Faced with the rapidly deteriorated situation in South Vietnam, President Ford asks General Fred Weyand, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, to lead a presidential fact finding mission to Saigon. Amb. Graham Martin, who had been in the U.S., traveled on the C-141 Cargo Plane that carried the party arriving in the dark of night at Tan Son Nhat airport. The CIA Chief of Station privately expresses to Quinn his hope that at last the Amb. will see how desperate the military situation is. While Weyand and other senior defense and intelligence officials meet with the South Vietnamese president and other high ranking government officials, Amb. Quinn describes how he learns the ground truth about the situation by talking with lower level contacts and observing fleeing soldiers.
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG