The Most Ignominious Moment in American Foreign Policy History

Quinn describes the April 29 helicopter mission to fly Amb. Martin and other Embassy officials as perhaps the “most ignominious moment in American foreign policy history.” He recounts how on the night when Saigon was lost that a candlelight vigil of Vietnamese and Americans gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House as if at a funeral or memorial service for all that were lost. Amb. Quinn recalls walking out of his office at the old EOB and going across the street to stand with one of the South Vietnamese diplomats as she, like many others in the crowd, quietly had tears running down their face. This moment marked the tragic end of a seven-year period of Amb. Quinn's career which took him from villages in the Mekong Delta to the NSC and the White House. David Kennerly, President Ford's personal photographer, made an assessment of Quinn's role in saving thousands of Vietnamese when he published a photographic retrospective of the last days of Saigon about 40 years later.