The tank that ended the Vietnam War. Photo: James Handlon, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
April 30, 2025, marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. On this day a half century ago, North Vietnamese army tanks rolled into the presidential palace in Saigon, bringing an end to the war.
I remember that 30 years ago, 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, there were massive celebrations all over, and a gigantic, expensive monument was erected in Washington, D.C., to honor the war’s dead. Don’t expect anything like that today. The silence is deafening.
SILENCE ON WAR’S ANNIVERSARY
I was surprised to see an article on this on the internet but have not seen anything on any TV channel. Little Donnie, who shirked service to “his” country in the war, was silent.
But what is there to celebrate? Genocide? Even the talking heads on TV, radio, internet, print can’t figure out a way to “spin” this in defense of American imperialism, so they ignore it. This is unlike the Germans who finally came to terms with their legacy of genocide and fascism. Nothing like that has happened here in the good old USA. We are still haunted by the ghosts of Vietnam even as we perpetrate genocide against the Palestinians.
The Spanish philosopher Santayana said that those who ignore the lessons of history are bound to repeat the same disastrous failures.
My older half-brother, Colonel Paul Jones Raisig, Jr., in the introduction of his book, Letter from a Distant War, described his experiences during two tours of duty in the Kennedy and Nixon administrations. He wrote: “Only through my wife’s (Carolyn) unflinching love and support was I able to carry out my duty to my country during those difficult times in spite of the tragic blunders of our nation’s leadership. We had neglected to pay attention to the lessons of history in that far-off land.”
American imperialism says that it doesn’t need to learn the lessons of history–all that is needed is the application of more force. This is what Russia, China, etc. are also saying. Sooner or later, one or all of these proponents of genocidal ideology is going to come up against the application of force wielded by the other, and then it will either prompt World War III or something like what George Orwell foretold in his book 1984, a world controlled by three power centers, constantly at war with each other.
Never forget!
–Curtis
Thank you for the article on the Vietnam war. Alienation can’t be uprooted without Recollection and I hope that your article will help end the silence. We have a long way to go to recover from those times.
The anniversary escaped my notice, and reading this article reminded me of the National Veterans Art Museum. Upon checking their website, there was no specific acknowledgement of the 50th anniversary, however I learned there is a permanent exhibit of 58,307 dog tags hanging from the ceiling called “Above and Beyond,” each representing a person in the Vietnam War. It happens to be on display right now in Chicago’s main downtown library (Harold Washington).
As for Vietnamese people affected by the war, President Carter once said something like the U.S. owes them no reparations since the destruction was mutual. Not saying that paying off the then-Vietnamese government would have been appropriate, but that was such a stupid thing to say that it doesn’t sound any different from the current president, about whom we have no illusions.
A few years ago, in Hanoi, President Biden said: “I’m incredibly proud of how our nations and our people have built trust and understanding over the decades and worked to repair the painful legacy the war left on both our nations.”
So it still seems like a subversive thing to reflect honestly on the Vietnam War, but I’m glad this article does so.