[Watch 3 30 Days 2 Online
Amancio Mccrae
Lake Suwa sits to the southeast of the Shinshu Watch Studio, where Grand Seiko crafts all Spring Drive watches. The new Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Style SLGA021 is inspired by this serene body of water, featuring a dark blue dial that recalls gently lapping waves along the water's surface just before dawn.
Products may be returned to Grand Seiko Boutique Online within 14 days of the delivery date. Option for a return and refund or exchange is possible when the watch is returned in new, unworn condition, with all original contents included in the package. Upon receiving your return, Grand Seiko will verify the condition of the watch. If there are any missing items, damage, or wear found, you may be subject to fees accordingly. Please be sure to remove any jewelry or other watches before trying on the watch to avoid damage. Please do not size the watch if you return it as it will not be considered new. Please contact the Grand Seiko Boutique Online team HERE to initiate a return. Please see the TERMS for more.
Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things! Participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count for four days in February to watch, learn about, count, and celebrate birds. People from around the world spend these four days in their favorite places, connecting to the birds around their homes and in their community. Whether you see one bird or hundreds over the weekend, we want to share in your joy of watching birds and connecting to nature. Count the birds you see for as little as 15 minutes on one of the four days. Then, submit your bird list to be part of a global movement to better understand how bird populations are doing. Your participation matters. Il est important que vous participiez! Tu participacin importa. Your participation connects you to the beauty that lives around you while helping scientists better monitor and protect birds around the world. Work with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. We look forward to spending this fun, special event with you. Join us! nete a nosotros! Soyez des ntres!
With the clock ticking and the city under fire, American officers on the ground found themselves faced with a moral dilemma: whether to follow official policy and evacuate only U.S. citizens and their dependents, or to break the law and save the men, women and children they had come to value and love in their years in Vietnam. At the risk of their careers and possible court-martial, a handful of individuals took matters into their own hands. Engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations, they waged a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible.
Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State: We who made the agreement thought that it would be the beginning not of peace in the American sense, but the beginning of a period of co-existence which might evolve as it did in Korea into two states. Reconciliation between North and South Vietnam we knew would be extremely difficult. But I was hopeful.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: I was assigned to Saigon in the first week of August, 1973. So about six months after the ceasefire. I would say that between the state department people and the CIA people, the contractors who were there to maintain infrastructure, maintain aircraft, as well as people like me, we had 5 to 7,000 Americans in country. A lot of the guys had Vietnamese girlfriends and wives. In many cases with children. In general, things were eerily calm and in many ways normal in Saigon.
Juan Valdez, Marine Embassy Guard: My sense was that we were gonna be there, you know, pretty much for a long time to come. I was assigned to the American Embassy in Saigon. I was in charge of the 84 marine security guards that were there. Making sure that they kept up with their physical fitness training. We were there to protect American lives, as well as American property. It was just a day to day job.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: The ambassador there was a guy named Graham Martin, a North Carolinian, just as I was. He spoke with a slow, southern drawl. He was a great gentleman. He was a cold warrior in the yellow stripe. He'd lost an adopted son in Vietnam to combat. And he was not gonna give up South Vietnam to the Communists. He was determined to keep U.S. aid flowing into Saigon. When the cease-fire occurred, in 1973, everybody toasted it with Bloody Marys in the U.S. Embassy. It was a grand party. We though peace was at hand. But The Paris Peace Accord was a masterpiece of ambiguity.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: In order to get President Thieu and the South Vietnamese to go along with the Paris Agreement, President Nixon pulled out all the stops. And in a letter to President Thieu he promised that if the North Vietnamese were to substantially violate the terms of the Paris Agreement, the United States would respond with full force. In other words, reenter the war.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: The North Vietnamese viewed Nixon as a madman. They were terrified of him. They believed that Nixon, if necessary, would bring back American air power. But in August, 1974, he was gone. Nixon resigned because of Watergate. And overnight, everything changed. Hanoi suddenly saw the road to Saigon as being open.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: The South Vietnamese population had ample reason to fear the Vietnamese Communists. The Communist conduct throughout the course of the war had been violent and unforgiving. For example when the city of Hue was taken over by the North Vietnamese, several thousand people on a long blacklist were rounded up, schoolteachers, government civil servants, people who were known anti-Communists, and they were executed, in some cases even buried alive, so panic was but a millimeter away.
Kiem Do, Captain, South Vietnamese Navy (in Vietnamese, subtitled): Our orders were very conflicting. One day we would get orders to defend Da Nang. On the next, we would get orders to abandon it.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: It was every man for himself. So you saw the World Airways flights being mobbed by South Vietnamese soldiers. You saw ships with thousands of refugees, including lots of soldiers. You saw out of control panic. Basically any boats, trucks, airplanes or anything going south were besieged by people wanting to get onboard.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: The Americans were gone and as a result the house of cards began to collapse. The North Vietnamese decided to escalate, escalate, escalate, escalate at every turn to see if the United States would react.
Ron Nessen, White House Press Secretary: In April of '75, I was with President Gerald Ford, and we were flying across the country on Air Force One when one of the airplane's crew comes and hands me a note and it says, "Da Nang has fallen." Ford was bombarded by questions from the press after he got off Air Force One.
Gerald Ford (archival) Around 150-175,000 well trained North Vietnamese regular forces in violation of the Paris peace accords moved into South Vietnam. We have objected to that violation. It's a tragedy unbelievable in its ramifications.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: We are now in a crisis. We had a wave of humanity. 500,000 refugees rolling, rolling south towards Saigon. And 160,000 North Vietnamese troops moving right behind them. I had become so concerned I decided to pull our best Vietnamese agents in out of the woodwork to try to see what they could tell us about Communist planning, which obviously was rapidly evolving. On the 8th of April, I met with one of our best agents who said, "the Communists are gonna drive on Saigon. They're gonna be in there by Ho Chi Minh's birthday", which was May 19, literally a month away.
Kiem Do, Captain, South Vietnamese Navy (in Vietnamese, subtitled): We tried to do our best without thinking about the future. We couldn't repair or replace equipment. Field hospitals had to reuse soiled bandages. We had many obstacles. We didn't know how much longer we could last.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: I kept a map every day on the progress of the North Vietnamese onslaught. By the 5th of April, the North Vietnamese had 15, even 16 divisions heading in the direction of Saigon. They were bringing SA-2 missiles down to provide anti-aircraft cover for their forces. There were people who were saying, "Look, we've gotta do some heavy, heavy planning here because depending on how this goes and it doesn't look good now, we may all have to evacuate. And Ambassador Martin wouldn't tolerate or countenance such thought. That was defeatism. That was poisonous to the prospects of the people we're here to help. But people could see what was going on. And they started leaving, especially the Americans.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: There was always a standing evacuation plan in the embassy. It held that in an emergency, all Americans still in the country, about 6,000 people, would be evacuated. And that no South Vietnamese would be evacuated with them.
Binh Pho, College Student: I was a student. The schools not closing but... it seem like nobody interested in school anymore. You can't stay here. You can't live with the communists. Especially if you have a connection with the Americans. Then you really gotta get out.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: If we really made up a list of endangered South Vietnamese, the ones who really worked closely with us during the war, this number could be 150-200,000. Including their families, many more than that. But the idea of talking about an evacuation and of planning for an evacuation of Americans, let alone an evacuation of Vietnamese, was still an anathema in the embassy.
Graham Martin, U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam (archival): If you, if you, if you mean is South Vietnam is on the imminent verge of collapse? I think the answer is quite definitely no. I mean, you have...
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