"Our Vietnam War Never Ended" Topic

"the last day of April, is the 40th anniversary of the end of my war. Americans call it the Vietnam War, and the victorious Vietnamese call it the American War. In fact, both of these names are misnomers, since the war was also fought, to great devastation, in Laos and Cambodia, a fact that Americans and Vietnamese would both rather forget.

In any case, for anyone who has lived through a war, that war needs no name. It is always and only "the war," which is what my family and I call it. Anniversaries are the time for war stories to be told, and the stories of my family and other refugees are war stories, too. This is important, for when Americans think of war, they tend to think of men fighting "over there." The tendency to separate war stories from immigrant stories means that most Americans don't understand how many of the immigrants and refugees in the United States have fled from wars — many of which this country has had a hand in.

Although my family and other refugees brought our war stories with us to America, they remain largely unheard and unread, except by people like us. Compared with many of the four million Vietnamese in the diaspora, my family has been lucky. None of my relatives can be counted among the three million who died during the war, or the hundreds of thousands who disappeared at sea trying to escape by boat. But our experiences in coming to America were difficult…"
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Amicalement
Armand

'Americans call it the Vietnam War, and the victorious Vietnamese call it the American War. In fact, both of these names are misnomers, …'

That is true, but I disagree as to the reason why Vietnam calls it the American War.

They call it that to avoid calling it a civil war. A war of national liberation against foreign 'occupying' and 'colonial' forces is a much more convenient narrative to the Communist dictatorship than the truth that they conquered and imposed themselves over fellow Vietnamese.

I do not think the fact that the war spilled out of their own borders is either here nor there to them.

Tango,

there is no anniversary. it will never be over as long as there are those left. it did mean 'sumpthin'.

let us all show respect, sadness for our losses, and begin to grow and heal.

We did not lose the Vietnam War, we just stopped fighting it.

All good points guys …

Grossman, wouldn't a war that you quit on be by definition one that you lost?

There was a young girl in one of my college classes whose family fled Vietnam.

She and they were very thankful to get out alive, via boat (which was apparently quite an ordeal), and appreciative of their new home in America.

I agree that the USA did not lose the Vietnam War. The Republic of South Vietnam lost.

For the USA, Vietnam was one lost battle in a 44 year long war it went on to win.

My wife is Vietnamese. Her father was conscripted and served in both the NVA and Viet Cong. After the war, he was part of the massive internal resettlement of 'loyal' North Vietnamese to the South.

My wife still remembers food rationing. She is 32. She also remembers her 'loyal' family often discussing – in whispers – whether they should take the risk of attempting to flee to Thailand.

Everything changed in 1989 when the wall fell and the USSR stopped propping up the failing economy. Faced with reality, even the Communist govt started opening up, introducing some market reforms, and not least, allowing travel and family reunions.

It is still a corrupt, poor, heck-hole of a dictatorship, but for most people, IMO it is significantly better than it was pre-1989.

If it is any comfort to the men and women who served in Vietnam and perhaps wondered why, the eventual victory of the West in the Cold War, led by the USA, did ultimately lead to more freedom and a better life for the Vietnamese people as a whole.

It is still not real freedom, but there is more than there was. And at the very least they no longer shoot people who try to leave the country.

Grossman, wouldn't a war that you quit on be by definition one that you lost?

Sounds like you are fishing here for an argument, Sam ? I could be wrong ? However, I agree totally with Whatisitgood4atwork's comment's. And on the ground the US/SEATO won … but it made little difference in the bigger picture. As today, with what see in A'stan and Iraq, that the paradigm of "winning" is different than in past. And varies with who you are combatting. Many more shades of grey that in WWII …

Just FYI, PBS has been showing some great documentaries lately on Vietnam. As well as other military history topics. The History Channel should take the hint …

I also saw the PBS documentaries on Monday and Tuesday nights.

It should be interesting to watch how the media treats April 30th. For those here too young to remember, forty years ago helicopters were taking off from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

Some of us will not forget.

Save for PBS, I have not noticed much of the media mentioning anything as of yet. Of course with all that is going on in some cities with rioting, etc. … It is very much like was going on in 60's on a smaller scale. I graduated high school in '75 and watched the news daily. I remember all the footage from through out the war. That Fall I started ROTC, and most of our instructors, still on active duty, were vets of the war. We learn a lot from them. Hopefully some of the younger generations will find sometime to study this conflict. Which it's aftermath still influences the US, on some levels to this day. Even if some lessons learned have been forgotten or ignored by some who make decisions that effect many.

Legion,
yahoo has had tons of articles this past week from various perspectives. some of the headlines may not be well received. there was a segment on 60 minutes Sunday about orphans who made it here to the US and went back to find lost relatives.

thank you Whatisitgood4atwork. your last two sentences meant a lot more than you realize.
how were the PPS documentaries? I watched about a minute of the one on the draft and turned it off. shook my head when I saw the listing for the Dick Cavett one. wonder how the american experience one was.

Thanks for that intel Bismarck. I didn't watch the Dick Cavett one, either … pretty much knew what most of the celebs were going to say anyway.

The Vietnam War was both won and lost. We won the Vietnam War tactically on the battlefield but lost it politically due to the restrictive ROE's that prevented us from decapitating the N. Vietnamese leadership. Coupled with an unpopular draft which allowed the privileged to avoid service while the lower classes bled, public opinion eventually forced an ignominious withdrawal from a war we lacked the will to finish.

End of story.

The war was lost by between 1 and 3 million people, depending on counts.

Does it really matter who won, 40 years later?

If America won, does that erase anyone's injuries, PTSD or death? No, it doesn't.

If America lost, does it take away anything from anyone who received a commendation or medal? No, it doesn't.

Too bad, those of you who chose to ignore the Dick Cavett program. I found the portion devoted to his interview with Wayne Morse very insightful.