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From: Jim White
Date: January 12, 2015
Subject: "White Christmas" -- Played or Not?
Don,
My apologies for being a little slow, but I have been waiting a while to see if anyone else chimed in plus wanted to enter all of this conversation into AFVNVETS.net.
I'll admit that, to me, there are some spelling and other errors in the quote under "Option 4 - White Christmas in April" but after going to the Wikipedia entry, I discovered that it is originally from the American Forces Network Wikipedia entry and appears to be very well documented with a large number of footnotes. I also agree with Mike McNally that there was "not really a need for the fleet to know much about it" as it was "intended for those on the ground in Saigon."
Your views, however, have value and should be aired so I have added our email exchange at the end of the AFVN Group Conversation titled "White Christmas - Fact or Fiction."
Respectfully,
Jim W
From: Michael McNally
Date: January 3, 2015
Subject: Saigon Evacuation Plans
The evacuation plans for the entire Operation Frequent Wind were large and included ships, planes, etc. There was no need for the average Americans on the ground in Saigon to know those details. By the same token, the White Christmas signal was intended for those on the ground in Saigon. There was not really a need for the fleet to know much about it. Here's an entry from Wikipedia:
Option 4 -- White Christmas in April
In preparation for the evacuation, the American Embassy had distributed a 15-page booklet called SAFE, short for "Standard Instruction and Advice to Civilians in an Emergency." The booklet included a map of Saigon pinpointing "assembly areas where a helicopter will pick you up." There was an insert page which read: "Note evacuational signal. Do not disclose to other personnel. When the evacuation is ordered, the code will be read out on Armed Forces Radio. The code is: The temperature in Saigon is 112 [others have said 110] degrees and rising. This will be followed by the playing of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frequent_Wind
From: Don McMahon
Date: January 3, 2015
Subject: AFVNVets.net Contact Form Submission
Yeah, I can understand why you say that, however we all had to be on the same page. The plan comes from an op-order which is SOP in any deployment. Let us not forget that when these are implemented all units in the task force ideally have one boss. This case was ctf-76. I was in CIC when the ambassador had called the president on hicom. As I stated before I retired out and lots of things happened not the way people think. As the ambassador talked I wrote down everything said. Sure wish I knew for absolutely sure the declassification of this.evacuation. I know quite a lot of what happened in Cambodia, Vietnam and USNS Mayaqueze(sp). Thanks for listening. Maybe one day when the mud clears up we can talk.
Thank you all AFVN Saigon and AFRTS Guys. You were our news.
Don McMahon
From: Jim White
Date: January 1, 2015
Subject: AFVNVETS.net Contact Form Submission
I'm sending this out for comments.
I just wonder if perhaps the op-plan that Don McMahon is talking about and the evacuation plan that the Military Attache's offices in Saigon prepared might not be two different plans.
Jim White
Don, I'm sending this out to everyone on the AFVN@yahoogroups.com for comment. I do not believe that you are lying or have any reason to do so. But what you say below is so different from everything I have heard so far that I really believe you are talking about a different plan and I want to get some feedback from others others. Also, I wonder if you have read the items in Section 15 of the AFVNVets.net History page. ( http://www.afvnvets.net/afvn-history.html ) In particular, the narration by Chuck Neil at 16-2. He was in charge of the American Radio Service which continued broadcasting in the Saigon area after the U.S. Forces moved out in early 1973 until the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
Here is a another view regarding the use of the song "White Christmas."
From: Don McMahon [Received via the AFVNVETS>NET Contact Form page.]
Date: January 1, 2015
Subject: 1975 White Christmas
In 75 I was on board USS Okinawa LPH-3. During the evacuation, White Christmas was never in the op-plan that was put together for the entire operation. I was on the flag ship working in CIC putting it together prior to for 6-9 months. Just trust me. I'm not sure about the declassification of classified material.
Sincerely,
Don McMahon
From: Mike McNally
Date: April 7, 2014
Subject: Russ, Thanks for the Tom Polgar Obit Link
Russ, thanks for posting (at the CICV Group) a link to the obituary for Tom Polgar, the last CIA Station Chief in Saigon. I'll leave the link for the benefit of the MACV-DAO Group and AFVN Group. The Washington Post obit contains, I think, at least one factual error. It says that the evacuation message broadcast on 29 April 1975 had "Bing Crosby" singing "White Christmas." While Bing Crosby is the most famous singer of Irving Berlin's song "White Christmas," the man who made the message, Chuck Neil, says he could not find the Bing Crosby version, so he played the Tennessee Ernie Ford version. Here's what he wrote about it: "So I said why not play a recording of something that every American will recognize in a split second. Plus the incongruity of the thing being played in the middle of summer would alert them to the fact that they have to take a hike. So why not play, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"? And so of course I was thinking about Bing Crosby's rendition, the biggest seller, but of all the thousands of records and tapes we had at the radio station, I couldn't find Bing Crosby's recording so I got Tennessee Ernie Ford's. It didn't matter who I had, but I noticed Frank Snepp said in his book, and several other people, that it was Bing Crosby. It doesn't make that much difference." I heard the message and song in my apartment on Truong Tan Buu Street on 29 April 1975. I recall thinking that it didn't sound like Bing Crosby, but I wasn't sure who it was doing the singing. I have since heard the Ernie Ford version and believe Chuch Neil's memory is correct. Here is a link to Chuck's account. Also, here is a link to Tom Polgar's blog.
"White Christmas" - Fact or Fiction?
February 2013, April 2014 & September 2014
Was the song, "White Christmas" actually used for the signal to evacuate Saigon?
With some discussion about the AM transmitters in Saigon and Da Nang.
AFVN Group Conversations