Operation Eagle Pull
Date April 12, 1975 Location File:Flag of Khmer Republic.svg - Phnom Penh, 17 nautical miles (31 km) from the Vung Tau Peninsula Result U.S. tactical victory with US forces airlifting 7000 people to safety. Khmer Rouge propaganda victory
Belligerents
United States Khmer Republic	- Khmer Rouge
Commanders and leaders
Commander Task Force 76
Casualties and losses
none	none known

(11°32′53.16″N 104°55′52.16″E / 11.5481000°N 104.9311556°E / 11.5481000; 104.9311556 (Scene of Operation Eagle Pull))

Operation Eagle Pull was the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 12, 1975.^[1] The plan was developed and refined as Khmer Rouge forces closed in on the Cambodian capital city, starting as early as 1973. In a period of less than two hours, Marine Corps and Air Force helicopters transferred 82 Americans, 159 Cambodians, and 35 other nationals to U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Thailand. No casualties were sustained in the operation.

Henry Kissinger observed in his Vietnam War memoir that the operation "served as a dress rehearsal for the much more complex evacuation of Saigon two weeks later".^[2] Further, he noted that the Ford administration was astonished and shamed by the fact that top Cambodian officials refused to leave the country. These included Premier Long Boret and Lon Non, the Prime Minister's brother, both of whom were on the Khmer Rouge's advertised death list.^[3]