You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Wesley Levisa from the History of the Second World War podcast.

Join me on a journey through the most destructive conflict in human history, a journey that will

take us not just through the famous campaigns and cataclysmic battles, but also to the lesser

well-known corners of the war that touched millions all over the world, as we try and

answer not just the questions of what and where, but how and why.

You can find History of the Second World War on all major podcast platforms or at History

of the Second World War dot com.

Kafka-esque is the only way one reporter could describe it.

The sound of helicopter blades, rocket fire, and Bing Crosby's white Christmas blasting

through the city streets.

Sygon April 1975.

Thousands of people gathered, grappling the iron fence around the American embassy, hoping

to be let in.

More people inside, they're belonging scattered around what was once the luxurious swimming pool

used to entertain journalists and embassy guests to keep them cool in the hot country.

Bing Crosby's crooning, as the voice said, the temperature in Sygon is 105 degrees.

It wasn't.

That was code.

And the code meant get out of Sygon now.

South Vietnam, protectorate of the United States, was about to not exist.

...