page_title: American Community School in Saigon
section_title: Tan Son Hoa
hierarchical_section_title: American Community School in Saigon / Growth and locations of the school / Tan Son Hoa
caption_attribution_description: English: Shows the five wings of the American Community School (grades 1-12) in Saigon, South Vietnam, located near Tan Son Nhut international airport. The school itself was created in 1954. These buildings on this site were built about 1958-59. They were turned over to use of the 3rd Field Hospital of the U.S. Army in February 1965 after the school was closed, when all U.S. government dependents were ordered out of South Vietnam by President Lyndon Johnson.
context_page_description: The American Community School in Saigon was created in 1954, providing American style schooling for the dependent children of Americans working for U.S. government organizations in Saigon, South Vietnam. Some of those organizations included the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. aid mission, the U.S. Information Service, and the Military Assistance Advisory Group. The school also accepted for enrollment the dependent children of private American firms operating in Saigon, as well as some non-U.S. diplomatic families. Some Vietnamese children also attended the school. The school grew rapidly as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated, but was permanently closed in February 1965 when all dependents of U.S. government personnel were ordered out of Vietnam by President Lyndon Johnson.
context_section_description: For the 1958-59 school year the school moved out of the Norodom Compound into newly built permanent buildings near Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, at the street address 10 Tan Son Hoa (today the street address is 247 Hoang Van Thu).  The extra space at this new location was quickly put to use as the school continued to expand, enrolling high school age children who previously had been sent to private boarding schools elsewhere (including the Philippines).  At the beginning of the 1959-60 school year, the high school enrollment stood at 28 students, as noted in the school’s first yearbook (named The Gecko) that year.  The following school year, 1960–61, a count of the number of high school students pictured in the second yearbook shows that the high school enrollment had doubled to at least 56.  When opened for the 1958-59 school year, the school had 5 classroom wings.  During the 1962-63 school year a 2-story wing was added.
  In February 1965, the school was permanently closed when President Lyndon Johnson ordered all dependents of U.S. government and military personnel to be evacuated from Vietnam.  Contemporaneous news accounts of that evacuation reported the enrollment of the school (both high school and elementary grades) to have been 750.  An additional building wing had been completed the previous weekend, never to be occupied by any students of ACS.
caption: American Community School, Saigon, circa 1960
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