I’ve just watched an absolutely fascinating and incredibly moving documentary on the UK BBC 4 channel called  “Last Days in Vietnam”, which details the evacuation  of both US personnel and Vietnamese staff and civilians from the US Embassy in Saigon as the North Vietnamese advanced on the city in April 1975.

A brief segment of the programme relates the fact that the covert signal for the start of the “official” evacuation was signalled by Bing singing “White Christmas” over the airwaves in Saigon.

I know that this incident was documented in a recent issue of “Bing” magazine, but it was fascinating to hear about the wider context and also to realise that in 1975, in an immensely tense and potentially explosive international situation, Bing Crosby still represented a unifying voice for the Amerian people.