Episode 182 GERALD FORD The Accidental President, ( Part 7 ) The Mayagüez Incident, The Vietnam War's Final Battle
03/13/23 • 71 min
From Wikipedia:
The Mayaguez incident took place between Kampuchea (now Cambodia) and the United States from 12 to 15 May 1975, less than a month after the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital Phnom Penh ousting the U.S.-backed Khmer Republic. After the Khmer Rouge seized the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez in a disputed maritime area, the U.S. mounted a hastily-prepared rescue operation. U.S. Marines recaptured the ship and attacked the island of Koh Tang where it was believed that the crew were being held as hostages.
Encountering stronger than expected defences on Koh Tang, three United States Air Force helicopters were destroyed during the initial assault and the Marines fought a desperate day-long battle with the Khmer Rouge before being evacuated. The Mayaguez's crew were released unharmed by the Khmer Rouge shortly after the attack on Koh Tang began. The names of the Americans killed, including three Marines left behind on Koh Tang after the battle and subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge, are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
This episode is that story. It features the news coverage of the time and some interviews with soldiers who were there as it all unfolded. In many ways, it was the final battle of the Vietnam War for America.
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
From Wikipedia:
The Mayaguez incident took place between Kampuchea (now Cambodia) and the United States from 12 to 15 May 1975, less than a month after the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital Phnom Penh ousting the U.S.-backed Khmer Republic. After the Khmer Rouge seized the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez in a disputed maritime area, the U.S. mounted a hastily-prepared rescue operation. U.S. Marines recaptured the ship and attacked the island of Koh Tang where it was believed that the crew were being held as hostages.
Encountering stronger than expected defences on Koh Tang, three United States Air Force helicopters were destroyed during the initial assault and the Marines fought a desperate day-long battle with the Khmer Rouge before being evacuated. The Mayaguez's crew were released unharmed by the Khmer Rouge shortly after the attack on Koh Tang began. The names of the Americans killed, including three Marines left behind on Koh Tang after the battle and subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge, are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
This episode is that story. It features the news coverage of the time and some interviews with soldiers who were there as it all unfolded. In many ways, it was the final battle of the Vietnam War for America.
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
Previous Episode
Episode 181 GERALD FORD The Accidental President, ( Part 6 ) The Appointment of Nelson Rockefeller, bailing out New York City, and John Paul Stevens
In this episode we look at three of the major events of the Gerald Ford Administration that people will remember.
First off Gerald Ford had to find a person to fill the office of Vice President of the United States. It would be only the second time the 25th amendment would be used, and the last time it was used. He would select New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to serve in that position. Rockefeller was one of the major political figures of the 1960's and 1970's and represented a wing of the Republican Party that does not exist any longer. He was a liberal Republican. Here you will hear his acceptance of the nomination and listen in on the opening of his hearings to take the job.
Then we will move on to the financial meltdown in New York City. It was the moment that the Big Apple, almost went under. The employees of the city were actually often endangered of not getting paid if they did not cash their checks early in the morning. That is how serious the situation got before the Federal Government helped them. However, before Gerald Ford would agree to do that he insisted that they come up with a plan and bring it to the Federal Government. A novel idea during a time when the Federal Government had often been the ones insisting on the plan and guidelines that all the other levels of government had to follow. This plan did resolve the issues and today New York City is one of America's most prosperous cities, or at least it was.
Then finally we look back at the only appointment to the Supreme Court President Ford got to make. It would turn out to be an important one because John Paul Stevens would go on to become the the third longest serving Justice in Supreme Court history. We will look back at his remarkable tenure and his long and illustrious life as one of America's leading legal experts.
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
Next Episode
Episode 183 GERALD FORD The Accidental President, ( Part 8 ) The Helsinki Accords
From Wikipedia:
According to the Cold War scholar John Lewis Gaddis in his book The Cold War: A New History (2005), "Leonid Brezhnev had looked forward, Anatoly Dobrynin recalls, to the 'publicity he would gain... when the Soviet public learned of the final settlement of the postwar boundaries for which they had sacrificed so much'... '[Instead, the Helsinki Accords] gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement'... What this meant was that the people who lived under these [communist] systems — at least the more courageous — could claim official permission to say what they thought."[20]
In what began under President Richard Nixon as what Henry Kissinger called "grandstand play to the left." Ended up under President Gerald Ford as one of the first meaningful attempts to assure human rights through out the World. It would be the agreement that many credit as creating those first cracks in the Communist World. Here we will show you many of the benefits of the Helsinki Accords that still serve Europe today and we will hear President Ford's address to the conference in 1975 in Helsinki, Finland.
The Accords had agreements in four areas known as baskets, explained here by Wikipedia:
"There were four groupings or baskets. In the first basket, the "Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States" (also known as "The Decalogue") enumerated the following 10 points:
- Sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty
- Refraining from the threat or use of force
- Inviolability of frontiers
- Territorial integrity of states
- Peaceful settlement of disputes
- Non-intervention in internal affairs
- Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief
- Equal rights and self-determination of peoples
- Co-operation among States
- Fulfillment in good faith of obligations under international law
The second basket promised economic, scientific, and technological cooperation; facilitating business contacts and industrial cooperation; linking together transportation networks; and increasing the flow of information. The third basket involved commitments to improve the human context of family reunions, marriages and travel. It also sought to improve the conditions of journalists and expand cultural exchanges. The fourth basket dealt with procedures to monitor implementation, and to plan future meetings.[4]"
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/george-hw-bush-1992-the-changing-of-the-guard-238231/episode-182-gerald-ford-the-accidental-president-part-7-the-mayag%c3%bcez-i-28753345"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to episode 182 gerald ford the accidental president, ( part 7 ) the mayagüez incident, the vietnam war's final battle on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy