American Community School in Saigon

Some of those organizations included the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. aid mission (USOM), the U.S. Information Service (USIS), and the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG).

The school also accepted for enrollment the dependent children of private American firms operating in Saigon, as well as some non-U.S. diplomatic families.

[1] In 1957 it expanded to include high school students and continued to grow rapidly as more U.S. government and military advisory personnel were committed to South Vietnam.

[4] The school began in the Saigon home of the wife of a U.S. government employee, in 1954 (the year of the defeat of French military forces at Battle of Dien Bien Phu).

This second class of pupils met in a small building in the Norodom Compound (one of several U.S. government facilities located in Saigon), situated near the Presidential Palace.

When the rebuilding in the Norodom Compound was complete, this expansion made it possible for the creation of a high school for American dependent children in Saigon.

In February 1965, the school was permanently closed when President Lyndon Johnson ordered all dependents of U.S. government and military personnel to be evacuated from Vietnam.

[9] Within three months of the departure of U.S. government dependents from Saigon, and closing of the American Community School, the buildings that had been ACS were converted into a medical facility for the U.S. Army’s 3rd Field Hospital.