U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY:
Non-Record Copies of
Helicopter Radio Messages During Evacuation of U.S. Embassy in Saigon,
April 29 and 30, 1975
SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
Non-record copies of communications between
evacuation helicopters and their command and control center intercepted during
the final hours of the U.S. evacuation of Saigon, April 1975. These communications were collected by a
National Security Agency signals intelligence command post known as
Cricket.
QUANTITY
-1 linear feet
(ca. 250 pages)
DONOR
National Security Agency (1999-NLF-031)
ACCESS
Open except for security classified
information.
COPYRIGHT
Works prepared by U.S.
Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Prepared by Karen B. Holzhausen, April
16, 1999
[s:\bin\findaid\u.s.
national security agency - radio messages.doc]
INTRODUCTION
In his letter donating this collection to
the Gerald R. Ford Library, Lt. Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan,
Director, National Security Agency, described the materials as follows: “The enclosed
file represents messages pertaining to the evacuation of Saigon, 29 and 30 April 1975. As
a classified file, it was in the possession of an NSA analyst since the
evacuation, and only recently came into the Center for Cryptologic
History. It is no longer considered
sensitive, and we have secured authorization from the Office of the Secretary
of Defense for its declassification and release. In view of the importance of the evacuation
to the history of the Ford Administration, it is appropriate that the file be
turned over to the Ford Library for dispostion.”
He continued, “When the evacuation plan was
written, one of the SIGINT collection units in Southeast Asia was tasked with intercepting U.S. communications and forwarding copies to U.S. command and control authorities in Hawaii and Washington.
This organization collected communications from the EC-130 Airborne
Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC), as it relayed communications to
and from the helicopters ferrying evacuees from the DAO [Defense Attache Office] compound at Tan Son Nhut,
and from the American Embassy, to the U.S. fleet off-shore. The enclosed messages are verbatim
transcripts of transmissions from that command post, commonly referred to by
its covername, Cricket.”
“Although the helicopter evacuation began
about 1400 Saigon time on 29 April, this file of messages
does not begin until 1602 local. (Note
that the time following each message is in Zulu time, which is eight hours
behind Saigon time.)
This probably accounts for the fact that, though 236 messages were
passed, this file contains only 216. The
evacuation’s conclusion, and the last transmission in the
file, were at 0751 Saigon
time (2351Z). At that time the Marine
ground security force was on the last helicopter and the embassy was abandoned
to the remaining Vietnamese.”
The messages are very cryptic and replete
with military jargon making them most useful to researchers who already have a
full grasp of the events, but to such a reader they provide drama and immediacy
rarely found in historical documents.
The transcriptions have been divided into
folders by hours with titles being given in Washington,D.C. and Saigon time to assist researchers wishing to
place these messages in context with other documents using non-military times.
Related Materials (April 1999):
National Security Adviser: Files (1969)
1974-77, particularly NSC Staff, Convenience file of communications with the
U.S. Embassy in Saigon, (1963) 1970-75 (1976).
Container
List
Box
1 Message Intercepts
Washington, DC Time: 4:02 a.m.-4:55 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 4:02 p.m.-4:55 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 5:00 a.m.-5:33 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 5:00p.m.-5:33 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 6:00 a.m.-6:54 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 6 p.m.-6:54 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 7:02 a.m.-7:44 a.m. (April 29, 1975; Saigon Time: 7:02
p.m.-7:44 p.m.) (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 8:11a.m.-8:59 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon
Time: 8:11 p.m.-8:59 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 9:01 a.m.-9:59 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 9:01 p.m.-9/59 p.m. (April
29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 10:22 a.m.-10:55 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 10:22 p.m.-10:55 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 11:00 a.m.-11:59 a.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 11:00 p.m.-11:59 p.m. (April 29, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 12:01 p.m.-12:53 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 12:01 a.m.-12:53 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 1:08 p.m.-1:58 p.m. (April 19, 1975); Saigon Time: 1:08 a.m.-1:58 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 2:09 p.m.-2:59 p.m. (April 29, (1975); Saigon Time: 2:09 a.m.-2:59 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 3:05 p.m.-3:58 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 3:05 a.m.-3:58 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 4:00 p.m.-4:58 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 4:00 a.m.-4:58 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 5:01 p.m.-5:57 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 5:01 a.m.-5:57 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 6:03 p.m.-6:56 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 6:03 a.m.-6:56 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Washington, DC Time: 7:00 p.m.-7:51 p.m. (April 29, 1975); Saigon Time: 7:00 a.m.-7:51 a.m. (April 30, 1975)
Defense Attache
Office, Photos of (Record of photos
transferred to AV)