CV crowds at airport
11 ft


Refugees, barted wire fences longview plane
32 ft


Dusk exterior of consulate
38 ft


Britons by vehicle
47 ft


Night track shot
50 ft


GV in yard
54 ft


People pack



Two-shot Interview
105 ft


GV boats in water
119 ft


Boats head out
129 ft


Approach cargo chip
143 ft


US marines boarding
154 ft


Two-shot Interview
194 ft


Landing barge alongside
210 ft


Soldiers in crowd
210 ft


US marines with guns
219 ft


GV other ships
230 ft


People clamber aboard
230 ft


People surge to gangway
288 ft


Elevated shot of crowd
288 ft


Crying children
302 ft


Two-shot Interview
336 ft


NBC Aerial of ship.
345 ft


Barron to camera
355 ft


Shot over heads of refugees to shore
365 ft


Zoom to sandy harbour
365 ft


Roll one: Scenes at Danang airport of refugees waiting for flights - herded into barbed wire pens - onto trucks for plane - our evacuation with US officials etc onto Consul General motorboats - sailing out to big ship - shore - unloading US equipment and radios etc - marines with guns - Catholic Father onto tug - marines up gangway with game.
300 ft


Roll two: Loaded a hip of refugees near our ship - loaded refugee barges approaching - loading our ship - chaotic scenes - passengers up gangway - searching - marine guards - more passengers - gunfire on track during shots passengers - hondas - bent bicycles - more barges arriving trying to load - various close shots and details - lost children - children crying etc - GV's passengers on board.
400 ft


Roll three: More lost children - interview with SCF Worker Diane Botterill - strong swell during attempts to load more passengers - gangway rising passengers falling. - Barron to camera - (False start)- Interview American organiser of evacuation Howard Thomas - arrivals at Cam Ranh Bay - people looking at their 'new land'.
380 ft



Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Hidlay on the last full day of the airlift, If you are a Vietnamese refugee wanting to reach Danang airbase you either need friends in the armed forces...or money for the privilege.

With law and order breaking down in South Vietnam's second city the air evacuation is haphazard Renewed efforts are made to prevent refugees storming the planes.

Twilight in Da Nang the Americans decide to close the consulate and evacuate what used to be one of their biggest bases in the Vietnam war. They fear the people will turn against them.

Among the foreigners are a team of Britons for the Save the Children Fund. They have lost their equipment, their vehicles Everything. The order is to drive to a hideway called the Alamo Hostel, and wait for American helicopters.

One of the Save the Children Fund staff is a former British army major, John Gerelli:
At seven in the morning we are ordered to the dockside in small groups...a total of three hundred Americans, foreigners and Vietnamese.

The motorboats head for one of the farthest reaches of the harbour because one evacuation ship has already been swamped by dockside refugees.

The rendezvous is an American cargo ship which normally carries bombs and ammunition to S. Vietnam.

The men with rifles are American marines in civilian clothes - the guards from the consulate. The US marines clandestine departure from Danang, their old stronghold, is so different from the jaunty way they waded ashore ten years ago intent on winning the war in a few weeks.

I ask a senior American official his reaction to evacuating Danang Interview Mr Howard Thomas.

The American decide out ship is to pick up seven thousand refugees. Some of the six hundred thousand who've gathered in Da Nang.

They come alongside at 10 am. There are many army. ??? among them...troops who should be staying behind to defend the city.

The US marines check the deserters for wed???ons and grenades - there's report that some might try to hijack the chip at gunpoint and head for foreign parts.

Seeing this evacuation, other refugee vessels try to manoeuvre close. Panic again. The marines fire into the air to restore stability. As ever, South Vietnam remains a consumer society even when its crumbling around people.

There's only one gangway onto our ship. A plan to put rope ladders over the side is abandoned as too dangerous. The hours pass. The ninety degree heat takes its toll and, as the swell rises, ??? refugees grow more frantic. It is a race against time to get all on board before the sea becomes too rough.

Children suffer from dehydration and lack of salt. They lose contact with their parents.

It is providential for the refugees that the Save the Children Team is being evacuated too. One of the nurses is Diana Botterill from Lincolnshire.

On the second day - that's this Easter weekend - the shipload of Americans, foreigners and Vietnamese are safely steaming south....the first ship in the evacuation convoy.

There's a phrase the Americans and the government here have long used about refugees. They vote with their feet, meaning they always flee from the communists, come to the government side. Perhaps it's time this dubious proposition is really questioned.

After one and a half days we reach our destination, Cam Ranh Bay. It's a sandy, arid spot but, with South Vietnam melting away? Not the sort of place to begin a new life.