” Truth has a resonance to it that fills the cracks where falsehoods lie.” – Rick Destefanis
30 April 1975 is a date that will NEVER end for thousands of us.
Most people under the age of 45, in America, don’t have the slightest clue; concept; realization; idea; and / or knowledge concerning the horrific nature of the split it brought about to this country, and the families of those men and women involved in the events that transpired prior to this date.
The date represents the final day of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
Today is the fortieth anniversary.
I was up early this morning to read the online newspapers to see what the coverage might be like: what would be said, and by whom; lessons learned; admitted strategies missed; and, would there be any recognition accorded the ones that had served, and raised their right hand.
The New York Times had an op-ed panel discussion. But, for the most part the coverage – overall, throughout the media – was, as it has been for the better part of the last twenty-five years, limited. A war better left forgotten! NO one likes talking about youth being NEVER lived!
Funny, youth does matter…
Books have been, are being, and will continue to be written; reunions held; scholarly conferences held annually (which are a farce for the most part); and, Washington think-tanks bringing together some of the architects of the war (many from Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, by the way!) to cough, sneeze and attempt to breathe while they wander through their loathsome explanations. Only one word can suffice as a witness to numerous such occasions: Embarrassing…
As a former Marine Corps officer who served in Vietnam from July 1967-September 1968, I can tell you emphatically two things with complete personal conviction: the military strategy for / during was ill-advised, from Day One beginning with Kennedy through Ford (in fact, many historians make the case going back to Truman and Acheson); and, secondly, our elected governmental officials, in Washington, did NOT serve the military men / women well during this era, specifically from March 1965 through April 30, 1975). Nor, since.
On the 30th of April ’75, there was a sign left on the gate to the courtyard of the embassy in Saigon which read, “Turn off the light at the end of the tunnel when you leave.”
The final transmission from the last Marine CH-46 copter, leaving Saigon, was seven words, “All the Americans are out, Repeat out.”
My Third Division Commander, Lieutenant General Raymond Davis, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, from the Korean War, and one of the finest human beings of my lifetime, had a tiny South Vietnamese flag on his office desk at his Georgia home. I would occasionally visit with him during the mid-’90s, and pick his brain about everything.
But, when it came to discussing the Vietnam War, he would always point to that small South Vietnamese flag, and say to me, “There’s nothing worse than unfinished business.”
Lobster on the Prairie 