
Honorable Exit
How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save Our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Rob Shapiro
-
By:
-
Thurston Clarke
About this listen
A groundbreaking revisionist history of the last days of the Vietnam War that reveals the acts of American heroism that saved more than 100,000 South Vietnamese from communist revenge
In 1973 US participation in the Vietnam War ended in a cease-fire and a withdrawal that included promises by President Nixon to assist the South in the event of invasion by the North. But in early 1975, when North Vietnamese forces began a full-scale assault, Congress refused to send arms or aid. By early April that year, the South was on the brink of a defeat that threatened execution or years in a concentration camp for the untold number of South Vietnamese who had supported the government in Saigon or worked with Americans.
Thurston Clarke begins Honorable Exit by describing the iconic photograph of the Fall of Saigon: desperate Vietnamese scrambling to board a helicopter evacuating the last American personnel from Vietnam. It is an image of US failure and shame. Or is it? By unpacking the surprising story of heroism that the photograph actually tells, Clarke launches into a narrative that is both a thrilling race against time and an important corrective to the historical record. For what is less known is that during those final days, scores of Americans - diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, missionaries, contractors, and spies - risked their lives to assist their current and former translators, drivers, colleagues, neighbors, friends, and even perfect strangers in escape. By the time the last US helicopter left Vietnam on April 30, 1975, these righteous Americans had helped to spirit 130,000 South Vietnamese to US bases in Guam and the Philippines. From there, the evacuees were resettled in the United States and became American citizens, the leading edge of one of America's most successful immigrant groups.
Into this tale of heroism on the ground Clarke weaves the political machinations of Henry Kissinger advising President Ford in the White House while reinforcing the delusions of the US ambassador in Saigon, who, at the last minute, refused to depart. Groundbreaking and authoritative, Honorable Exit is a deeply moving history of Americans at a little-known finest hour.
Includes a PDF of the principal characters list from the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Thurston Clarke (P)2019 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Killing Jesus
- A History
- By: Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people have thrilled to best-selling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, works of nonfiction that have changed the way we view history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly 2,000 years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God.
-
-
The Jesus story in context
- By Kimberly on 10-01-13
By: Bill O'Reilly, and others
-
SOG Kontum
- Secret Missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia 1968-1969
- By: Joe Parnar, Robert Dumont
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book tells the story of the Teams operating out of FOB2 Kontum, near the tri-border area, in 1968-69. From recon missions over the fence to the heroic, and sometimes fatal efforts undertaken to try and rescue missing SOG members, the events are told through the words of the men themselves, supported by previously unreleased official documents.
-
-
Great story telling, gripping stories.
- By Derek Catalan on 03-23-25
By: Joe Parnar, and others
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .
- By Rum Runner on 07-28-17
By: Mark Bowden
-
We Saved SOG Souls
- 101st Airborne Missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos During the Vietnam War
- By: Roger Lockshier
- Narrated by: Justin Smallbridge
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the Vietnam War, far from the halls of Congress, snooping reporters, loving family members, and conventional US military forces in South Vietnam, a deadly, top-secret war was conducted for eight years across the fence in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam by small Green Beret-led reconnaissance teams.
-
-
Important History
- By Drew on 03-02-23
By: Roger Lockshier
-
Last Men Out
- The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the remarkable drama that unfolded over the final, heroic hours of the Vietnam War. This closing chapter of the war would become the largest-scale evacuation ever carried out, as improvised by a small unit of Marines, a vast fleet of helicopter pilots flying nonstop missions beyond regulation, and a Marine general who vowed to arrest any officer who ordered his choppers grounded while his men were still on the ground.
-
-
Solid Narration Makes a Great Read Better
- By Ransom Maggard on 05-24-24
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
Taking Berlin
- The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fall, 1944. Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup. The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy time and again in the Hurtgen Forest, during the Market-Garden invasion, and at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American general George Patton and British field marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies’ top battlefield commander.
-
-
Great until personal politics showed up
- By UP North on 12-16-22
By: Martin Dugard
-
Killing Jesus
- A History
- By: Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people have thrilled to best-selling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, works of nonfiction that have changed the way we view history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly 2,000 years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God.
-
-
The Jesus story in context
- By Kimberly on 10-01-13
By: Bill O'Reilly, and others
-
SOG Kontum
- Secret Missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia 1968-1969
- By: Joe Parnar, Robert Dumont
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book tells the story of the Teams operating out of FOB2 Kontum, near the tri-border area, in 1968-69. From recon missions over the fence to the heroic, and sometimes fatal efforts undertaken to try and rescue missing SOG members, the events are told through the words of the men themselves, supported by previously unreleased official documents.
-
-
Great story telling, gripping stories.
- By Derek Catalan on 03-23-25
By: Joe Parnar, and others
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .
- By Rum Runner on 07-28-17
By: Mark Bowden
-
We Saved SOG Souls
- 101st Airborne Missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos During the Vietnam War
- By: Roger Lockshier
- Narrated by: Justin Smallbridge
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the Vietnam War, far from the halls of Congress, snooping reporters, loving family members, and conventional US military forces in South Vietnam, a deadly, top-secret war was conducted for eight years across the fence in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam by small Green Beret-led reconnaissance teams.
-
-
Important History
- By Drew on 03-02-23
By: Roger Lockshier
-
Last Men Out
- The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the remarkable drama that unfolded over the final, heroic hours of the Vietnam War. This closing chapter of the war would become the largest-scale evacuation ever carried out, as improvised by a small unit of Marines, a vast fleet of helicopter pilots flying nonstop missions beyond regulation, and a Marine general who vowed to arrest any officer who ordered his choppers grounded while his men were still on the ground.
-
-
Solid Narration Makes a Great Read Better
- By Ransom Maggard on 05-24-24
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
Taking Berlin
- The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fall, 1944. Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup. The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy time and again in the Hurtgen Forest, during the Market-Garden invasion, and at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American general George Patton and British field marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies’ top battlefield commander.
-
-
Great until personal politics showed up
- By UP North on 12-16-22
By: Martin Dugard
-
Operation Thunderbolt
- Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 27, 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by a group of Arab and German terrorists who demanded the release of 53 terrorists. The plane was forced to divert to Entebbe in Uganda - ruled by the murderous despot Idi Amin, who had no interest in intervening. Days later, Israeli commandos disguised as Ugandan soldiers assaulted the airport terminal, killed all the terrorists, and rescued all the hostages but three who were killed in the crossfire. The assault force suffered just one fatality.
-
-
A story of true courage and political resolve
- By Gabe Schwartz on 01-28-16
By: Saul David
-
On Full Automatic
- Surviving 13 Months in Vietnam
- By: William V. Taylor Jr.
- Narrated by: Michael Curtis
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Marine recruit William V. Taylor, Jr. and his brother Marines are assembled into a new reaction force that is immediately tested in the fire of a bloody conflict known as Operation Beaver Cage. After a traumatic first fight, they push through back-to-back operations with little time to rest or reflect. Those who survive will return home ensnared by everlasting memories of a real but entirely surreal nightmare. Now, after more than 50 years of holding everything in, Taylor shares his experience in explicit—and often horrific—detail.
-
-
Great story telling!
- By Josh on 03-28-23
-
19 Minutes to Live
- Helicopter Combat in Vietnam
- By: Lew Jennings
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over 12,000 helicopters were used in the Vietnam War, which is why it became known as "The Helicopter War". Almost half of the helicopters, 5,086, were lost. This memoir describes first-hand the harrowing experiences of helicopter pilots and crews in combat operations, from the far South to the DMZ, including the infamous Ashau Valley, Hamburger Hill, LZ Airborne, and others. 19 Minutes to Live illustrates the incredible courage and determination of helicopter pilots and crews supporting those heroes that carried a rucksack and a rifle in Vietnam.
-
-
Not a novel about flying in Vietnam
- By Jimhusky on 09-05-18
By: Lew Jennings
-
Rise and Kill First
- The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations
- By: Ronen Bergman
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small....
-
-
Eye Opening
- By Ari Safari on 02-09-18
By: Ronen Bergman
-
The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam
- By: Douglas Valentine
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A shocking expos of the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam, with a new introduction by the author. In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.”
-
-
An Answer To My Unanswered Questions
- By JustBill on 08-27-19
-
The Vietnam War
- An Intimate History
- By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Ken Burns, Brian Corrigan
- Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than 40 years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war.
-
-
The usual Vietnam info delivered in the old prose
- By Kevin Warren on 10-26-17
By: Geoffrey C. Ward, and others
-
The Forgotten 500
- By: Gregory A. Freeman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the astonishing, never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II: when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines. During a bombing campaign, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian villagers risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers, and for months the airmen lived in hiding, waiting for rescue.
-
-
an amazing tale
- By Ron on 10-28-07
-
Mossad
- The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
- By: Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal
- Narrated by: Benjamin Isaac
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mossad, authors MichaelBar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history.
-
-
maybe with a different reader.
- By Andrew on 04-30-16
By: Michael Bar-Zohar, and others
-
My American Journey
- An Autobiography
- By: Colin Powell
- Narrated by: Colin Powell
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history - including Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, and Desert Storm - but a history that until now has been known only on the surface.
-
-
Audio book is abridged!
- By Lydia on 02-11-21
By: Colin Powell
-
Madame Fourcade's Secret War
- The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1941 a 31-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization - the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence. Fourcade was captured twice by the Nazis - and both times she managed to escape.
-
-
Marvelous book, inappropriate narrator
- By Phoebs on 03-07-19
By: Lynne Olson
-
The Last 100 Days
- The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 27 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, The Last 100 Days brings to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred people - from Hitler's personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici.
-
-
More the sum of the parts
- By Mike From Mesa on 08-27-15
By: John Toland
-
The Unraveling
- High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
- By: Emma Sky
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.
-
-
Inspiring memoir; irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-16
By: Emma Sky
Critic reviews
“Serious, well-researched and engaging.” (Pierre Asselin, The Washington Post)
“America's years in Vietnam were full of shame, but the last days of the war saw a remarkable effort at redemption. Breaking rules set by their higher-ups, ordinary Americans - servicemen, diplomats, spies, private citizens - moved heaven and earth to get their Vietnamese friends and allies to safety. Thurston Clarke's Honorable Exit brings this little-known story to light with the speed and power of a riveting thriller. It challenges us to remember a time when Americans refused to abandon desperate people in a far-off country. It's a kind of Schindler's List for America's lost war.” (George Packer, author of The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq and The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America)
“Vietnam is America’s unfinished war - unfinished because so many, men and women, have yet to come home body and soul. Honorable Exit is that homecoming. Beautifully written, achingly poignant, scrupulously reported, this story is a revelation. We see history in ways we hadn't imagined. Honorable Exit is a book for every generation of readers.” (Doug Stanton, number one New York Times best-selling author of 12 Strong and The Odyssey of Echo Company)
“Filled with new information and riveting recreations of daring rescues, this book adds significantly to the history of a notable moment in U.S. military history.” (Publishers Weekly)
What listeners say about Honorable Exit
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Avid Reader
- 09-04-23
Very detailed account of the fall of Saigon
This is a long one. If you enjoy detailed accounts of historical events this is for you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 10-17-22
Excellent
Well researched. Well Written. The Author paints a vivid picture of those hectic and tragic days in April 1975. Highly recommend.
Performance was excellent as well
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- B & B
- 04-10-21
Fascinating
Well detailed account of the final days of the Vietnam war . Heroes and villains all get a mention . Well done. You can almost hear the chopper blades in your head and see the 400 left behind looking up at the last one leaving . Sad
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!