Tales of the American Empire | September 3, 2020
Twelve days after the American evacuation from Saigon was complete in April 1975, the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez was carrying classified cargo from the abandoned American embassy in Saigon to an American airbase in Thailand. For unknown reasons, it foolishly sailed within two miles of a Cambodian island and was confronted by Cambodian patrol boats. The ship was seized, prompting demands from the White House for the immediate recapture of the ship and airstrikes on Cambodia. This resulted in an unnecessary and disorganized military response that killed a hundred innocent Cambodians and 41 American servicemen.
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“The Mayaguez Incident”; Wikipedia; provides more details and great links in the footnotes; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayague…
“More Revelations About Mayaguez (and its Secret Cargo)”; Jordan Paust; Boston College Law Review; May 1, 1981; https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/…
Related Tale; “The Strange Tale of the USS Pueblo”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYMl0…