Vietnamese refugees board the USS LST-516 during Operation Passage to Freedom.


Operation Passage to Freedom


In the wake of the First Indochina War, a 300-day period of grace was allowed before the borders were finally closed between the newly divided Communist North and Democratic South of Vietnam. During this time, approximately one million people in the north migrated south and were, in part, facilitated in doing so by the United States Navy's Operation Passage to Freedom, which evacuated refugees from Haiphong in North Vietnam to Saigon in South Vietnam.


If you'd like to find out more about the development and design history of landing ships similar to the one pictured here, why not take a look at Landing Ship, Tank (LST) 1942-2002 by Gordon L. Rottman?


The original image can be viewed here.