Office of the Historian

277. Backchannel Message From the Ambassador to Vietnam (Martin) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) and the Commander in Chief, Pacific (Gayler)1

Saigon, April 29, 1975, 1600Z.

Thanks for your message.2

19 CH46 sorties are most welcome. There is now another lull. Nothing in last 20 min. We need the capacity repeat capacity of 30 CH53 sorties to get us out of here. As I recall, a CH45 has about 2/5ths the capacity of a CH53.

[Page 947]

We still need the capacity rpt capacity of the 30 CH53 sorties requested in my previous message.3

It now seems I will spend part of April 30 here—a very small part I hope.

But I sure don’t want to spend Mayday4 here.

Warm regards.

  1. Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Backchannel Messages, Box 3, Martin Channel, April 1975, Incoming (3). Secret Flash; Specat Exclusive. Repeated to General Brown. This is the final communication from Saigon.↩
  2. Apparent reference to backchannel message WH50788 to Saigon, April 29. See footnote 3, Document 275.↩
  3. Document 275. In backchannel message WH50790 to Saigon, April 29, Scowcroft responded: “DOD informed me that the six CH–53’s used in evacuating DAO compound will be made immediately available.” (Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Backchannel Messages, Box 3, Martin Channel, April 1975, Outgoing, 3)↩
  4. May 1.↩