One of several evacuations by helicopter from 22 Gia Long Street on 29 April 1975. Photographed by Hubert van Es, working for UPI.
Rooftop of 22 Gia Long Street in 2002

22 Gia Long Street (Vietnamese: số 22 đường Gia Long, [jaː lawŋ] yah-lom), now 22 Lý Tự Trọng Street (số 22 đường Lý Tự Trọng), is an apartment building in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon), the largest city in Vietnam. In 1975, photojournalist Hubert van Es, working for UPI, captured an iconic photo of U.S government employees evacuating the city by helicopter during the Fall of Saigon, the last major battle of the Vietnam War. The evacuation was code named Operation Frequent Wind.

The image was widely misreported as showing Americans crowding on to the roof of the United States Embassy to board a helicopter.[1][2] In reality, the apartment complex, called the Pittman Apartments, housed employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with its top floor reserved for the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy chief of station; the embassy was located at 4 Thống Nhứt Boulevard (now Lê Duẩn Boulevard), about 950 metres (0.59 mi) to the north-northeast.[3] The photo depicts an Air America Huey helicopter landing on the roof of the elevator shaft to evacuate employees of the U.S. government as North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam troops entered Saigon.[2]

The frequent misunderstanding of what the photograph shows stems from a change made to the photograph's caption at the Tokyo office of United Press International (UPI).[4] Although the photographer van Es submitted the photo to UPI with an accurate caption, UPI's Tokyo office changed the caption so it falsely read: "A U.S. helicopter evacuating employees of the U.S. embassy."[4] Although van Es repeatedly attempted to correct the error, his efforts were "futile" and he eventually "gave up."[4] Thus, as van Es has explained, "[O]ne of the best known images of the Vietnam War shows something other than what almost everyone thinks it does."[4]

At the end of the war, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, and Gia Long Street (named for the emperor Gia Long, reigned 1802–1820) was renamed Lý Tự Trọng Street, in honor of a 17-year-old communist executed by the French. Visitors are allowed access to the roof by taking the elevator to the 9th floor.

As the 2021 Taliban offensive led to the Fall of Kabul, reporters drew comparisons between the evacuation at 22 Gia Long Street to images of helicopter evacuations from the U.S. embassy in Kabul.[5][6][7] The BBC continued to misreport the photo as showing the US Embassy, later changed to the non-existent "CIA station".[8]

References

  1. ^ Bradsher, Keith (15 May 2009). "Hubert Van Es, Photojournalist, Is Dead at 67". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b Butterfield, Fox; Haskell, Kari (23 April 2000). "The World; Getting It Wrong in a Photo". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Es, Hubert van (29 April 2005). "Thirty Years at 300 Millimeters". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b c d Bradley, James (2015). The China mirage : the hidden history of American disaster in Asia. New York. p. 369. ISBN 978-0-316-19667-3. OCLC 870199580.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ "Rash Report: In Kabul, shadows of Saigon". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Editorial: President Biden's Saigon moment". Boston Herald. 15 August 2021. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. ^ "Kabul evacuations 'sequel to humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975'". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Why is the Taliban's Kabul victory being compared to the fall of Saigon?". BBC News. 17 August 2021.

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