Jim Patterson Recalling the Fall of Saigon April 21, 1975

On April 21, 1975, with Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after nearly 10 years in office and fled the country.


Jim Patterson note: Many states, including California, fought against accepting South Vietnamese refugees. Read Dr. Yanek Mieczkowski's book Gerald R Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s. Bringing Vietnam to end was one hell of a challenge during tough political times in the U.S. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown was wrong to fight resettlement of South Vietnamese refugees in California. 

Ronald Reagan: "I think we were right to be involved. The problems in South Vietnam weren't just internal affairs, and we weren't there because we were imperialistic, as the communists claimed, or altruistic, as we tried to appear. The plain truth of the matter is that we were r=there to counter the master plan of the communists for world conquest, and it's a lot easier and safer to counter it 8,000 miles away than to wait until they land in Long Beach." Ronald Reagan's Call to Action 1976 (Thomas Nelson)

President Dwight Eisenhower and The Domino Theory.

Jim Patterson with a portrait of President Dwight Eisenhower, Capitol Hill Club, Washington DC. 


On April 7, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held a news conference in which he spoke of the importance of containing the spread of communism in Indochina, saying, "You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly." (This became known as the "domino theory," although Eisenhower did not use that term.)

Jim Patterson note: I highly recommend Dr. Yanek Mieczkowski's excellent book: "

Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige (Cornell University Press).