Skip to main content
Shop Merch Add a Show Listing
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

Is "Kim's Nightmare" scene in Miss Saigon historically accurate?

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

#1

Is "Kim's Nightmare" scene in Miss Saigon historically accurate?

According to this NY Times article from 2000, the famous rooftop evacuation took place at an apartment building, not the U.S. Embassy:

The World; Getting It Wrong in a Photo

Did something similar happen at the embassy, or did the show's creators make the same mistake as the "people back in the United States [who] just took it for granted that it must be the embassy, because that was where they believed the evacuation took place"?


==> this board is a nest of vipers <==

"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
#2

Is

Or, they took dramatic license.....and made it work for the show.


If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#3

Is "Kim's Nightmare" scene in Miss Saigon historically accurate?

To sort of answer my own question, I just found this Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frequent_Wind

It states that "The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was intended to only be a secondary evacuation point for embassy staff, but it was soon overwhelmed with evacuees and desperate South Vietnamese. The evacuation of the embassy was completed at 07:53 on 30 April, but some Americans chose to stay or were left behind and some 400 third country nationals were left at the embassy."

So apparently there was a famous photograph in which many people mistook an apartment building for the embassy, but there was also an embassy evacuation.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.


==> this board is a nest of vipers <==

"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage

BroadwayWorld TV


Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $70
Hot Show
Tickets From $106
Hot Show
Tickets From $159