SFF: 'Last Days in Vietnam' reveals untold chapter of unpopular war

Through the iron gates of the American Embassy in Saigon, Randy Smith stares at his Vietnamese girlfriend and makes the choice to leave her behind.

Michael Sweeney covers his eyes as the transport on which he has just loaded dozens of Vietnamese women and children explodes in the air, minutes after take off.

Randy Smith and Michael Sweeney, both residents of Venice, assisted with the evacuation of Americans and endangered Vietnamese from Saigon in the final hours of American involvement in the Vietnam War. / HT photo by Dan Wagner

Smith carefully notes in his log book the date — April 30, 1975 — and takes down the last American flag in the compound, folding it in neat triangles in the official manner.

Over and over, Sweeney sees the tear-stained, begging faces and and asks the impossible questions: Who will go? Who will be left behind?

Nearly 40 years later, Smith and Sweeney, two former Marine security guards from Ohio now living in Venice, continue to be haunted by those images. They were among the last group of American officers to assist with the evacuation of Saigon on April 30, 1975, as the United States withdrew from a long and unpopular war, and those moments are seared in their minds forever.

"Of the 42 of us that were left that day, each of us could tell you a different story, but each one will live with these memories until we take our last breath," says Smith, who was 18 at the time. "It had a tremendous impact. It affects us each and every day."

The Marines who oversaw the helicopter evacuation of American civilians and endangered South Vietnamese from the American Embassy, and the naval carriers that brought those evacuees to safety in the Philippines, are the focus of Rory Kennedy's latest documentary, "Last Days in Vietnam," which opens the Sarasota Film Festival tonight. The film brings to light a little known chapter of the war — the herculean humanitarian effort in the waning hours of American involvement in Vietnam.

The American Embassy in South Vietnam in the waning hours of the war. / Photo courtesy Randy Smith

"These heroic troops going against U.S. policy to save the Vietnamese was a pretty extraordinary element that almost nobody knew," says Kennedy of the impetus for her follow-up to "Ethel," a documentary about her famous mother that was the Audience Choice at the 2012 SFF. "We had the opportunity to look back while people were still alive who were there. That was hugely important."

If deciding on her subject was easy, finding those who were there, and convincing them to talk about their experiences, was a bigger challenge.

South Vietnamese, desperate to leave the country as the North Vietnamese took over Saigon, scaled the fences of the American Embassy. / Photo courtesy Randy Smith

"Even though it was 40 years ago, it brings back memories that are difficult and it's kind of an exhausting process for many of them," Kennedy says. "But most of them also appreciated it was an important story to tell and were glad it was finally getting attention."

One of those was Paul Jacobs. When the helicopters, many damaged or with little fuel, left the Embassy, there was nowhere for them to go but toward a fleet of U.S. Naval carriers in the South China Sea. Jacobs, captain of the U.S.S. Kirk, which is featured in the film, gave assent without authorization for 13 helicopters to land on his ship; another, too large to accommodate, hovered dangerously overhead while a mother dropped her children, including an 11-month-old baby, into the outstretched arms of the Kirk's crew members.

"We were sent to shoot and kill," said Jacobs, who served six tours in Vietnam and is now retired and living in Virginia. "How do you change a ship from a war ship to a humanitarian ship in six hours? I don't know how, but we did it. So many things could have gone wrong, God had to have been watching out for us."

With never-before-seen footage Kennedy obtained through a contact she met at an "Ethel" screening, as well as archival footage from U.S. television networks, the film painstakingly documents the significant contributions and unavoidable compromises of the American troops. Kennedy also located and interviewed one of the 422 Vietnamese civilians who had been led to believe they would be rescued, but were left behind after the final helicopter departed.

Smith, 58, and Sweeney, 60, both spent their final hours in Saigon barricaded with their comrades on the Embassy roof. When no helicopters arrived for several hours after U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin was flown out, they feared they had been forgotten. Huddled together "like in a sardine can," as Smith says, they tried to block out the plight of those on the other side of the barricade.

Though they were eventually picked up by one of the final three helicopters and flown to separate Naval carriers, the deep scars of their final days in Vietnam remain. Both are considered 100 percent disabled from post traumatic stress disorder, both have been through two failed marriages and both dealt for years with issues of alcohol and substance abuse.

Until recently, neither had spoken to anyone, including loved ones, of their war experience. Though they did not know each other before their service, they have since become as close, devoted — and occasionally irritable — as brothers. No one else has the same foundation of understanding.

It was not what they'd imagined when they signed up. Smith, in Vietnam just over a year, enlisted with the bravado of a 17-year-old; Sweeney, who'd lost a college track scholarship due to injury, signed up only in order to get his education paid for and was in Saigon less than 5 months. Neither imagined their relatively short stay would change their lives irrevocably.

Smith has found stability in his faith, and purpose in mentoring and tutoring local students.

"We didn't face the mortality of war as Marines," he says, "but what we faced was something that should be God's dominion. It was a great responsibility and a situation where all you could do was your best. I try to remember all the people we did get out."

As for Sweeney, a 6-foot-4-inch tall African American who was a favorite with the Vietnamese street orphans, he has handled the trauma by shutting down.

A helicopter prepares to land on the USS Kirk, a Naval carrier in the South China Sea, with evacuees from Saigon. / Photo courtesy SFF

"You have to deaden yourself," he says quietly. "And sometimes that switch is not so easily turned back on."

Capt. Jacobs, who saw the film with a cadre of his crew members at its first screening at the Sundance Film Festival, says Kennedy "told it exactly like it was." Smith and Sweeney, who plan to attend the screening tonight, are braced for the emotional upheaval it may elicit.

Kennedy believes the timing of the film, which will have a limited theatrical release in 16 cities in August, couldn't be more relevant.

"It speaks to what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and in leaving those countries, what responsibility we have to the people who have protected and worked with us," she says. "When we withdraw, I don't think our responsibility ends, and that's revealed in the film in a personal and dramatic way."

Smith and Sweeney need no convincing.

All it takes is the sound of a helicopter's rotors and Sweeney's mind is instantly transported back.

"The look in their faces...the women, the children....just the pleas in their eyes..." he says, unable to complete the thought.

Smith finishes for him.

"They thought it was the end of the world, and for them, it could have been," he says. "I still hear their voices in the night.

"'Marine! Marine! Let me out! Take me with you!'"

Rory Kennedy/ Courtesy SFF

Acts of Valor: The American Veteran on Screen

The Sarasota Film Festival has teamed with the Patterson Foundation's Legacy of Valor campaign and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present the following films examining the combat and post-combat experiences of American soldiers:

"Last Days in Vietnam," Rory Kennedy documentary about the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. April 4, 6 p.m. red carpet; 7 p.m. screening. Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail. $25-$55. Kennedy, Ethel Kenney, Captain Paul Jacobs and Marine Corps General John F. Kelly will be in attendance.

Carrie Seidman

Carrie Seidman has been a newspaper features writer, columnist and reviewer for 30 years...and a dancer for longer than that. She has a master's degree from Columbia University Journalism School and is a former competitive ballroom dancer. Contact her via email, or at (941) 361-4834.
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Last modified: April 3, 2014
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