Operation Eagle Pull Operation Eagle Pull was the U . S . evacuation by air of Phnom Penh , Cambodia , on 12 April 1975 . At the beginning of April 1975 , Phnom Penh , the last remaining stronghold 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 United States made contingency plans for the evacuation of US nationals and at - risk 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 . Strangulation of 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 journey from the South Vietnamese border . On 3 February a convoy heading downriver hit naval mine s laid by the Khmer Rouge at Phu My approximately from Phnom Penh . The FANK Navy had mine - sweeping capability , but due to the Khmer Rouge control of the riverbanks mine - sweeping was impossible or at best extremely costly . The FANK Navy had lost a quarter of its ships , and 70 percent of its sailors had been killed or wounded . By 17 February , the Khmer Republic abandoned attempts to reopen the Mekong supply line . In future , all supplies for Phnom Penh would have to come in by air to Pochentong Airport . The United States quickly mobilised an airlift of food , fuel and ammunition into Phnom Penh , but as US support for the Khmer Republic was limited by the Case – Church Amendment , BirdAir , a company under contract to the US Government , controlled the airlift with a mixed fleet of C - 130 and DC - 8 planes , flying 20 times a day into Pochentong . On 5 March , Khmer Rouge artillery at Toul Leap , north - west of Phnom Penh , shelled Pochentong Airport , but FANK troops recaptured Toul Leap on 15 March and ended the shelling . Khmer Rouge forces continued to close in on the north and west of the city and were soon able to fire on Pochentong again . On 22 March rockets hit two supply aircraft , forcing the US Embassy to announce on 23 March a suspension of the airlift until the security situation improved . The Embassy , realizing that the Khmer Republic would soon collapse without supplies , reversed the suspension on 24 March and increased the number of aircraft available for the airlift . On 1 April the Khmer Rouge overran Neak Luong and Ban - am , the last remaining FANK positions on the Mekong . The Communists could now concentrate all their forces on Phnom Penh . Premier Lon Nol resigned that day and went into exile ; the final collapse of the Khmer Republic was imminent . Planning . The evacuation plan was developed and refined by the US Military as Khmer Rouge forces closed in on Phnom Penh , starting as early as 1973 . On 27 June 1973 the Seventh Air Force published Contingency Plan 5060C " Eagle Pull " covering the evacuation of Phnom Penh . Conplan 5060C had three options : Option 3 was later revised to provide for the use of USMC helicopters together with USAF helicopters based in Thailand , and for the ground security force to be made up of marines rather than air force security police . The LZs were to be adjacent to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh . On 6 January 1975 , CINCPAC placed the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit on 96 - hour alert to move the evacuation fleet into position off Kampong Som ( previously Sihanoukville ) in the Gulf of Thailand for the implementation of Operation Eagle Pull . On 6 February the reaction time was reduced to 48 hours , meaning that the evacuation fleet had to maintain a 48 - hour cruising radius from Kampong Som . This was further reduced on 28 February to 24 hours , effectively meaning that the fleet had to remain within the Gulf of Thailand . On 21 March the Embassy predicted there would be 3 , 600 evacuees , far exceeding the original estimate of approximately 400 . This necessitated the development of a new evacuation plan whereby Marines would secure Pochentong Airport , while helicopters would ferry evacuees from central Phnom Penh to Pochentong from where they would be flown on C - 130 planes to Thailand . However , this plan was quickly overtaken by events as the supply C - 130s coming into Pochentong were used for evacuees on the return journey , quickly reducing the number of evacuees that would need to be moved in a final evacuation . On 3 April , given the deterioration in the defences around Phnom Penh , Ambassador John Gunther Dean requested the deployment of the 10 - man Operation Eagle Pull command element which landed at Pochentong on a BirdAir C - 130 plane . The command element supervised the ongoing fixed - wing evacuation of more than 750 Cambodians over the next seven days in the face of 80 – 90 rounds of 105 mm artillery and 107 mm rocket fire each day . By 10 April Khmer Rouge fire had become so heavy that the fixed - wing evacuation was ended . The command group then turned its attention to the selection of helicopter landing zones for the evacuation . As the Khmer Rouge controlled the east bank of the Mekong opposite Phnom Penh , the command group selected LZ Hotel , a soccer field about north - east of the embassy . Masked from the river by a row of apartment buildings , this LZ could not be interdicted by direct fire weapons , making it the safest location . The embassy staff prepared to leave on 11 April , but the evacuation was delayed until the following day in order to allow the USS " Hancock " to join the evacuation fleet off Kampong Som . Evacuation fleet . On 3 March 1975 Amphibious Ready Group Alpha ( Task Group 76 . 4 ) , and the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit ( Task Group 79 . 4 ) embarked and arrived at the designated station off Kampong Som in the Gulf of Thailand , the force comprised : Task Group 76 . 4 ( Movement Transport Group Alpha ) Escort ships for naval gunfire , escort , and area defense : On 17 March the Joint Chiefs of Staff , concerned that one Marine helicopter squadron was insufficient for the evacuation , ordered that the USS " Hancock " offload its air wing and proceed to Pearl Harbor . On 26 March Marine Heavy Lift Helicopter Squadron HMH - 463 comprising 25 CH - 53 , CH - 46 , AH - 1J and UH - 1E helicopters embarked on the " Hancock " and it proceeded to Subic Bay . After taking on more helicopters at Subic Bay , " Hancock " was temporarily assigned to Amphibious Ready Group Bravo , standing by off Vung Tau , South Vietnam , but on 11 April she joined Amphibious Ready Group Alpha in the Gulf of Thailand . The marine evacuation contingent comprised one battalion landing team , 2nd Battalion , 4th Marines ( 2 / 4 ) . As the Khmer Rouge had no air force and only limited anti - aircraft capability , no fleet air cover was necessary , but the evacuation was supported by USAF aircraft based in Thailand . It was suspected that the Khmer Rouge might possess SA - 7 shoulder - launched surface to air missiles and so the evacuation helicopters were painted with infra - red low - reflective paint and equipped with ALE - 29 flare dispensers . Evacuation . On the afternoon of 11 April 1975 , the 31st MAU received orders to execute Operation Eagle Pull . At 06 : 00 on 12 April , 12 CH - 53s of HMH - 462 launched from the deck of USS " Okinawa " and then at 10 minute intervals descended again to pick up their marines . Elements of Companies F and H , and the command group embarked from the " Okinawa " while elements of Company G boarded their helicopters on the USS " Vancouver " , giving a total ground security force of 360 marines . As the helicopters completed loading they formed into groups of three orbiting the task force . At 07 : 30 Ambassador Dean notified the acting Cambodian Chief of State , Prime Minister Long Boret and other Cambodian leaders including Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak , that the US personnel would officially leave the country within the next few hours and asked if any desired evacuation , in which case they should be at the embassy by 09 : 30 . All declined except for Saukham Khoy , successor to Lon Nol as President of the Khmer Republic , who left without telling his fellow leaders . Prince Sirik Matak , a former Prime Minister and a driving force behind the formation of the Khmer Republic rejected the offer of evacuation and said to Ambassador Dean that " I have committed this mistake of believing in you , the Americans . " The 10 man command group proceeded to drive vehicles to LZ Hotel , purposely disabling them to block vehicle access from any part of the city , other than the road from the embassy to the LZ . The command group then proceeded to make contact with " King Bird " , an orbiting HC - 130 plane of the 56th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron , that would control the flow of the helicopters . At 07 : 43 the first group of helicopters crossed the Cambodian coastline and about one hour later , after traversing of hostile territory , the initial wave set down on LZ Hotel and the marines quickly established a defensive perimeter . Large crowds of Cambodians soon gathered , more out of curiosity rather than to interfere . Having established the perimeter defense , the marines began the process of moving the crowds back in order to keep the LZ clear and then began moving the evacuee groups to the waiting CH - 53 helicopters . As LZ Hotel could only hold three CH - 53s at any time , flights arriving after the initial build - up had to be held at Point Oscar , some south of Phnom Penh until called in by " King Bird " . The evacuation proceeded smoothly although the number of evacuees was substantially less than anticipated . The last estimate indicated there would be 590 evacuees , 146 US nationals and 444 Cambodians and third country nationals . HMH - 462 evacuated 84 US nationals and 205 Cambodians and third country nationals . At 09 : 45 , the US Embassy closed . There would be no diplomatic relations between the US and Cambodia again until 11 November 1991 . By 10 : 41 all the evacuees including Ambassador Dean and President Saukham Khoy had been lifted out by helicopters of HMH - 462 . Helicopters of HMH - 463 operating from the " Hancock " then began to land to extract the ground security force . At approximately 10 : 50 , 107 mm rocket fire began impacting in the vicinity of LZ Hotel . Less than 10 minutes later , the LZ also received 82 mm mortar fire . As soon as the Khmer Rouge fire commenced , the controllers in the zone notified the Air Force forward air controllers ( FACs ) flying overhead in 23d Tactical Air Support Squadron OV - 10 s . The FACs immediately made low passes over the east bank of the Mekong , but could not spot any fire coming from known enemy positions in that location . At 10 : 59 , the last element of 2nd Battalion 4th Marines left the zone and the last marine helicopter landed on the " Okinawa " at 12 : 15 . At 11 : 15 , two USAF HH - 53 Super Jolly Green Giant s , from the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron , as scheduled , extracted the Eagle Pull command element . Small arms fire during the final extraction caused minimal damage to the first aircraft , but a machine gun round hit the second helicopter ' s tail rotor as it climbed out of the zone . Despite severe vibrations the helicopter made it safely back to Ubon Air Base in Thailand . At 14 : 50 an HMH - 462 CH - 53 launched from the " Okinawa " to carry Ambassador Dean to U - Tapao Air Base in Thailand . On 13 April , the evacuees were flown to U - Tapao Air Base in Thailand on HMH - 462 helicopters and Amphibious Ready Group Alpha proceeded to the South China Sea to rendezvous with Task Force 76 as it stood by to implement Operation Frequent Wind , the evacuation of Saigon . Aftermath . Henry Kissinger observed in his Vietnam War memoir that the Ford Administration was astonished and shamed by the fact that top Cambodian officials refused to leave the country . These included Premier Long Boret and Lon Non , the Prime Minister ' s brother , both of whom were on the Khmer Rouge ' s advertised death list . On 17 April 1975 the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh bringing the Cambodian Civil War to an end . Long Boret , Lon Non and other top officials of the Khmer Republic Government were executed at the Cercle Sportif , while Khmer National Armed Forces troops in the city were disarmed , taken to the Olympic Stadium and executed . For 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and Amphibious Ready Group Alpha , Operation Eagle Pull served as a small - scale dress rehearsal for the more complex Operation Frequent Wind 17 days later . In popular culture . Operation Eagle Pull is depicted in the film " The Killing Fields " .