Operation EAGLE PULL

Operation EAGLE PULL was the air evacuation, shortly before the fall of South Vietnam, of U.S. and friendly personnel from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 12, 1975, under the protection of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit, part of III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF). They were threatened as the Khmer Rouge overran Cambodia.

Planning for several evacuation contingencies had begun in 1973, when the last U.S. combat air support to South Vietnam ended.

The force flew to a U.S. naval task force in the Gulf of Siam. U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean, carried the last American flag that had flown over his embassy. Acting President Saukam Khoy, along with his family; Premier Long Boret, who stayed, broadcast that Khoy's exit showed his lack of leadership.