United States Embassy, Saigon
The Embassy of the United States of America in Saigon was from 1950 to 1975 the headquarters of the diplomatic mission of the United States of America ( USA) in the capital of the Republic of Vietnam.
First embassy building
The first message was in a townhouse near the Saigon River in present-day municipality 1 As early as 1960 the embassy building was found to be not up to date, however, no funds were made available for a new building. Following a bomb attack on 30 March 1965, to which 22 people, including two Americans, were killed, the new building of the embassy building was decided.
New
The new building of the U.S. Embassy was established on Thong Nhut Boulevard. The 2.6 million -US-dollar, six-story building was situated on a 1.21 acre site and was surrounded by a two meter high concrete wall. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 11, 1965 in October 1965, construction began on the foundations and first floors. In 1967 the building was given its intended purpose.
At the beginning of the Tet offensive on the morning of January 31, 1968 19 sappers penetrated the Vietcong through a blasted hole in the wall on the embassy grounds and kept the premises occupied six hours. Two military policemen and a soldier of the USMC were killed during the fighting. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division seized the grounds back at noon, and killed all the Vietnamese invaders.
On 29 April 1975, evacuated off the coast from the grounds of the U.S. Embassy during Operation Frequent Wind hundreds of U.S. citizens and thousands of Vietnamese refugees by helicopter from the helipad on the roof in front of the advancing North Vietnamese army on ships of the U.S. Navy. On the morning of April 30 left Ambassador Graham Martin as the last U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, the building and was flown to the USS Blue Ridge.
Current usage
On the former embassy compound now houses the United States Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, the former embassy building was demolished in 1998.
Ambassador
See List of Ambassadors of the United States in South Vietnam