In April 1975, after the final U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, Chase Manhattan Bank senior executives presented Ralph White, a junior officer, a daunting mission: helping the Saigon branch’s 53 Vietnamese employees escape. Mr. White describes the overwhelming barriers he faced and the smart, often heart-stopping ways he overcame them in his book, “Getting out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians.” 

Sharp observations punctuate the gripping story. When Mr. White gets a ride in an embassy employee’s Lincoln Continental, he recalls feeling acutely cut off. 

“If you walk, you pick up a lot of detail. If you ride a bicycle, you lose a little detail,” he says. “But when you’re in a tank of a car – armored, bulletproof glass, air-conditioned – you have no idea what’s going on out there,” says Mr. White, adding, “I put it together later that [the Continental] maybe did have something to do with the U.S. being out of touch.”

The success of his mission hinged on several key traits, like tenacity and resolve. “As far as my own qualities, there’s a term: willful,” says Mr. White. “When somebody tries to keep me from doing something that I think I ought to be able to do, I get very obsessive about finding a way around them.”

In early April 1975, after the final U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, Chase Manhattan Bank senior executives asked Ralph White, a Bangkok-based junior officer, to accept a daunting mission: serving as the exit strategy for the Saigon branch’s 53 Vietnamese employees. As the subtitle of Mr. White’s recently published book promises, he succeeded. What it doesn’t give away are the overwhelming barriers he faced and the smart, often heart-stopping ways he overcame them. Recently Mr. White chatted with Monitor contributor Erin Douglass. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

The success of your mission seemed to hinge on several key behaviors, including taking responsibility. Does that ring true to you – and what were some others?

I guess so. I often hear “tenacity,” and I think that played a role. I was only 10 years out of high school and, I think, immature for my age. I was knocking around in Southeast Asia when, all of a sudden, history started happening. I was a bit awed by it. 

I think the foreign service officers who sided with me – Shep Lowman, the political officer in the U.S. Embassy [in Saigon], and Ken Moorefield, who was operating as the ambassador’s aid at the Evacuation Control Center, the two of them were absolutely vital to my success. Along with Col. [William] Madison at the Defense Attaché Office, I would say they were really the key success factors.

As far as my own qualities, there’s a term: willful. When somebody tries to keep me from doing something that I think I ought to be able to do, I get very obsessive about finding a way around them. I just kept poking away at the embassy and the Defense Attaché. The other factor was just sheer luck. Twice in the book, I mention how many places things could have gone differently, starting at the beginning when they picked me instead of the guy who they originally offered the assignment to, who very likely would’ve evacuated the four [bank] officers and considered it a job well done.

Another stand-out quality in the book is your sharp observation. Would you share the story about the dust cloud in Saigon?