Together, they came up with the secret plan to rescue the Vietnamese ships when - as was becoming clear would happen - the South Vietnamese government surrendered.ĭo remembers warning Armitage that they'd be saving more than ships. Kiem Do, deputy chief of staff for the South Vietnamese navy. Bush.Ī few weeks before Saigon fell, Armitage had shown up at the office of an old friend, Capt. Later, Armitage would serve as deputy secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, under Secretary of State Colin Powell in the administration of George W. In 1975, Richard Armitage was a 30-year-old civilian charged with a dangerous mission: to remove or destroy South Vietnamese naval vessels and technology so they wouldn't fall into the hands of the Communists. His assignment: to remove or destroy naval vessels and technology so they wouldn't fall into the hands of the Communists. had sold out the South Vietnamese.īut as it became clear that the South Vietnam government was about to fall, a Pentagon official asked Armitage to fly back to Vietnam with a dangerous mission. That 1973 agreement between all warring parties in Vietnam ended direct U.S. Then he resigned his commission and left the Navy in protest when the Nixon administration signed the Paris peace accords. He gained respect for the South Vietnamese as he worked alongside them and became fluent in the language. Now, its harbors were the hiding place for the remnants of the South Vietnamese navy.Īrmitage had come up with the plan for them to gather there.Īrmitage, a graduate of Annapolis, had been a Navy intelligence officer, assigned to Vietnamese units.
Con Son was the site of a notorious prison. The Kirk and its crew of about 260 officers and men were ordered to Con Son Island, about 50 miles off the coast of South Vietnam and not yet occupied by the North Vietnamese.
Secret Plan To Rescue More Than Just Ships
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