Editing Operation Frequent Wind (section)

==Planning==
[[File:NSC Meeting, April 9, 1975 (topic- Vietnam, Cambodia)(Gerald Ford Library)(1552383).pdf#page=2|thumb|Minutes of President Gerald Ford's National Security Council meeting on 9 April 1975 when evacuation plans were extensively discussed]]
Planning for the evacuation of the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies from South Vietnam had begun before April 1975. When U.S. President [[Gerald Ford]] met with the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] on 9 April 1975 he was told by [[Henry Kissinger]] that a maximum of 1.7 million people had been identified as possible evacuees and that these included: American citizens and their relatives, the diplomatic corps, the [[International Commission of Control and Supervision]] (ICCS), third-country nationals under contract by the U.S. government and the employees of the U.S. and their dependents (estimated at 200,000 people). In addition, the Vietnamese relatives of American citizens and senior Government of Vietnam officials and their dependents (about 600,000 people) were also identified as potential evacuees, along with Vietnamese formerly employed by the U.S. and their dependents.<ref name="NSC">[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NSC_Meeting,_April_9,_1975_%28topic-_Vietnam,_Cambodia%29%28Gerald_Ford_Library%29%281552383%29.pdf NSC Meeting, April 9, 1975] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822214703/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NSC_Meeting,_April_9,_1975_(topic-_Vietnam,_Cambodia)(Gerald_Ford_Library)(1552383).pdf |date=22 August 2016 }}, pg. 26</ref>

Although American officials at the highest levels of the intelligence community (e.g. CIA Director [[William Colby]]) were certain that the South Vietnamese government would collapse, the U.S. government underestimated the speed of the North Vietnamese advance during the [[1975 Spring Offensive]] and how quickly the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] (ARVN) would collapse.<ref name="NSC"/>

Evacuation plans are standard for American embassies.<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/90-29/Ch3.htm US Army Field Manual 90-29: Embassy Emergency Action Plan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150807201633/http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/90-29/Ch3.htm |date=7 August 2015 }} Retrieved 28 April 2015</ref> The Saigon plan had been developed over several years.<ref name=Tobin>{{Cite book|last=Tobin|first=Thomas|title=USAF Southeast Asia Monograph Series Volume IV Monograph 6: Last Flight from Saigon|publisher=US Government Printing Office|year=1978|isbn=978-1-4102-0571-1}}{{PD-notice}}</ref> Originally codenamed "Talon Vise", the operation was renamed "Frequent Wind" when the original codename was compromised.<ref>{{Cite book
|title=The Fall of Saigon: Scenes from the Sudden End of a Long War|last=Butler|first=David|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1985|isbn=0-671-46675-5}}</ref>

By 1975, the Frequent Wind plan aimed to evacuate about 8,000 U.S. citizens and third-country nationals, but it was never able to estimate the number of South Vietnamese to include.<ref name=Tobin/>{{rp|8}} There were about 17,000 at-risk Vietnamese on embassy rolls, which, using an average of seven dependents per family, meant that the number requiring evacuation was 119,000. Taken with other categories of Vietnamese, the number quickly passed 200,000.<ref name=Tobin/>{{rp|40}} The Frequent Wind plan set out four possible evacuation options:<ref name=Tobin/>{{rp|9}}
* Option 1: Evacuation by commercial airlift from [[Tan Son Nhut]] and other South Vietnamese airports as required
* Option 2: Evacuation by military airlift from Tan Son Nhut and other South Vietnamese airports as required
* Option 3: Evacuation by sea lift from Saigon port
* Option 4: Evacuation by helicopter to US Navy ships in the [[South China Sea]]

With Option 4, the helicopter evacuation would be expected to be similar to [[Operation Eagle Pull]], the American evacuation by air of [[Phnom Penh]], Cambodia, on 12 April 1975.<ref name=Final>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/seairland/chap5.htm|title=Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 – 1975|publisher=history.navy.mil|year=2000|access-date=24 July 2007|archive-date=27 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627121028/http://www.history.navy.mil/seairland/chap5.htm|url-status=dead}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>