April 30 marks 50 years since the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army.
Today, April 30, marks 50 years since the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army. It’s a moment that signaled the end of America’s 20-year involvement in the war to keep South Vietnam from falling to communism.
This morning, in what is now called “Ho Chi Minh City,” tens of thousands witnessed festivities celebrating America’s defeat. The New York Times‘ Damien Cave reports that “a boisterous parade in Ho Chi Minh City featuring soldiers, dancers and speeches celebrating what the country’s communist leader called ‘a triumph of justice.’”
The event brought tens if not hundreds of thousands, according to state media, including many who camped out overnight for the morning’s festivities.
“The atmosphere was very special,” said Nguyen Thi Song Anh, 18, who joined some 12th-grade classmates on a crowded sidewalk near the Opera House. “It was important for me to feel part of this country — and part of this history.”
The scenes of celebration, with a sea of red and yellow representing the flag of Vietnam in front of high-end French and American retailers, pointed to just how distant the final day of this country’s grueling war has become.
American defeat has been far less remembered here at home, I’ve noticed, despite the fact that almost 3 million Americans served in support of the war, despite the loss of 58,000 American lives, and despite the fact that the communist victory resulted in not merely the subjugation of South Vietnam but the nightmarish brutality of the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields in Cambodia and the decade-long saga of the “boat people” refugees fleeing communist rule in the former Indochina.
The fall of Saigon and defeat in Vietnam was an American catastrophe and humiliation — one with unfortunate and pathetic parallels in 2021’s Kabul evacuation and our long defeat in Afghanistan.
But despite that defeat, despite that humiliation, despite the crisis and anomie and dislocation brought on by the war here at home, we should not forget that the conflict produced thousands of genuine American heroes: heroes like Marine Corps Captain John Ripley, who on Easter Morning 1972 braved enemy fire for more than three hours as he worked to emplace 500 pounds of explosives under Dong Ha Bridge in Quang Tri Province to try to stop a North Vietnamese offensive, climbing hand-over-hand under the bridge’s girders. Heroes like Senator John McCain, who, despite being severely wounded when he was shot down in a combat mission over Hanoi on October 26, 1967, refused early release ahead of his comrades. Lieutenant Commander McCain willingly endured five and a half years of torture and imprisonment instead of accepting favoritism and the easy way out. Heroes like Karl Marlantes, a Marine lieutenant who won the Navy Cross for his actions during an eight-day battle on Mutter’s Ridge in 1969.
Heroes like the “last eleven” Marines on the very last helicopter out of the U.S. embassy in Saigon. Their story is told in the 2014 documentary Last Days in Vietnam, produced and directed by Rory Kennedy.
May their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of all Americans who fought in America’s most tragic war, be remembered — today, and always.
