The video delves into the incredible story of John Reardon, an unassuming American banker who orchestrated a daring rescue mission to save his Vietnamese colleagues and their families from Saigon during the last days of the Vietnam War. Defying his bank's orders and personal safety concerns, Reardon returned to Saigon to evacuate 105 individuals, using creative tactics to navigate the challenging situation and military restrictions of the time. His brave actions culminated in a successful escape and future prosperity for those he saved, who later relocated to the United States and became thriving citizens.

Nicholas Winton's humanitarian efforts during the Second World War are also documented. In 1938, Winton orchestrated the rescue of 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia, securing their asylum in Britain while averting Nazi persecutions. By creating forged documents and bypassing bureaucratic hurdles, his actions remained unknown for nearly five decades until the BBC brought his story to light, earning him admiration, recognition, and a lasting legacy.

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. incursion [ɪnˈkɜrʒən] - (noun) - A sudden invasion or attack into a territory. - Synonyms: (invasion, raid, attack)

It happened nearly 40 years ago at the very end of the Vietnam War when everyone was trying to escape the Communist incursion.

2. evacuated [ɪˈvækjueɪtɪd] - (verb) - To remove someone from a dangerous place to a safe one. - Synonyms: (removed, relocated, withdrawn)

No one was paying attention to an unassuming American banker who had already been evacuated.

3. reprisals [rɪˈpraɪzəlz] - (noun) - Acts of retaliation or enforcement against someone. - Synonyms: (retaliations, vengeance, counterattacks)

They were hearing rumors of reprisals by the Viet Cong against anyone working for the Americans.

4. cockamamie [ˈkɒkəˌmeɪmi] - (adjective) - Ridiculously improbable or nonsensical. - Synonyms: (absurd, ludicrous, ridiculous)

You don't say, Kakamemi. You don't?

5. fend [fɛnd] - (verb) - To attempt to manage or cope on one's own. - Synonyms: (manage, cope, survive)

So he boarded that Pan Am flight to Hong Kong alone, and the employees were left to fend for themselves.

6. defected [dɪˈfɛktɪd] - (verb) - To desert a cause or nation, especially to join an opposing one. - Synonyms: (deserted, seceded, forsaken)

Even though it meant losing his job, possibly losing his life.

7. hailed [heɪld] - (verb) - Praised enthusiastically; acknowledged publicly. - Synonyms: (acclaimed, lauded, applauded)

He was given a big bonus and hailed as a hero.

8. ingenious [ɪnˈdʒiːniəs] - (adjective) - Clever, original, and inventive. - Synonyms: (clever, inventive, innovative)

Finally, one of the men thought up an ingenious plan.

9. reunited [ˌrijuˈnaɪtɪd] - (verb) - Came together after a period of separation. - Synonyms: (reconnected, rejoined, reconciled)

But thanks to John, the Citibank employees were flown out to either Guam or the Philippines, and then all reunited at Camp Pendleton in California.

10. prosperous [ˈprɒspərəs] - (adjective) - Having success or wealth. - Synonyms: (thriving, wealthy, affluent)

Today, they're leading prosperous lives as American citizens with children who are dying and lawyers and with grandchildren.

Miraculous Rescues and Escapes - 60 Minutes Full Episodes

You've heard of the brave and ingenious rescue of Jews from the Nazis by Oskar Schindler and the courageous and unlikely rescue of the American hostages from Iran depicted in the movie Argo. But nobody's heard of the daring and dangerous rescue of the Vietnamese from Saigon by John Reardon. It's a story that's never been told before. It happened nearly 40 years ago at the very end of the Vietnam War when everyone was trying to escape the Communist incursion. No one was paying attention to an unassuming American banker who had already been evacuated, going back in to save his stranded Vietnamese colleagues and their families.

You got everybody, Everybody who worked at the bank, spouses and children, right? There were 105 in all. Who? John Reardon, risking his own life, rescued in the last days of the war. Even now, four decades later, when they see him, you know, they know he's the reason they're alive. Today, they're leading prosperous lives as American citizens with children who are dying and lawyers and with grandchildren. Isabel. Do you know my name? John Reardon. You know my last name. That's more than I know.

John Reardon was as far from Rambo and Mission Impossible as you could get back in 1975. He was a young banker, handsome and unattached, working as the assistant manager of Citibank in Saigon. They gave you a villa? They gave me a villa. And you lived well? I lived well, yes. He hosted barbecues at the villa for the bank's 34 Vietnamese employees. Tellers, secretaries, accountants. They were like a family, tying their future to American banking.

But that April, Communist tanks were barreling toward Saigon. Hundreds of thousands were leaving, or trying to. Three weeks before Saigon fell, John got an order from Citibank in New York. Burn everything important and get out. They said, john, We've chartered a 747 Pan Am that's coming in and we want you to take all of your staff and leave the bank and get out to this plane. By this point, it dawns on you what would happen to those people if you didn't get them out? Some of them would be killed. It's scary. It was very scary.

Cook Famvo worked in personnel. Chi Vu was the head teller. They were hearing rumors of reprisals by the Viet Cong against anyone working for the Americans. Would you have been seen as traitors, as spies? The closer you to American, the more they think you spy. But their own government set up checkpoints to keep people from leaving the country without exit papers. The staff had no way to escape. John didn't want to leave without them, but the bank ordered him out.

So he boarded that Pan Am flight to Hong Kong alone, and the employees were left to fend for themselves. Did you feel abandoned? Yes. Did John say anything to you when he left? I was crying so much. I was worried about my kids, my husband. And he said, no worry. I'll be there for you. John and his bosses at Citibank spent day and night in Hong Kong cooking up rescue plans. They tried to send in helicopters, even an oil tanker. And they asked the US Government to help. All in vain.

I felt we had all those people back in there and they were counting on us. And many, many times in the conversations we had with them, they said to us, don't let us down. Please do everything you can. Come on, Gantz, let's move it. But after two weeks of trying, Citibank said, enough. A manager told the Hong Kong team, if you try some daring rescue mission, you're fired. That night, John's immediate boss, Mike McTighe, a former Marine, asked John to dinner. And just as my steak arrived and I was picking up my knife and fork and he's making small talk, and then suddenly he says, you know, John, one of us has to go back. And I put down my knife and fork and pushed that steak back, and I could feel tears coming out of my eyes. And he said, would you go back?

Go back. Even though it meant losing his job, possibly losing his life. And yet, 11 days before Saigon would fall, the mild mannered banker defied his bank and better judgment. Caught the very last commercial flight into Saigon and walked into the branch and everybody comes running around me and said, what do we do? What do we do? How are we going to get out of here and everything?

But you're there under the authority of who? You're not working for Citibank anymore? No, I'm on my own. On his own authority, John moved them with their families, all 105 of them, into his villa and another one nearby so they'd all be ready to go as a group. When and if he came up with a plan, he told them to tell no one where they were. Four days went by. Nothing was working, until a CIA agent told him the only way out now is on US military cargo planes that are evacuating Americans and their dependents.

He says, the evacuation has begun. Take your family and go out to the airport and process them through. And I said, well, I don't have a family. And he said, just create a wife and children, no matter who they are. And go out there and sign the documents. This is the first time you've heard this idea? Yes, yes. Try and pass off his Vietnamese colleagues, their spouses and children as his family. There were 105 of them. Do you say to him, are you kidding me? You don't say, Kakamemi. You don't? No. Because there'd been so much cockamania before that this is the time to jump on anything that looked like it was going to float. You were at the end of your rope. Yes, absolutely.

It was worth a try, but not for all of them at once. He took the bank van and went out to the airfield alone to see if it would work. I walked into that processing area and somebody gave me a piece of paper. He said, list your dependence on here. And I was fumbling for what piece of paper? I was going to have to write this all down. They said, just attach that to this piece of paper and keep going. So it was a bit of a rough. It was 14 names. You had a wife and 14 names. Right. That was kind of ambitious. Daughter, Son. Daughter. Son, yeah. This is the paper. Wife, daughter, daughter, son. 14 kids, some older than he was. He was certifying on a US government document that these were his children.

Is your heart pounding, are you? Yes, a little bit. I certainly was nervous, yes. He was stunned when the officer, no questions asked, stamped it and handed John evacuation tags. He rushed to the villa to pick the 15 up, amazed that such a crazy idea was actually working. Do you remember when he came back, what happened? We're so happy. It's an elation to see. He's a lifesaver. He an angel. But you had to keep it secret, right? Yes. You never told your parents? No. So you never said goodbye? No.

Over the next four days, as fear gripped the city, John repeated this ruse, going back and forth to the airport 10 times, filling out papers with groups of six or eight. Did any of these officers ever question you in all this time? This is this one man. He said, haven't I seen you here before? I said, no, sir. Absolutely not. Bang. I know he wanted to get going, too. And then another time, this man said, you've got one heck of a big family here. You've been busy. When you've been. I said, oh, yes, I've been here a long time. And just stopped it again.

He just went back and back and back. Hard to believe it would be that simple to do. We recently met with seven of his daughters. They didn't think it was all that simple. So since John was separating them from their husbands. All the staff women will go first, and the husband will leave in a separate group. At that moment, I was like, thinking, will I ever see my husband again? Getting the husbands out was the most dangerous. Yes, because they were either in the army or working for the government. And if the mp, they saw anybody like that or they caught anybody like that, we would shoot right away.

John was able to get the husband's fake adoption papers as his son's and managed to get some of them on what he thought was safe. A US Embassy evacuation bus, like this one to the airport. But the bus was stopped by police looking for deserters. The driver of the bus stopped at the checkpoint opened the door, and a Vietnamese police officer stepped onto the bus. And he looked up and down the aisle, and I thought, this is it. We're all going to be taken off this bus and shot. But in a split second, a woman sitting in the front seat, a Vietnamese woman, leaped up toward the policeman and poked her hands into his stomach. I thought she knifed him. And then I saw a bag of. Something moved from her hands to his hands. And I thought, aha, it's a bribe.

Bag of money. Bag of money, yes. The bribe worked. He waved them through. The last group of men at the villa were afraid to risk another bus, but John was out of ideas. Finally, one of the men thought up an ingenious plan. They pretended they were delivering bundles of money to the airport in the bank van. They even call the police for an escort like this. And they had rifles and everything. And they just led us right through the gates of the airport. You just went right on the plane with these guys, right? They were safe, all of them? All of them. One of them was Chi's husband.

Every time I ask you about John, you cry. He's so kind, you know, to stay behind and take. Took us out. He did so much for us. Save my kids and my husband. They flew on one of the last planes out of Saigon. After that, the only route of escape were the helicopters at the US Embassy. Within a few days, Viet Cong tanks rolled into the presidential palace. The war was over. What followed were years of starvation and brutal repression. Many who tried to escape by boat drowned at sea. But thanks to John, the Citibank employees were flown out to either Guam or the Philippines, and then all reunited at Camp Pendleton in California.

Do you think all this time you've been fired? Yeah, I do still think that. I'm not worried about it, though. I'm still alive. They're all Alive, important things. Well, he wasn't fired. He was given a big bonus and hailed as a hero. At the reunion for John in Long island with a group of his children, we found out they call him Papa John. Yes, I do. I haven't talked to you in so long. Citibank spent a million dollars to resettle all the employees, giving them and many of the spouses jobs. At the time in Saigon, he thought of his colleagues at the bank as his Vietnamese family. Forty years later, still his family, but now as American as.

Do you think the people who came here have had good lives? Yes, I do. How many children do you actually have now? And grandchildren? I just keep using the number 105, but the grandchildren don't ask me. I can't keep up with that.

PHILOSOPHY, INSPIRATION, LEADERSHIP, CITIBANK, VIETNAM WAR, HUMANITARIAN, 60 MINUTES