’A Precedent Worth Setting . . .’ Military Humanitarianism: The U.S. Military and the 1975 Vietnamese Evacuation

As the Saigon government collapsed in 1975, the U.S. military evacuated more than 100,000 Vietnamese to the United States. Framed by congressional distrust of military action, the shift to the All-Volunteer Force, and the integration of women into the armed forces, this refugee operation marked a turning point in how the U.S. military perceived humanitarian operations. “Military” and “humanitarian” work co-existed in an uneasy balance, yet over time, operations that might be seen as routine, or even feminized, gained political value. Defining the 1975 Vietnamese evacuation as humanitarian thus became a telling precedent in the military’s growing scope of operations.