In what has become a defining image of the fall of Saigon, a man believed to be a CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto a helicopter from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, an apartment building a half mile from the U.S. Embassy.
The helicopter was operated by Air America, an airline covertly owned and operated by the CIA from 1950-1976. Air America planes were masqueraded as civilian aircraft when, in actual fact, they were supporting U.S. Special Forces in secret operations across Asia. They delivered weapons and military equipment to American allies in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and flew covert missions as far as Burma and China.
When the image was first published, it was often incorrectly assumed to show Americans being evacuated from the American Embassy in the final hours of the war.