Opinion (David Ignatius): Will We Leave Iraqi Allies Behind?

Panicked Vietnamese scaling the embassy walls as the last U.S. helicopter heads out.

One day in the Gerald Ford presidency that hasn't received much attention in the past week's memorials is April 30, 1975. That was the day the last American helicopter pulled away from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, leaving behind many thousands of South Vietnamese who had worked with the United States.

Those wrenching final images of the Vietnam War are relevant now as we think about what lies ahead in Iraq. However long the United States stays in Iraq and whatever success it achieves there, we should agree we have a moral responsibility to the Iraqis who risked their lives and families to be America's allies.

How America leaves Iraq will be as important as how it entered. That's why I found the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report valuable -- because they focused on an orderly process of transition from U.S. military occupation to Iraqi sovereignty, with the assistance of Iraq's neighbors. President Bush seems about to embark on a riskier course of a "surge" in American troops to achieve something that looks like military victory. But if that "double-down" bet fails, I fear we will eventually witness a repetition of April 30, 1975 -- without the orderly process envisioned by Baker-Hamilton.

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