She ran away from Saigon when she was a child

INTERVIEW Reporter Lee Elston sees similarities between the fall of Saigon and Kabul

Seconds Lee Elston.

From the source

Scenes from the Taliban takeover of Kabul evoked memories of USA Today editorial board member Thuan Lee Elliston, who at the time was a young Vietnamese girl, who was evacuated with her family from Vietnam after the fall of the US-backed South Vietnam government in 1975. In front of the communist North Vietnamese forces.

The sight of Afghans scaling the walls of the Kabul airport and trying to get into the existing planes resembled the helicopter that landed on the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon to evacuate South Vietnamese families before North Vietnamese forces arrived.

Elston was in the third grade when her family left Saigon.

Here are excerpts from her memories of those moments:

■ What was on your mind when you saw those scenes that occurred after the fall of Kabul?

■■ It's more than just memories, because my husband used to work there for a contractor from the Department of Defense, and we have many Afghan-American friends and colleagues trying to get their families out of there.

I can't even see these pictures on TV after the tragedies we witnessed while we were leaving Vietnam.

I just learned that a family member, with a US approved visa, was able to get to the airport, had to turn away, and saw a woman die in front of him.

■ Your father was the managing editor of a newspaper in Vietnam. "My heart almost stopped when my father came home and said, 'Our world is coming to an end,'" I said in a USA Today article. What did that world mean to you at that time?

■■ Being a third grader, everything was fun for me, my mom used to make backpacks. Although we didn't have backpacks. We never had tennis shoes, and suddenly my mom bought me tennis shoes. Then the morning after the resignation of the South Vietnamese president, we were in a taxi. I've never taken a taxi before in my life. This is considered a luxury. We were going to the airport. I've never been on a plane before. This was all just an adventure. We were leaving with my cousin's family, and as we were standing in line at the airport, my cousin picked up some rocks and put them in her pocket. "This is from Vietnam," she said. We didn't even dare to go to the bathroom, because we were afraid of losing our place in line, and we finally boarded a US Department of Defense C-130 cargo plane. As we were leaving, the American soldiers were looking out the windows, and my father asked why. They told him we were shot, but fortunately it was night, so they only hit the wings.

■ What does it mean to be told: “Okay, you have to pack one small bag, put all your necessities in it and leave”?

■■ I didn't think we were leaving, I didn't fully realize what we were doing until the plane took off and landed in Manila.

We spent the first night in an American base, and the adults around me were saying, "Maybe in a month we can go back."

We had such a feeling of denial.

We spent another week in Guam.

It was April 30, the day Saigon fell.

The BBC was announcing the fall of Saigon, and my father was translating from the radio to the rest of the people there, and there was a deafening silence, when I was shocked to realize that we were not going back to the country.

■ Is there anything you would like to say to some of the Afghan families who are here now?

■■ My heart is with you, we hope that the situation will change and your tragedy will end.

It is as if Washington and the Pentagon have learned nothing from the fall of Saigon.

They were astonished by the rapid influx of communist troops from the DMZ.

This time he was stunned by the speed of Kabul's fall.

At least in 1975, the US ambassador to Vietnam begged for an evacuation plan.

Despite the tragedies everywhere, people were evacuated.

This time, there's no plan, it's terrifying, and it's a million times worse than before.

• It is as if Washington and the "Pentagon" have not learned anything from the fall of Saigon.

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