The Last Helicopter

Remember this photo? It will forever be known as the "Last Helicopter to Leave Saigon"; it wasn’t. People think it was taken at the US Embassy in Saigon; it wasn’t *. But the symbolism of this picture is so powerful that it will always be thought of that way. It’s one of the most searing, no, damning, photos of Vietnam. America abandoning it’s allies.

It’s a picture that has haunted us over and over again in the years since, Americans withdrawing in their helicopters and leaving allies behind. In today’s Opinion Journal, Amir Taheri has an article called  The Last Helicopter. It’s a must read.

"To hear Mr. Abbasi tell it the entire recent history of the U.S. could be narrated with the help of the image of "the last helicopter." It was that image in Saigon that concluded the Vietnam War under Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter had five helicopters fleeing from the Iranian desert, leaving behind the charred corpses of eight American soldiers. Under Ronald Reagan the helicopters carried the corpses of 241 Marines murdered in their sleep in a Hezbollah suicide attack. Under the first President Bush, the helicopter flew from Safwan, in southern Iraq, with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf aboard, leaving behind Saddam Hussein’s generals, who could not believe why they had been allowed live to fight their domestic foes, and America, another day. Bill Clinton’s helicopter was a Black Hawk, downed in Mogadishu and delivering 16 American soldiers into the hands of a murderous crowd".

This then is the Iranian strategy – wait us out until we lose our stomach to confront the evil of radical Islam. Read the whole thing and hope Taheri is right. Hope that this time America is not the one on the last helicopter. This time let it be those who would destroy us taking that flight.

* The photo was taken by Hubert Van Es and actually shows the roof of an apartment building in Downtown Saigon where CIA personnel were housed. It was not the last helicopter to leave Saigon, just one of the ones used in a last minute evacuation. It was also the only helicopter to land on that particular roof that day. The actual last departure was several hours later.

H/T LGF for the link to this.