A Brief History
On May 12, 1975, the Cambodian Navy seized the US freighter, SS Mayaguez from international waters. The ensuing battle between the US and Khmer Rouge Cambodian forces is considered the last battle of the Viet Nam War.
Digging Deeper
The Mayaguez, a container ship, was on its way to Thailand when it was stopped by a Cambodian patrol boat. The Cambodians had fired across the bow of the Mayaguez, causing the ship to slow down, and when an RPG rocket was then fired toward the ship the Mayaguez stopped and sent out an SOS.

The Mayaguez was boarded by Cambodian sailors and taken over by them, forcing the crew to head toward mainland Cambodia. The captain of the Mayaguez managed to convince his captors that the Mayaguez could not safely proceed farther than Poulo Wai where she anchored.
Suffering the humiliation of the forced withdrawal of US forces from Cambodia and South Viet Nam only a couple of weeks earlier, President Ford and his advisers were eager to prove the US had not lost its power.

US officials demanded that Chinese diplomats relay the message that our ship was to be released immediately and orders were given to the military to prevent the Mayaguez from traveling all the way to the mainland. US Navy and Marine forces were quickly sent toward the area and plans to rescue the ship and crew were hastily made. US fighter bombers buzzed the captured ship and fired into the water in front of it to send the message the ship was not to move. Two Cambodian fishing vessels then took the crew of the Mayaguez near Koh Tang Island.
The initial plan of landing US Air Force special troops was called off when a helicopter crashed carrying the 5 crewmen and 18 troops to their deaths. Meanwhile, on May 14 when the Cambodians tried to move the crew of the Mayaguez by fishing boat to the mainland, they were intercepted by US fighter jets which tried to convince them to turn back with cannon fire and bombs. The US jets also sank a Cambodian patrol boat and the fishing boat carrying the Mayaguez’s crew was bombed with tear gas, but still went to the mainland.
Two companies of US Marines were detailed to assault Koh Tang Island to rescue crewmembers believed to still be there on the morning of May 15. A detachment of Marines and sailors was prepared to make a separate assault on the Mayaguez to seize it and sail it away.
Waiting on Koh Tang Island were over 100 heavily armed Cambodians and none of the crew of the Mayaguez. While carrier jets bombed Cambodian military installations on the mainland, the Marines assaulted Koh Tang into a hail of fire. The boarding team had an easier time on the Mayaguez, dousing the ship with tear gas and finding nobody aboard. During the fighting on and around Koh Tang the US lost 3 large helicopters and suffered 15 killed and 41 wounded out of a total of only 220 men. Three more Marines were inadvertently left on the island when the US withdrew and were captured and executed by the Cambodians, one shot and 2 beaten to death. The Cambodians had around 25 men killed and another 15 wounded, and had 4 of their patrol boats sunk, not to mention damage from the bombing (and casualties on the patrol boats and bombed areas).
The crew of the Mayaguez was released unharmed and the last battle of the Viet Nam War was over, a chaotic snafu somehow appropriate to that miserable war. In a cracked turn of events, US public opinion was actually favorable about the handling of the incident, and President Ford enjoyed an 11% increase in his approval rating. Like many military operations, the public really did not get an accurate picture of what had transpired. As more information slowly emerged, public opinion declined accordingly. Military officers also complained of the pressure from above to mount a slap dash hurry up operation instead of taking another day or 2 to do things right. Eighteen dead Americans would agree.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Baron, Scott and James E. Wise Jr. The 14-Hour War: Valor on Koh Tang and the Recapture of the SS Mayaguez. Naval Institute Press, 2011.
Chun, Clayton and Steve Noon. The Last Boarding Party: The USMC and the SS Mayaguez 1975 (Raid). Osprey Publishing, 2011.