May 1: The Provisional Revolutionary Government says they have taken over all areas in South Vietnam where resistance lingered. They issue decrees banning dance halls, prostitution, publications by private citizens, and “acting like Americans.” Defense Secretary James Schlesinger announces all U.S. Navy ships have left the coast of Vietnam.

The Defense Department says the Joint Chiefs of Staff have ordered all 7th Fleet and Military Sealift Command vessels “to terminate all refugee operations.” President Gerald Ford issues a statement declaring the evacuation [is] complete.” The number of refugees rescued is put at 37,595. The House of Representatives rejects a bill to authorize $327 million in refugee aid. Canada will accept 3,000 refugees.

May 2: The new Saigon government continues its move toward nationalization of industry, farming, factories, and unions and makes claims to all South Vietnamese property in the country and abroad. The State Department says Ford wants to expand by 30,000 the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. Reports say 50,000-80,000 refugees are still at sea. The Philippines imposes a three-day restriction on South Vietnamese housed at U.S. bases on its islands.

May 3: Some 500 foreigners who took refuge in the French Embassy in Phnom Penh arrive at the Thai border. At the commissioning of U.S.S. Nimitz, in Norfolk, Virginia, Ford says the U.S. will keep its commitments abroad and continue to be militarily strong. Saigon radio, monitored in Bangkok, says Hanoi has begun a new reconstruction program in the South. The U.S.S. Hancock arrives at Subic Bay. Nguyen Cao Ky, the former South Vietnamese vice president, is rumored to be on his way to Guam.

May 4: Saigon radio reports the nation’s administering body, the Military Management Committee, has released Gen. Duong Van Minh, who was the president of South Vietnam for the two days before the war ended—and 18 other officials. All former South Vietnamese general military staff are ordered either to turn themselves in or face execution. Intelligence reports claim the Khmer Rouge have executed about a hundred military officers and their wives in Cambodia.

May 5: Ky arrives in Guam. He says the U.S. is not to blame for the defeat of South Vietnam and that the Americans “did a lot for us—too much [but] we were not brave enough to overthrow” South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. State Department officials believe the Cambodian government is forcing citizens to evacuate Phnom Penh and two other cities and has ordered executions of all political and military leaders from the previous regime. The Defense Department discloses the U.S. has begun transporting home many of the 120 aircraft that were flown to Thailand by fleeing South Vietnamese military pilots. The U.S. and Thai governments announce the reduction of 25,000 American troops in Thailand by 25 percent over the next two months. Ford asks Congress for $507 million in aid for refugee resettlement. Ky arrives in California.

May 6: At a news conference, Ford urges Americans to open their hearts to South Vietnamese refugees and welcome them to the U.S. The Pentagon says that more than 11,000 refugees have been processed and sent to new homes.

May 7: Ford issues a proclamation making this day the end of the “Vietnam Era,” the last day veterans can be eligible for wartime benefits. The Defense Department says the bodies of two Americans killed by a rocket barrage in late April in Saigon were left behind in the confusion of the evacuation The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration votes unanimously to fund the resettlement of 130,000 refugees.

The UN Economic and Social Council urges nations to help with postwar reconstruction in Southeast Asia. At Camp Pendleton, former Cambodian government leader Saukham Khoy says Cambodia paid Lon Nol $1 million to step down and leave the country.

May 8: A House Appropriations subcommittee cuts refugee aid to $405 million to be used over 14 months. In a New York Times special report, journalist Sydney Schanberg, who remained in Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge takeover and only recently left, describes the new government’s ongoing “peasant revolution.” A UN spokesman says Secretary General Kurt Waldheim met with Vietnamese representatives to discuss the opening of a diplomatic observer office in New York.

May 9: In Laos, five pro-American cabinet members resign. Saigon bans all checks and balances and becomes an all-cash economy.

May 10: The refugee airlift from Guam stops due to limited funding.

May 12: The White House announces that a Cambodian vessel has attacked the Mayaguez, an unarmed container ship, in the Gulf of Siam and forced it to dock at a Cambodian port. Ford calls it an “act of piracy,” and demands the Cambodian government release the ship immediately or face severe consequences.

The U.S.S. Midway arrives in Guam with more than 1,300 refugees and 99 aircraft repossessed from South Vietnam. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves $405 million in refugee aid. The Defense Department claims $2 billion in “serviceable” U.S. military equipment is in Vietnamese hands. A UN envoy says unification of North and South Vietnam is the “final aim” for Hanoi. The Khmer Rouge says it will accept foreign aid to help rebuild Cambodia.

May 13: U.S. ships and planes in the Western Pacific are put on alert. White House press secretary Ron Nessen says Ford will consult with Congress before ordering any military action to rescue the Mayaguez. Some 1,000 Vietnamese refugees arrive in South Korea. Saigon radio announces 30,000 residents have been relocated to the Mekong Delta.

May 14: President Ford consults with congressional leaders about the Mayaguez. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passes a resolution supporting Ford’s constitutional right to order military action to secure release of the Mayaguez and its crew, and to strike at Cambodian patrol boats. In Laos, citizens attack U.S. missions in Luang Prabang and Savannakhet. The U.S. files a formal complaint, and the embassy says evacuation of Americans scheduled for later in the year will begin immediately. The House approves two refugee-aid bills. France raises diplomatic contacts with the PRG to the “ambassadorial level.”

May 15: Ford announces all 39 Mayaguez crew members have been rescued and the ship recaptured in an operation, but that some Marines are still “under hostile fire” and will be withdrawn shortly. The president says the action included Marines storming Tang Island, where they reported strong opposition. Three helicopters are reported lost. The attack on the island takes place one hour before the release of the crew.

Ford also announces that the Cambodian mainland has been bombed and three patrol boats destroyed. The Cambodian government says the Mayaguez was released because “our weak country cannot have a confrontation with the U.S.A.” Saigon starts a three-day victory celebration and offers to establish relations with all countries, including the U.S.

May 16: The Defense Department discloses that the U.S. attacked the Cambodian mainland at Sihanoukville and Ream one hour after the first raid. One American is confirmed killed, thirteen listed as missing, and twenty-two believed injured. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says the Mayaguez rescue proves there are “limits beyond which the United States cannot be pushed around.” The Senate approves $405 million refugee aid. Saigon orders a midnight curfew.

May 17: The U.S. embassy in Vientiane, Laos, says they have lost contact with the Americans under house arrest in Savannakhet. Cambodia accuses the U.S. of using the Mayaguez incident as a “blatant provocation” to “execute a preestablished plan” to destroy Cambodia’s economic facilities.

May 18: Schlesinger says the casualties from the Mayaguez rescue are five dead, sixteen missing, and seventy to eighty wounded. A Pentagon spokesman concedes a mistake was made with the landing of Marines on Tang Island as the Mayaguez crew was being held on another island 25 miles away.

May 19: A Pentagon spokesman says the number of wounded is 49. Saigon radio says thousands of refugees are returning to their homes in the central provinces. Laos restricts citizens’ travel and requires everyone to register with the national police. Pathet Lao troops overtake several towns in the southern panhandle, including Savannakhet.

May 20: Casualties from the Mayaguez rescue now are put at fifteen dead, three missing, and fifty wounded.

May 21: A White House spokesman says 23 troops who died in a helicopter crash in Thailand before the Tong Island raid were not counted as Mayaguez casualties. They were preparing for the rescue mission. A 13-member North Vietnamese delegation arrives in Bangkok for talks on normalization of relations.

May 22: The U.S. agrees to negotiate an end to AID programs outside Vientiane at the request of the Laotian government. The U.S. Embassy says 14 Americans have been released from house arrest in Savannakhet. The PRG closes all book stalls and stores and prohibits the publication of literature distributed “under the former regime.”

May 23: The Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C., closes. The last PRG negotiator in Paris leaves France. Thailand says it wants to open diplomatic relations with Hanoi.

May 24: Resettlement of refugees slows. In a class-action suit, Mayaguez assistant engineer Albert Minichiello sues, on the crew’s behalf, the ship’s captain Charles T. Miller and the owner, Sea-Land, Inc., for endangering the crew by ignoring official warnings of potential danger off the Cambodian coast.

May 27: The U.S. will take all American and foreign AID employees out of Laos by June 30. Saigon asks the UN to help with repatriating all South Vietnamese refugees who wish to return home.

May 28: Cambodia announces rubber plantations are now nationalized.

May 29: Hanoi and Bangkok complete their talks with a “need [for] further discussion” before relations can be normalized.

May 30: In Vientiane, demonstrators put officials under increasing pressure to resign, which allows the Pathet Lao greater control over the government.

May 31: The Laotian acting defense minister orders troops to sever all relations with Americans.

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