There was a significant timegap between the 'last helicopter out of Saigon' and the final PAVN push to capture the city. Ambassador Martins was flown out at 0500 Saigon Time on April 30, with the last helicopter (carrying the last few Marine guards) left at around 0700 to 0800.

CBS News' Ed Bradley was one of those evacuated at the embassy, and described:

"Once inside the compound, for the Americans and those Vietnamese who managed to get in with legal documents and the many who managed entrance without, the rest was easy. It was just a matter of waiting your turn for a helicopter to take you to one of the ships on station off the Vietnamese coast."

With Martins having ordered that only Americans be evacuated earlier that dawn, we can deduce that likely no Vietnamese were granted access to the last round of helicopter flights out to sea.

As PAVN troops were assaulting downtown Saigon at the same time, and with South Vietnam unconditionally surrendering at 10:24, we can deduce that few South Vietnamese decided to stick around at the embassy for the three hours after the last helicopter left.

The following days, PAVN forces consolidated their control in Ho Chi Minh City, with the Embassy and other government buildings being raided.

Afterwards, as stated in the Texas Tech Vietnam Oral History Interview of Phong Xuan Nguyen (a former South Vietnamese government official who was imprisoned for five years in a reeducation canp):

It was decreed that all the high ranking officials of the former Saigon regime would have to report for re-education for a period of thirty days...

Nguyen describes that his reeducation was later extended as he had been a very high ranked official. He describes his conditons at Tu Doc prison in the South:

Oh, it was very primitive. It was completely empty, the orphanage was completely empty, no furniture whatsoever and there were buildings with aluminum sheet roofing and it was just tiles, very primitive tiles as the floor. We slept on the floor and the food was provided twice a day, lunch and dinner by the administration, very primitive too but we had rice.

Nguyen interestingly mentions that although familial visits were not allowed, the guards were actually South Vietnamese, who treated the prisoners very courteously.

Nguyen was later moved to a prison camp in North Vietnam, where all prisoners were directed to write a 'self-confession'. Nguyen was later put to work alongside other prisoners; he, specifically, became a mason and designed decorative ceramics. Other prisoners might be assigned to work in the fields or in other craftsmen roles. He was paid a small allowance as well.

All in all, I doubt that any Vietnamese were arrested at the Embassy, but if they were high ranking officials, they likely were imprisoned in reeducation camps for anywhere between thirty days and five years.

I took the Fall of Saigon timeline information from Olivier Todd's Cruel April and the interview from Texas Tech's Vietnam Archive

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Followup question : How brutal were the north Vietnamese to their fellow south Vietnamese? Was torture common? Were there lots of executions? Or did they try a more peaceful route to reintegration?

I have a question that relates to this event.

I recently watched an episode if Mysteries at the Museum which focused on this event. The item in the musem that they used to tell the story was the actual staircase you see in the photographs.

My question is simply, how did they get this staircase and bring it back to America?

follow-up-follow-up question: These re-education camps in the north, does anyone have decent enough sources to pinpoint locations. I've never dug very deep, but I know there were camps mentioned Phong Xuan Nguyen's memoires in the 40-50km range of Hanoi. Could be a fun bike trip to almost get arrested on.

Follow up question: how many helicopters where deliberately thrown into the sea to make room on the decks of the departing ships? Was that planned or was it decided on the spot?