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Escape from Saigon
Americans are now more than ever turning to novels about the Vietnam War for a better understanding of how to deal with the protracted US foreign entanglements that have evolved over the past four decades and the mass refugee exodus that followed the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975
By 1975, US military had been gone for two years. The North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces, resulting in thousands of refugees pouring into Saigon once known as The Paris of the Orient. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath.
Escape from Saigon a Novel follows the fears, romance, danger and heroism of ordinary people trapped in the besieged city. Among them are Matt Moran a former GI attempting to rescue his Vietnamese relatives; Lisette Vo, NBS-TV's first Vietnamese-American correspondent who chronicles the final days with Sam Esposito the hard-hitting Washington Legend journalist; an American businessman risking his life to smuggle out his employees; and the last remaining US diplomatic personnel in Saigon, including the disillusioned Ambassador Graham Martin, military liaisons, and CIA operatives, double agents and spies.
The NVA onslaught is spearheaded by two officers—one intent on maintaining military restraint, the other bent on revenge and will sweep up families, friends, and comrades in this final chapter of a war that has already taken millions of lives.
Escape from Saigon is a story of a city and its inhabitants struggling to survive in its most desperate hours—a tale that stays true to the historic record while recounting moments of human hardship, courage, and triumph.
By 1975, US military had been gone for two years. The North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces, resulting in thousands of refugees pouring into Saigon once known as The Paris of the Orient. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath.
Escape from Saigon a Novel follows the fears, romance, danger and heroism of ordinary people trapped in the besieged city. Among them are Matt Moran a former GI attempting to rescue his Vietnamese relatives; Lisette Vo, NBS-TV's first Vietnamese-American correspondent who chronicles the final days with Sam Esposito the hard-hitting Washington Legend journalist; an American businessman risking his life to smuggle out his employees; and the last remaining US diplomatic personnel in Saigon, including the disillusioned Ambassador Graham Martin, military liaisons, and CIA operatives, double agents and spies.
The NVA onslaught is spearheaded by two officers—one intent on maintaining military restraint, the other bent on revenge and will sweep up families, friends, and comrades in this final chapter of a war that has already taken millions of lives.
Escape from Saigon is a story of a city and its inhabitants struggling to survive in its most desperate hours—a tale that stays true to the historic record while recounting moments of human hardship, courage, and triumph.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 2, 2017
67 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 18, 2019
I was not able to finish reading this book. There was nothing grasping about this story including dialogue. It is a very cold sounding, technical story, with no depth or feeling to it. There might be brief moments touching upon feelings for ex. between a married couple Vinh and Thu, when their story is being revealed, but for most of the part the dialogue between generals and officers sets cold tone for the whole story. Plus listing aircrafts, events, organizations, or people without any story behind it is very shallow.
@FB: Best Historical Fiction
@FB: Best Historical Fiction
March 17, 2025
Too many characters to follow that doesn’t leave an impression through its bland prose.
April 2, 2019
Good read about the final days of the US in Saigon in 1975.
February 25, 2018
4 1/2 stars
By 1975, US military had been gone for two years. The North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces, resulting in thousands of refugees pouring into Saigon once known as The Paris of the Orient. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath.
Escape from Saigon a Novel follows the fears, romance, danger and heroism of ordinary people trapped in the besieged city.
This was an excellent read. It started off slowly, due to a slew of military jargon, but the pace keeps speeding forward the further you get into the book. There’s an excellent selection of three-dimensional characters and relationships. I don’t know exactly how accurate the details are, but everything is believable and seem to match up with what I remember hearing on news coverage at the time.
There are some typographical errors, but nothing I’d consider overly disruptive. I think the worst of these is when a news reporter uses her camera to fight off another person, destroying it, but then uses it a short while later to record. There is no mention of her having a second camera, and given the situation when this happens it’s highly unlikely that she would have been able to carry more than one.
I’m not a big fan of Vietnam War stories, but I did find myself enjoying this one. There are a couple of characters I cared about whose final fate isn’t spelled out, but everything else is tied up nicely.
A good read without overly graphic violence.
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
By 1975, US military had been gone for two years. The North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces, resulting in thousands of refugees pouring into Saigon once known as The Paris of the Orient. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath.
Escape from Saigon a Novel follows the fears, romance, danger and heroism of ordinary people trapped in the besieged city.
This was an excellent read. It started off slowly, due to a slew of military jargon, but the pace keeps speeding forward the further you get into the book. There’s an excellent selection of three-dimensional characters and relationships. I don’t know exactly how accurate the details are, but everything is believable and seem to match up with what I remember hearing on news coverage at the time.
There are some typographical errors, but nothing I’d consider overly disruptive. I think the worst of these is when a news reporter uses her camera to fight off another person, destroying it, but then uses it a short while later to record. There is no mention of her having a second camera, and given the situation when this happens it’s highly unlikely that she would have been able to carry more than one.
I’m not a big fan of Vietnam War stories, but I did find myself enjoying this one. There are a couple of characters I cared about whose final fate isn’t spelled out, but everything else is tied up nicely.
A good read without overly graphic violence.
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
March 24, 2017
Escape from Saigon provides snapshots of the chaos occurring in the final month of the war. Each day of the month, there is a new story told through a group of individuals: war correspondents, a former soldier going back to save the family of his Vietnamese wife, diplomats struggling to do what needed to be done, an ambassador who had checked out from reality, a Vietnamese pilot who deflects and another who pilots a helicopter filled with family to safety, and United States Marines assigned to the embassy. Some of the stories were based on events that I recalled happening. This book captures the horror and some of the heroic events that occurred that month.
I enjoyed this book. My only complaint was that on at least one occasion, I felt the text jump out of the present (April 1975) and into the future. Although as a reader one knows what happens (South Vietnam falls), keeping the suspense in the present is important as no one was really sure when it would occur and what would happen as the country spun out of control.
This novel was written by two different authors. The two had worked together on non-fiction projects beforehand, but this is their first attempt at writing fiction together. Despite having two authors, the story reads seamlessly. Both authors were Vietnam vets. Morris was in the infantry while Pirozzolo served in the Air Force assisting in the daily briefings for the press corps (which became known as the "5 O'Clock Follies").
I enjoyed this book. My only complaint was that on at least one occasion, I felt the text jump out of the present (April 1975) and into the future. Although as a reader one knows what happens (South Vietnam falls), keeping the suspense in the present is important as no one was really sure when it would occur and what would happen as the country spun out of control.
This novel was written by two different authors. The two had worked together on non-fiction projects beforehand, but this is their first attempt at writing fiction together. Despite having two authors, the story reads seamlessly. Both authors were Vietnam vets. Morris was in the infantry while Pirozzolo served in the Air Force assisting in the daily briefings for the press corps (which became known as the "5 O'Clock Follies").
April 27, 2017
Devastating nightmare of a city surrounded and lost, filled with people who know that they will die if they don't get out. Also a story of heroism, love, betrayal, insanity and courage. Although this is fiction, it is based in fact and gives us a view of the horror that the fall of Saigon was.
This is a book well worth the read.
This is a book well worth the read.
April 12, 2017
Defining time
Escape from Saigon captures in focus a brief but defining time in the saga of the war in Vietnam. This adds human dimension to what would otherwise be a history book photo recollection of a helicopter on the Saigon embassy roof.
Escape from Saigon captures in focus a brief but defining time in the saga of the war in Vietnam. This adds human dimension to what would otherwise be a history book photo recollection of a helicopter on the Saigon embassy roof.
June 2, 2017
Excellent book! I was not very familiar with the fall of Saigon and was a very realistic story that brings you close to those last 30 days of so much uncertainty. I highly recommend!
March 24, 2017
Escape from Saigon provides snapshots of the chaos occurring in the final month of the war. Each day of the month, there is a new story told through a group of individuals: war correspondents, a former soldier going back to save the family of his Vietnamese wife, diplomats struggling to do what needed to be done, an ambassador who had checked out from reality, a Vietnamese pilot who deflects and another who pilots a helicopter filled with family to safety, and United States Marines assigned to the embassy. Some of the stories were based on events I recalled happening. This book captures the horror and some of the heroic events that occurred during that month.
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy and quick read. My only complaint was that on at least one occasion, I felt the text jump out of the present (April 1975) and into the future. Although the reader one knows what happens (South Vietnam falls), keeping the suspense in the present is important as no one was really sure when it would occur and what would happen as the country spun out of control.
This novel was written by two different authors. The two had worked together on non-fiction projects beforehand, but this is their first attempt at writing fiction together. Despite having two authors, the story reads seamlessly. Both authors were Vietnam vets. Morris was in the infantry while Pirozzolo served in the Air Force assisting in the daily briefings for the press corps (which became known as the "5 O'Clock Follies").
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy and quick read. My only complaint was that on at least one occasion, I felt the text jump out of the present (April 1975) and into the future. Although the reader one knows what happens (South Vietnam falls), keeping the suspense in the present is important as no one was really sure when it would occur and what would happen as the country spun out of control.
This novel was written by two different authors. The two had worked together on non-fiction projects beforehand, but this is their first attempt at writing fiction together. Despite having two authors, the story reads seamlessly. Both authors were Vietnam vets. Morris was in the infantry while Pirozzolo served in the Air Force assisting in the daily briefings for the press corps (which became known as the "5 O'Clock Follies").
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September 21, 2020WHOA!! I was chasing my tail in my first jobs after college - and getting married - and turning a summer cottage into a year-round house - so I didn’t much notice anything else that was going on around me - especially the details regarding the end of a war that sucked up thousands of my fellow graduates and would have had me too except for a medical classification as ‘1Y’ (NOT “bone spurs”).
This book brought it all back to life - in the kind of detail that’s possible only from someone who was THERE!
The detail does not make for an ‘enjoyable’ story. (Hoping for a different ending is kind of like watching Romeo and Juliette and expecting them to ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after.) But it was an enlightening history lesson cleverly disguised as a novel - - a very well written novel with vividly real characters and a sense of complete reality regarding the last of our days in Saigon.
There had to be additional details that will remain forever unknown - except to those who lived them - but this book preserves enough. If you weren’t there - - you owe it to those that were - and those who died there - to read Escape from Saigon.
This book brought it all back to life - in the kind of detail that’s possible only from someone who was THERE!
The detail does not make for an ‘enjoyable’ story. (Hoping for a different ending is kind of like watching Romeo and Juliette and expecting them to ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after.) But it was an enlightening history lesson cleverly disguised as a novel - - a very well written novel with vividly real characters and a sense of complete reality regarding the last of our days in Saigon.
There had to be additional details that will remain forever unknown - except to those who lived them - but this book preserves enough. If you weren’t there - - you owe it to those that were - and those who died there - to read Escape from Saigon.
October 14, 2022
I arrived home from Vietnam in the spring of 1971, ecstatic to be back in the World, excited to share my experiences and stories...until it became apparent no one wanted to hear them. No one cared about Vietnam, or about what was going on there, or what my experiences were. "Well F... You" I thought. I put my head down and went on with my life, soon not caring about Vietnam either.
In the spring of 1975 I was working at a bank during the day, and attending law school at night. I did not know or care what went on outside my personal sphere, or elsewhere in the world. I paid scant attention to the fall of Saigon. It didn't concern me.
I am so glad I happened upon this book. Yes, it is fiction, but based on what really happened. I needed to know what happened in April, 1975. I am glad I know, and ashamed it took me 45 years to find out. Over the years I came to realize what a mess the U.S. made of its involvement in Vietnam. It should have come as no surprise to me that the U.S. government continued to muck it up right up to the very last moment, quite literally. And to think we did it all over again, right down to the mucked up abandonment of the people in Afghanistan.
In the spring of 1975 I was working at a bank during the day, and attending law school at night. I did not know or care what went on outside my personal sphere, or elsewhere in the world. I paid scant attention to the fall of Saigon. It didn't concern me.
I am so glad I happened upon this book. Yes, it is fiction, but based on what really happened. I needed to know what happened in April, 1975. I am glad I know, and ashamed it took me 45 years to find out. Over the years I came to realize what a mess the U.S. made of its involvement in Vietnam. It should have come as no surprise to me that the U.S. government continued to muck it up right up to the very last moment, quite literally. And to think we did it all over again, right down to the mucked up abandonment of the people in Afghanistan.
April 23, 2020
It was interesting to read about the final 30 days of the government of South Vietnam, as told through the eyes of some of the inhabitants of Saigon: a journalist, a CIA chief, a barkeep, an embassy staffer, a bank manager, and others. However, the novel is completely void of emotion. So much so that I found myself wanting a more thorough non-fictional account of the events leading up to the fall of Saigon. I mean, if you are not going to develop characters and let us inside, why write a historical fiction novel?
May 9, 2022
Great book. As with all historical fiction, events while they may have taken place don’t always happen the way they are depicted, but this was a well told story of the pathetically shameful exit from Saigon by the United States. If you were shocked by the United States botch job getting out of Afghanistan a little look back at how Saigon went will provide a good blue print.
A great look at a disastrous period in American history which as we daw with Afghanistan, America learned nothing from looking at Vietnam.
A great look at a disastrous period in American history which as we daw with Afghanistan, America learned nothing from looking at Vietnam.
September 25, 2018
Essential reading
This fine book puts you where you never want to be ... In Saigers during the final, terrible agony of a war being lost. From the bars to the battles, Morris and Pirozzolo paint the bleak days in vivid strokes. I vouch for the accuracy, enjoyed the wild characters and lost some sleep because it was hard to stop reading. Lots of inside baseball details shows the research was blended with personal experience.
This fine book puts you where you never want to be ... In Saigers during the final, terrible agony of a war being lost. From the bars to the battles, Morris and Pirozzolo paint the bleak days in vivid strokes. I vouch for the accuracy, enjoyed the wild characters and lost some sleep because it was hard to stop reading. Lots of inside baseball details shows the research was blended with personal experience.
January 27, 2019
This was an interesting multi-perspective view of the final days of fall of Saigon, and I believe it was historically accurate. I enjoyed the story and learned about that period in time, which was my goal in selecting this book. I didn’t love the writing, nor did I feel any of the characters reached a depth that I could bond with them. In fact, I had some trouble keeping them straight when I put the book down for several days. It’s a three-star “I liked it,” for me.
July 14, 2023
escape from Saigon
Having travelled to Vietnam in 2010, I would relate to many of the places in this book. I fell in love with the book and could not put it down or wait for my next opportunity to continue the story. Having read historical books about the War, watched TV shows and documentaries, and of course movies, this novel brought the story to life. Well written and enjoyable. Loved it.
Having travelled to Vietnam in 2010, I would relate to many of the places in this book. I fell in love with the book and could not put it down or wait for my next opportunity to continue the story. Having read historical books about the War, watched TV shows and documentaries, and of course movies, this novel brought the story to life. Well written and enjoyable. Loved it.
January 21, 2019
Excellent read. Very historically accurate. I usually don't read historical fiction but this one sounded interesting. The authors did not let me down. You really could feel the panic and chaos of the fall of Saigon. I highly recommend this book for other history buffs.
October 24, 2020
An Excellent Account of the Final Days
A few technical errors, but otherwise good account of those last days. I have several Vietnamese friends who have similar accounts of their escape from Vietnam
A few technical errors, but otherwise good account of those last days. I have several Vietnamese friends who have similar accounts of their escape from Vietnam
May 5, 2021
Great story, well written!
I loved the story, and it’s well written. I have been to Vietnam eight times, and this account made me cry for those wonderful people
Dying to return once again after this awful pandemic is under control.
I loved the story, and it’s well written. I have been to Vietnam eight times, and this account made me cry for those wonderful people
Dying to return once again after this awful pandemic is under control.
March 16, 2025
Good Read
The authors kept things moving in this book. They covered a lot of ground & the characters were interesting — but they kept it moving. I learned a lot, as well. Well-done.
The authors kept things moving in this book. They covered a lot of ground & the characters were interesting — but they kept it moving. I learned a lot, as well. Well-done.
September 18, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. Although actually historical fiction, this book provides a lot of facts about the last days of Saigon. Highly recommended for those who are interested in that time.
April 25, 2020
Shallow characters and a cursory storyline mar this fictional story set in the last days of Saigon.
September 11, 2020
A piece of history.
A story that needs to be told from the perspective of those that were directly involved with those last weeks and days of the Vietnam war.
A story that needs to be told from the perspective of those that were directly involved with those last weeks and days of the Vietnam war.
August 20, 2022
A quick, well-constructed quick read that shows the war's final days through the eyes of a number of characters.
September 11, 2025
It was a very slow start. I learned and I finished it. It is not a pretty picture of how our Government reacted to LOSING, but thought-provoking and accurate. Ambassador Graham Martin was especially disturbing.
July 25, 2018
Since I coauthored "Escape from Saigon," with Michael Morris, I am a bit biased.
Nevertheless, if you want an overview of the Vietnam War with insight into the perspective and feelings Americans and Vietnamese had toward the War as it ground on for decades, this is a terrific novel. The characters represent archetypes of the folks who were involved — from the bright-eyed kid who goes off to war to fight communism to French hangers on, to US diplomats and Lisette Vo, who represents the emergence of powerful women in broadcast media. The book is a quick read without gratuitous violence or battle scene clichés by the way.
Nevertheless, if you want an overview of the Vietnam War with insight into the perspective and feelings Americans and Vietnamese had toward the War as it ground on for decades, this is a terrific novel. The characters represent archetypes of the folks who were involved — from the bright-eyed kid who goes off to war to fight communism to French hangers on, to US diplomats and Lisette Vo, who represents the emergence of powerful women in broadcast media. The book is a quick read without gratuitous violence or battle scene clichés by the way.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews