Mayaguez – It’s Just as Difficult an Incident for Ford as It is to Pronounce

May 15

“Mayaguez” is not only challenging to pronounce, but it doesn’t ring a bell in many minds either. The Mayaguez Incident took place in May 1975 in Cambodia, a country few people can find on a map. After visiting the country this summer, I found that no Cambodians (Khmer) can recall the Incident. However, this served as a major test of President Ford’s foreign policy skills that turned out poorly, but only in hindsight.

Capture of the SS Mayaguez

On May 12, 1975, a military swift boat commanded by the Khmer Rouge captured the U.S. container ship Mayaguez off the Cambodian coast. The Cambodians detected the ship within their territorial waters off Poulo Wai Island. The uninhabited isle lies some 59 miles off the Cambodian coast. The Khmer soldiers had the ship dock at nearby Koh Tang Island. Next, the Mayaguez crew of thirty-nine boarded two Cambodian fishing boats and sailed to the mainland.

Ford’s Dilemma

President Gerald Ford, less than a year in office, now faced one of his first foreign policy challenges. American leaders quickly became aware of the capture and President Ford called a meeting of his National Security Council. This came at a bad time in American foreign relations in Southeast Asia for three major reasons. First, the month before Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, fell to the Communist Khmer Rouge that had ousted the America-backed government. The Khmer Rouge would go on to initiate a brutal 4-year genocide of its own people, exterminating an estimated one-quarter of the Cambodian population. The horrific crimes are related in the 1984 movie The Killing Fields. Second, the Mayaguez capture came only two weeks after Saigon had fallen to the Communist North Vietnamese. ‘America’s Longest’ and most painful war came to an end. Finally, Ford recalled the 1968 incident involving the USS Pueblo and its capture by the North Koreans. This led to an 11-month hostage standoff with the ship serving as a victory symbol of the authoritarian regime. It is on display in Pyongyang to this day.

Ford took two tracks one diplomatic and the other military. Since the US government had no formal relations with Cambodia, Ford tried to have the American liaison to China, future president George H.W. Bush, garner influence from the Mao-led government. The Chinese diplomacy gained no results. Military activation went into effect quickly.

Ford ordered navy ships to the area and surveillance aircraft from the Philippines and Thailand to locate the Mayaguez. The Khmer soldiers led by Se Mean had the boat and crew moved to the larger and better defended Koh Tang Island some thirty miles off the coast of Cambodia. Ford ordered all boats heading to or from Koh Tang sunk. Once located, military aircraft successfully used cannon fire to keep the Mayaguez at Koh Tang. However, Se Mean used fishing boats to transport the Mayaguez crew to the mainland. The air force quickly sunk two swift boats escorting the fishing vessels but then decided against following their orders after realizing “Caucasians” were onboard. The Mayaguez crew ended up landing at the port city of Kampong Soam (today called Sihanoukville) on the Cambodian mainland. This was short lived. The Khmer commander of the city feared retribution from the United States and forced the crew to move to the small nearby island of Koh Rong Sanloem. This last movement went undetected by the U.S.

Logistics became a problem for Ford. The nearest marines were in the Philippines and some Air Force military police and nineteen helicopters were at his disposal in Thailand. Due to the lack of nearby personnel, on May 13 Ford decided to use the military police to rescue the crew. These eighteen men and the five crew all died in a helicopter crash caused by mechanical failure on the way to a staging area. This now led Ford to transport the marines to Thailand.

Due to the loss of several men and swift boats, the Khmer commander at Kampong Soam asked Mayaguez Captain Charles Miller if he could radio the U.S. air force and call off the strikes. Miller replied that he could do so from the Mayaguez, thus plans were made to return the crew to their vessel.

Before this could happen, the U.S. attack of Koh Tang proceeded. It involved three parts. First, the U.S.S. Harold Holt’s forces would board the Mayaguez. It commenced early in the morning of May 14 with tear gas encompassing the Mayaguez followed by marines boarding the ship. After a thorough search they found the boat empty. Second, Ford also approved the bombing of Kampong Soam to inhibit any reinforcements reaching Koh Tang. Third, helicopters would drop men off on two beaches on either side of Koh Tang.

Ford decided the marines would rescue the Mayaguez crew from the island not knowing that they had moved to the mainland. Due to dense jungle and anti-aircraft fire the reconnaissance of the island was sorely lacking. Reports noted that between 150-200 combatants occupied the island but no mention of the Mayaguez party. This information never reached local command who believed only 20-30 Khmer fighters were there and possibly some of the crew.

The helicopter landings on Koh Thang did not go well. Due to fear of Vietnamese infiltration, Koh Tang was heavily defended with mortars, RPGs, heavy machine guns and plenty of ammunition stored in a bomb-proof bunker. The first American helicopter offloaded a group of marines but was damaged so badly that it ditched in the ocean. The second helicopter took so much fire that it turned back and had to make an emergency landing in Thailand. The marines delivered to the other side of the island had a worse fate. Two RPGs hit the chopper on approach, and it crashed in a fireball in the ocean killing half of the twenty-six men and leaving the others to swim for two hours before being rescued. The next helicopter lost its tail section due to RPG fire and crash landed on the beach, but all onboard survived. An AC-130 gunship which fires up 6,000 rounds a minute arrived to suppress Khmer fire and support the marines. Eventually twenty-nine men disembarked on one beach and eighty-one on the other.

On May 14, about the same time as these landings, the Khmer government announced it had no intention of keeping the ship or its crew. The message stated that they just wanted to inspect the ship and know why it had violated Cambodia’s territorial waters. Shortly thereafter the crew was released and by 9:49 that morning they had boarded the USS Henry B. Wilson. Upon receipt of the favorable news President Ford addressed the nation about the crew and ship’s recovery. Ford failed to mention the ongoing fight on Koh Tong Island. Nevertheless, this filtered news served as a public relations triumph for the 38th president. His poll numbers initially went up eleven points.

Ford had the airstrikes on the Cambodian mainland carried out to allegedly help ensure the marines removal from the island. He also halted the second wave of marines from landing on Koh Tang. However, this order was reversed when commanders on the ground believed they might be overrun due to heavy resistance. The Khmer soldiers continued to fight the Americans but faced an enfilade of fire from U.S. aircraft strafing the jungle line and dropping bombs all over the area. After a full day of fighting a withdrawal of the Marines began in the early evening. Due to the bravery of several helicopter pilots and their nighttime flying skills the evacuation finished around by 8PM.

However, by 10PM, due to the disorganized withdrawal from two beaches and marines spread among three ships the commander realized three marines were left behind along with thirty-eight dead. The three marines protected a flank and did not retreat as their perimeter closed for extraction. The trio radioed about 10:20PM they were still on Koh Tang. The captain of the Holt told them to swim out to sea to be rescued but two of the three men couldn’t swim, and one was wounded. This was the last radio transmission from the marines.

The admiral in charge decided against a rescue mission unless there was proof of life. The next day the Wilson skirted Koh Tang announcing their intention of only rescuing the marines and recovering the dead. A majority of the ship’s crew took to the deck to look for signs of life. There were none.

What happened to these marines comes from Khmer reports. One marine had shot and killed a Khmer soldier before surrendering. The Khmer commander on the island Em Son had him executed immediately. The other two marines evaded capture for a few days but were discovered because of their boot prints in the Khmer camp near the food pantry. The two were captured while returning to the food storeroom the following night and were sent to Kampong Soam. After suffering interrogation and harsh treatment for a week, the marines were beaten to death by a mortar tube.

Conclusion

For Ford, the results were a mixed mark on his foreign policy. The crew and boat were retrieved without incident. The United States showed its resolve to still use its military power in Southeast Asia. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller thought it important for Ford to flex U.S. muscle and move quickly despite the lack of intelligence. However, the U.S. had just withdrawn from Cambodia and was not well liked by the Khmer regime. In fact, from later research using Cambodian sources, the bombings of Koh Tang and Kampong Soam cajoled the Khmer to release the crew. However, the negatives weigh heavily on Ford’s reputation. The Thai government strongly protested the use of its bases for the attack and within one year had expelled all U.S. military personnel from the country. Despite the embarrassment of the 1968 Pueblo Incident, it likely behooved Ford to be patient and wait for more experienced marines and more support to arrive prior to taking action on the ground. It should also be noted that shortly before the Mayaguez capture, the Cambodians had seized a Philippine and a Panamanian ship that they released fairly quickly. Ultimately that impatience cost forty-one men their lives with over fifty others wounded. Those killed in the Mayaguez Incident serve as the last names inscribed in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in the nation’s capital. They died trying to rescue, unbeknownst to them, no one.

Photo Courtesy: Fernandez-Sacco, Ellen. (2023). Coartación: From Enslavement to Freedom in Añasco and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.. Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (Washington, D.C.). 40. 71-84.