# The Saigon CIA station photograph

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Saigon CIA station photograph," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-saigon-cia-station-photograph/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The Pulitzer-winning image of evacuees climbing a ladder to a helicopter during the fall of Saigon in 1975. John Kiriakou, who talked his way onto the roof in 2026, points out that the building most Americans take for the embassy was in fact an apartment block that secretly housed the CIA's Saigon station.*

- **Common belief:** The roof of the American embassy
- **Actually:** An apartment building secretly housing the CIA's Saigon station
- **The image:** Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
- **Today:** A working-class apartment building

Kiriakou calls it *"one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century"* — dozens of people on a rooftop, climbing a bent ladder to a helicopter perched on a small hut, trying for the last flight out of Saigon. It won the Pulitzer Prize.[1][2]

The correction he offers concerns the building: *"Many Americans think it was the American embassy. It wasn't the American embassy. It was an apartment building that was secretly the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s station in Saigon."*[2]

Visiting in 2026, he found it in ordinary use — *"just a workingclass apartment building now"* — and got to the roof by paying for it: *"we bribed the security guard down on the first floor and he let us go up there and take pictures."*[2][3] What he found there had not been touched: *"there's an abandoned bar up there that looks like it was abandoned in 1975. People just left it the way it was the day the United States bugged out in 1975. It was an incredible thing to see."*[3]

## See also

- [Kiriakou Vietnam Visit 2026](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-vietnam-visit-2026)
- [Cu Chi Tunnels](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cu-chi-tunnels)
- [Vietnam War](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vietnam-war)

## Sources

1. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 07:14. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/
2. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 07:44. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/
3. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 08:15. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-saigon-cia-station-photograph/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt