sought to escape by any means. This documentary gives an hour-by-hour account of how American personnel defied orders to evacuate only Americans, in order to evacuate 77,000 Vietnamese from the American Embassy in Saigon in the weeks before it fell to the north. This isn't a political film, it's a story of the moral courage of some Americans who did their best to do what was right in a horrible situation. Archival footage and interviews combine to make a film of inspiration and sadness. The movie is directed by Rory Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and niece of JFK.