Category: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

The U.S. War in Viet Nam Ended 50 Years Ago. Should Americans Feel Guilty?

by Chuck Searcy | Apr 29, 2025 | Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

Recently in Ha Noi I met with a group of undergraduates from a respected American university who were traveling throughout Viet Nam on a study tour with two faculty members. They were enjoying the sights and sounds, the mountains and beaches, the expanses of emerald rice fields, the teeming cities that make Viet Nam an […]

From Othering to Solidarity

by JJ Johnson | Apr 29, 2025 | Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

In my 1950s East Harlem household, solidarity was akin to religion. In my family’s two-bedroom tenement, all were welcome, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sexual orientation. As a child, five-syllable words like solidarity were not in my vocabulary, but fairness and kindness were. Although we were poor, my parents—both of whom were orphaned […]

Recollections and Lessons From the Vietnam Anti-War Movement From a GI Anti-War Activist

by David Cortright | Apr 29, 2025 | Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

“What made you interested in peace?” students often ask. The answer is unexpected: “I was drafted for the Vietnam War.” It was 1968, an unfortunate time to be an available young man in America. The war was raging, and draft calls were peaking. My turn came that summer when I was ordered to report for […]

A Willful Amnesia

by E. Ethelbert Miller | Apr 29, 2025 | Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall To brown and to yellow they fade And then they have to die Trapped within the circle time parade Of changes. —Phil Ochs The war in Vietnam came to me in songs. It came to me in the night like a bat changing into Dracula. The […]

The Wrong People Learned the Wrong Lessons

by W.D. Ehrhart | Apr 29, 2025 | Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Việt Nam War

A great many Americans are laboring under the misperception that the United States learned nothing from the Vietnam War. Here, for instance, is a sampling of comments posted in response to a YouTube video on the war: “Replace Vietnam with Afghanistan and Iraq and you have the same story.” “This is the same lesson that […]