White Christmas in April: The Collapse of South Vietnam, 1975 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082044538X ISBN 13: 9780820445380

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

In a fresh look at the end of America's longest war, the editors have re-created the last days of America's Vietnam experience. Using interviews, documents, photographs, maps, a glossary, and a chronology, the editors dissect «Operation Frequent Wind», the massive air and sea evacuation of South Vietnamese and Americans from Vietnam. The war's final moments comprise a snapshot of war in its entirety, complete with chaos, courage, and politics.

About this title

About the Author

The Editors: A former president of the South Carolina Historical Association, Dr. J. Edward Lee teaches history at Winthrop University. He has published six books on twentieth-century topics and has served as commentator for NBC News, National Public Radio, and newspapers.
An officer on the USS Midway, Toby Haynsworth retired as a naval commander and earned his doctorate from Clemson University. He recently retired from Winthrop University as Professor of Computer Science and Quantitative Methods.

Review

...a fitting tribute to all those Americans who did what was right, even when their government told them it was wrong. -- Vietnam Magazine, April, 2000

An oral history, "White Christmas in April: The Collapse of South Vietnam,1975" tells the story of the final days of the Republic of South Vietnam. Many Americans never will forget news footage of heliopters being pushed overboard to make room for more humanity-crammed choppers. Too often, those final days have been portrayed as a shameful debacle, while the bigger story went untold. Collectively, the interviews contained in this book accomplish the authors' goal of correcting this incomplete picture.

Two aspects of the end game of the war were new to this reviewer. One was the role of the Military Sealift Command. The number of people evacuated by sea dwarfed both helicopter and fixed-winged flights. The other was the intriguing issue raised in this work as to whether U.S. leaders had a tacit agreement with the enemy for an uncontested evacuation. The review was written Terry Plumb (The Rock Hill Herald (Rock Hill, SC), October 31, 1999) -- (The Rock Hill Herald (Rock Hill, SC),

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 082044538X
• ISBN 13: 9780820445380
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Lee J. Edward, Haynsworth Toby