Operation Eagle Pull

United States Marines deploy at LZ Hotel on 12 April 1975

Date

12 April 1975

Location

Cambodia – Phnom Penh, 11°32′53.16″N 104°55′52.16″E / 11.5481000°N 104.9311556°E

Result

United States tactical victory

U.S. forces airlift 289 people to safety
Khmer Rouge propaganda victory

Belligerents

United States

Khmer Republic

Khmer Rouge

Commanders and leaders

Commander Task Force 76

Pol Pot

Casualties and losses

None

None known

United States tactical victory

Operation Eagle Pull was the United States military evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 12 April 1975. At the beginning of April 1975, Phnom Penh, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Khmer Republic, was surrounded by the Khmer Rouge and totally dependent on aerial resupply through Pochentong Airport. With a Khmer Rouge victory imminent, the US government made contingency plans for the evacuation of US nationals and allied Cambodians by helicopter to ships in the Gulf of Thailand. Operation Eagle Pull took place on the morning of 12 April 1975 and was a tactical success carried out without any loss of life. Five days later the Khmer Republic collapsed and the Khmer Rouge occupied Phnom Penh.

At the beginning of 1975 the Khmer Republic, a United States-supported military government, controlled only the Phnom Penh area and a string of towns along the Mekong River that provided the crucial supply route for food and munitions coming upriver from South Vietnam. As part of their 1975 dry season offensive, rather than renewing their frontal attacks on Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge set out to cut off the crucial Mekong supply route. On 12 January 1975 the Khmer Rouge attacked Neak Luong, a key Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) defensive outpost on the Mekong. On 27 January, seven vessels limped into Phnom Penh, the survivors of a 16-ship convoy that had come under attack over the 100 kilometres (62 mi) journey from the South Vietnamese border. On 3 February a convoy heading downriver hit naval mines laid by the Khmer Rouge at Phu My approximately 74 kilometres (46 mi) from Phnom Penh. The FANK naval branch, the Khmer National Navy (MNK), had mine-sweeping capability, but due to the Khmer Rouge control of the riverbanks mine-sweeping was impossible or at best extremely costly. The MNK had lost a quarter of its ships, and 70 percent of its sailors had been killed or wounded.

...
Wikipedia