Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University. The Vietnam War and America's involvement in it affected the lives of millions for well over a decade, exacting a massive human cost with millions of deaths and countless injuries - both physical and mental - that plague many of those involved to this day. United States military involvement and troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 - at its highest level in 1968, with over 500,000 troops on the ground. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly impossible to encapsulate an event of such scale in a handful of photographs, but here, 35 years after the end of the conflict, is my attempt.
More photos (47) here
The Bigger Picture (Boston.com)
TGIA, the Vietnam war--whatever that means--did not stop with the fall of Saigan.
ReplyDeleteAfter the fall of Saigan; over a million South Vietnamese people were put in concentration camps; 6 million South Vietnamese fled communist oppression on boats; and a hundred thousand or so South Vietnamese were murdered.
In Cambodia; the communists killed some 2 to 3 million in a genocide that Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Wall Street Journal; and many other prominent Americans quietly condoned.
Who should be punished for the murder of about three hundred thousand brave soldiers in the South Vietnamese Army?