Documentary

Last Days in Vietnam

DocumentaryHistoryWar

During the final days of the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbled. An unlikely group of heroes emerged as Americans and South Vietnamese took matters into their own hands.

Year

2016

Duration

1h 38m

IMDb

7.6

Trailer

Cast

Rory Kennedy

Director

Richard Nixon

Self - President

Henry Kissinger

Self - Secretary of State

Stuart Herrington

Self - Army Captain

Juan Valdez

Self - Marine Embassy Guard

Frank Snepp

Self - CIA Analyst

Graham Martin

Self - United States Ambassador to South Vietnam

KD

Kiem Do

Self - Captain, South Vietnamese Navy

Ron Nessen

Self - White House Press Secretary

Gerald Ford

Self - President

BP

Binh Pho

Self - College Student

SH

Steve Hasty

Self - Marine Consulate Guard

Pete McCloskey

Self - Representative, California

MF

Millicent Fenwick

Self - Representative, New Jersey

TM

Terry McNamara

Self - Consul General

Hugh Doyle

Self - Chief Engineer, USS Kirk

GB

Gerald Berry

Self - Marine Pilot

Richard Armitage

Self - Special Forces Advisor

Joseph McBride

Self - State Department Officer

Mark Bailey

Writer

Keven McAlester

Writer

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Comments

10 comments

user9327435708565Jun 14, 2025

A pretty good description of the fall and evacuation of South Vietnam in 1975, including newsreel footage, maps, observations of witnesses, and interpretation by expert talking heads. It's balanced and objective but it pulls no punches. All this happened forty years ago and now students read about this momentous war in history books, I guess, so maybe a brief context should be offered. Vietnam was divided into the communist north and the corrupt south. The south also had guerrilla fighters who were disrupting everyday life and committing foul deeds. They were aided by the regular army of North Vietnam. In the mid 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided it was time to put an end to the communist aggression and began to send troops and other facilities to South Vietnam, almost half a million men. It didn't work out and a peace treaty was finally signed in 1973. The peace was to be managed by the South Vietnamese government with American assistance in case of a resumption of aggression by the north. That treaty, guaranteeing the south's independence, was signed by President Richard Nixon, whom the north feared. As soon as he was out of office, the north attacked South Vietnam again. The American public, fed up with ten years of a brutal war and the loss of 58,000 dead and 130,000 maimed, were not about to interfere. The South was unable to properly defend itself despite American equipment. Leadership in the dictatorial South Vietnamese government and military was poor and riddled with communist spies and sympathizers. Eventually the drive by the army of North Vietnam reached the southern capital of Saigon and the remaining American staff, as well as every Vietnamese family who had been associated with them, scrambled frantically to escape in every way possible. The North Vietnamese were fond of mass executions. Whatever "order" there was in the escape was due to plans organized and executed without the ambassador's knowledge, by his own staff and by State Department personnel. The ambassador continued to insist that talk of evacuation was defeatist. When an unauthorized flight of South Vietnamese military men and their families reached the Philippines, the man responsible was fired. That "evacuation" is the subject of this documentary. Much of the responsibility is pinned directly on the ambassador, Graham Martin, who had formulated no plans for an escape because he believed the army of the north would never reach Saigon. And it was a most humiliating mêlée, with terrified people, men, women, and babies, hanging on to departing airliners during take off runs and falling to the tarmac. A task force of some fifty ships stood offshore from Saigon. Only Americans were to be evacuated, but each helicopter was mobbed by desperate and loyal South Vietnamese civilians. Not just high ranking Vietnamese military but the wives and families of Americans, their tailors and cooks. Helicopters with hangers on dangling from their skids left from the roof of the American embassy and other locations. So many helicopters landed on the decks of one ship that, in order to make room for the next arrivals, the first arrivals were pushed overboard. The media photos and the videos shown at the time give an impression of near chaos and the impression seems to have been accurate enough. The evacuation was a pitiless process. But then the whole war -- which had lasted thirty years for the Vietnamese -- seems mindless in retrospect.

ॐ 𝐑𝐈𝐘𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 ॐJun 14, 2025

It's quite amazing how much was captured on film and photographs and it's put together so well that it almost seems like one was watching a movie of the fall of Saigon - it feels so complete. There are interesting interviews with witnesses mainly military personnel both US and South Vietnamese. Unlike a typical Vietnam war movie this covers a different angle - not about fighting the war but the end of the war. There is criticism of Ambassador Graham Martin's refusal to organize an evacuation till it was too late leading the the chaos that took place. Would have liked to know more of his reasons for being so obstinate and the diplomatic failure at the end. One minor fault is subtitles are in white sometimes against a white background and so hard to make out. This makes one want a follow up on what happened to those left behind beyond the words of epilogue at the end.

Miss Jey ArtsJun 14, 2025

When an occupying army gives up, and retreats, the immediate consequences are always going to be worst for those of the indigenous population who collaborated with the outgoing forces. For years, the United States helped keep South Vietnam independent from the north; once the U.S. troops had departed, re-unification was inevitable and eventually, the remaining Americans evacuated themselves, taking with them just some of the Vietnamese who had worked or fought for them and who now faced an uncertain future under a communist regime. Indeed, with the North VIetnamese forces on the edges of Saigon, the only way the evacuation could be staged was by helicopter, leading to extraordinary scenes all captured on film, and re-lived in this documentary. Having gotten in this mess, it's hard to see what the U.S. government could have done differently; with hindsight, of course, the whole story of U.S. involvement in Vietnam is a dreadful mistake. There's a vividness to the film clips, and to the recollections of those involved, which makes Rory Kennedy's film a particularly personal and intimate representation of the war as a whole. What doesn't need stressing is the totality of the defeat suffered by the U.S., an event that has arguably infused U.S. politics to this day.

Lidya Kedir Jun 14, 2025

Greetings from Lithuania. "Last Days in Vietnam" (2014) is a great documentary on all accounts. It is superbly informative, highly consistent and very involving made. I actually never thought or have heard about this period of war, and it was very interesting to see it. This documentary in my opinion is better made that "Citizenfour" which i also enjoyed very much, and maybe "Last Days in Vietnam" isn't that topical for these days, it is better crafted documentary - you can clearly see that huge amount of time and effort was putted in to put all this in one movie. Overall, "Last Days in Vietnam" is simply a great documentary movie. At running time almost 2 h it is highly involving and doesn't drag for a second. It is very informative and opens up a short and rather unseen period of one of the bloodiest and famous wars in mankind history.

cinta kuyaJun 14, 2025

This documentary was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature, losing to Citizenfour. There will be spoilers ahead: Using a combination of archival footage, news reports, still photos and interviews with participants in the events, including then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and then-Special Forces Richard Armitage, this documentary offers an in-depth chronicle of the evacuation of US personnel, US civilians and South Vietnamese ahead of the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese in April of 1975. The documentary starts with the ceasefire and withdrawal of combat forces by the US in 1973, with the expectation of a lasting peaceful, if uneasy, co-existence between North and South Vietnam. With the resignation of Richard Nixon in August of 1974, North Vietnam begins to become more belligerent towards South Vietnam, finally invading in late 1974/early 1975.Then-President Ford's attempts to secure additional aid for South Vietnam failed, but they would only have delayed the inevitable collapse. By April of 1975, it was obvious to most that the end was near. The bulk of this documentary chronicles the efforts to evacuate as many Vietnamese, along with US personnel, before the fall of South Vietnam completely to the advancing North Vietnamese army. It covers the efforts of many US diplomats, operatives and military to help those they worked with or, in many cases, wives, girlfriends and children, to flee the country for safety. Thousands of Vietnamese were evacuated in various ways. Some got out on the last airplanes to leave, but the documentary covers mainly those leaving by ship and by helicopter. It details official evacuations and just plain desperate efforts by Vietnamese pilots to get their families out. The archival footage and news reports are fascinating, but the heart of this documentary is in the interviews with people involved in the last days in Vietnam-from CIA operatives and embassy staff and Marines guarding the embassy to naval officers on ships receiving evacuees and escaped Vietnamese and a few who hoped to be rescued but for various reasons weren't. Often, their words are accompanied by footage, still photos or models of the US embassy compounds, which makes their comments all the more moving. Even though it becomes clear that mistakes were made in deciding when to evacuate and that there was a kind of "tunnel vision" in place which likely made things more desperate and chaotic than it needed to be, everyone in here is treated quite fairly and no one is scapegoated, which would have been very easy to do in one or two cases. Under the circumstances, things actually went reasonably well. Could things have been handled more expeditiously? Certainly, but that's 20/20 hindsight at this point. This is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and for download and is well worth getting/watching. Most recommended.

flopipopJun 14, 2025

It's very heart wrenching to watch 'Last Days in Vietnam'. Old memories keep just rushing back like yesterday. I would like to thank the help of many American personnel, except the stupid 'Dr'. Kissinger. We lost the war because of the maneuvering dirty politician like Kissinger, in general, I have lot of respects to Jewish people as a whole, but not Kissinger. Let's not forget that Kissinger is also the one who opened the door for China to become a powerful country which it now threatens the world and its neighbors. As for the last ambassador Martin, he is very much in the same category as the loser of president Nguyen van Thieu. I wish that we have a good president back then. To the Kennedy family, you NEED to do a film on the tragedy of your family and see whether or not it is a some kind of pay back as result of ordering the killing of brothers Ngo family. Both families are catholic.

user2364773407638Jun 14, 2025

One of the ways I personally classify whether a documentary based on famous real-life events is good or not is whether I learn something new about it. For example, I didn't think the Robert McNamara movie, "The Fog of War" was good, because it just regurgitated things I already knew about Vietnam. Last Days in Vietnam, however, showed me new things that I didn't know about and found interesting. I won't list them all here, but the most fascinating thing for me (and they even had footage of it!), was all the South Vietnamese helicopters that landed on the aircraft carrier to leave the country, and because they couldn't store the helicopters anywhere, the military had to push them into the ocean so the next one could land. As an American who grew up during this time, Vietnam is still a raw experience for many of us. It was refreshing to see how many Americans felt responsible for the South Vietnamese, and tried to get as many of them out of there. You never really hear very much about those kinds of stories. Because of her family name, Rory Kennedy carries lots of baggage, mostly good, but some bad. However, along with the very personal documentary about her mother Ethel, she is proving to be very, very capable in this genre. I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

Lesly Cyrus MinkueJun 14, 2025

After building enough history to emphasize about the exodus event itself the movie nicely serves the incredible sub stories that happen during the incident. I really like the movie's approach of previously serving the interviews without giving out the speaker's names, building up the start of their opinions and then weave together all those sub stories into link to the greater story of the event. What makes this movie very good is that the movie makers were able to obtain many authentic footage and photographs that give visuals to the stories told by the interviews.This makes the movie deeply visual, without having to resort to other ways to invoke the drama and emotions.

مشاكسJun 14, 2025

We were made aware of the documentary through our friendship with artist Binh Pho, one of the Vietnamese left behind in the embassy. He had shared his story many years ago and I had read his biography of how he escaped from Vietnam by Kevin Wallace; RIVER OF DESTINY. He told us about meeting with Rory Kennedy and his admiration for the Kennedy family. It was exciting to hear that he would be sharing some of his story in different places throughout the film. When it came to Dallas we went to the showing and we were taken back to our teenage years and all of the news and drama that Vietnam brought to our country. Seeing the real tragedy of what took place was very tense to watch. Living in the USA is such a blessing that so many of us take for granted, but shouldn't.

Rockstar🌟🌟⭐⭐Jun 14, 2025

A couple hours ago, I saw an interesting tweet. It seems that the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Last Days in Vietnam" is now available to watch for free online. Is there a catch? Yep. You need to live in the United States to view this film from Public Broadcasting. Once I learned that this film was financed by PBS and is part of their "American Experience" series, I was a bit surprised however. After all, these films are shown on television here in the States-- so they are not usually eligible for Oscar consideration, though they have received numerous awards such as the Emmy due to their exceptional quality. Apparently, a few "American Experience" films have been shown in theaters (most likely as part of a film festival) and that is why some have been eligible for the Academy Award. In fact, this is the fourth "American Experience" film to be nominated for the Oscar. "Last Days in Vietnam" is about the fall of South Vietnam for the North's forces in the Spring of 1975. And, because it's an American Experience film, it's told from the viewpoint of Americans as well as some of their South Vietnamese allies. However, this does not mean it will not be interesting to everyone. The story is compelling and you really don't need to be an American or Vietnamese in order to appreciate the story. It's an interesting topic as folks today really don't talk about this period in history and when I was teaching American history, our curriculum rarely talked about the South falling to the Communist forces in the North. Like a typical "American Experience" film it's told through lots and lots of interviews as well as stock footage as well as some computer models. It does not have narration--and I actually enjoyed this because instead of talking about what occurred, it lets people who were there explain it in their own words. And, like a typical show in the series, it's exceptionally well made and very interesting. It's clearly a very well made film. However, I would say that it's not necessarily better than any of the other shows in the series, as they are almost always exceptionally well made . So should this win the Oscar? Probably not, as I still prefer "Virunga"--and recommend you see it as well as "Last Days in Vietnam". I should also note that I have not yet seen two of the nominees, "CitzenFour" and "Salt of the Earth"--as finding these documentaries is not always easy. Hopefully I'll get to these before the awards are nominated and I'll update you on my recommendations. Here is the link. I have been told that it will only be available to see online for a limited time--so get to it as soon as you can: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365417082/