#fallofsaigon

Fall of Saigon - Let it go

As I watched and listened to the unfolding of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, I paused to reflect on the parallel between 2021 and the American withdrawal from Saigon in 1975. The bomb that went off at Kabul airport killed 13 US service members, and more than 170 people were killed. I mourned the loss of these lives, I cheer for those who escaped, but I am grieving those who are left behind. I was one of those left behind in Saigon in 1975. I was too young to remember what the “Fall of Saigon” day was like, but I lived through the ten years after, with vivid memories of fear, dread, and hopelessness. I couldn’t play with the children in the neighborhood and didn’t interact with our neighbors for fear they were watching and might report on us. In the middle of second grade, I stopped going to school. I fear for the lives of girls and women in Afghanistan and the hard road they will face ahead. Throughout those years, we applied to immigrate to America, but it took us ten years to get the exit visa from the Vietnamese government. My parents sold our house, and I was told all the money went into bribes for our exit paperwork. My new life began the day I landed in Houston, Texas, in 1985. But those ten years left me with sharp memories etched into scars shaped my childhood that probably may never heal. My parents managed to survive and nurture hope during the bleakest of times. Flashbacks of a time in a land where we didn’t belong rushed back as the recent events unfold. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are left behind in Afghanistan. #LeftBehind #FallOfSaigon #Afganistan (at Palo Alto, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTRRP_-nGTj/?utm_medium=tumblr

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana. 20 years. I was a kid when this shit kicked off. All to catch a evil bastard that left the country the second we invaded. Gawddamn. It was gonna happen this way. The Pandemic has made me very callous. I don't care about the women and children there, since the Afghan Military tasked to protect them sure didn't. They fled or surrender, to a force a fraction of the size of theirs. If they think this was not worth dying behind, why should we? Biden knew this was a mess, and followed through anyway. We needed to go, period. Our fight there is finish. #vietnam #afghanistan #fallofsaigon #fallofkabal (at Las Vegas, Nevada) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSm6T2khhZ5/?utm_medium=tumblr

Fearing the domino effect of communism, the United States joined the Vietnam War in 1965, but two years after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and following the Fall of Saigon, American troops hastily left Vietnam in 1975. The years after witnessed a difficult time between the two nations. The United States imposed a total trade embargo and withheld much-needed support from Vietnam. This move by the superpower nation prompted around nations and global organizations to turn their backs on Vietnam as well. Vietnam was left in total financial disarray, with majority of its people living with homes and without employment. While the United States took responsibility for some of its liabilities during the Vietnam War, it did not extend this remuneration to Vietnamese victims. Case in point: Agent Orange and its victims. Agent Orange was widely used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal war program. Unfortunately, its lasting and irrevocable effects affected not only the Viet Cong but the U.S. military as well. The United States government put in place a program for the U.S. collateral damages, but nothing for the Vietnamese. This drove the two nations further apart from reaching amicable resolutions. Furthermore, Vietnam waged a campaign in Cambodia, which became a full-scale conflict in 1978 and which the United States was strongly opposed to. For decades, it seemed like U.S.-Vietnam relations was hopeless, but this changed when former president Bill Clinton formally lifted the trade embargo in 1995, allowing for the start of a renewed relationship between the two former allies. This U.S. move prompted the help of the international community to pour into Vietnam, helping the once-war-torn country to recover its economy. Vietnam also opened its shores to capitalism, allowing more foreign investors in. Today, decades after the war, the United States and Vietnam maintain a healthy relationship built on trade and security, and Vietnam, the country once raged by conflict, is now one of the rising economies in Asia that has set its sights to become a developed country by 2020. Read the full article

The last American personnel left Vietnam in April 1975. In what is known as the Fall of Saigon, North Vietnamese soldiers crashed the gates of the Presidential Palace, and the South Vietnamese president handed over the rule of the land to North Vietnamese officers, effectively ending the Vietnam War. Roughly twenty years after the war began and after over three million deaths of soldiers and civilians, Vietnam was on its way to reformation. But reformation and reconciliation did not easily take place. Vietnam took quiet a beating, the country ravaged by bombs and by Agent Orange and people displaced from homes and livelihoods. More than that, there was the issue of trust among Vietnamese. Who can they trust from here on out? Added to the Agent Orange problems are tons of unexploded ordnance, 20-30 million land mines left behind by the US and French and thousands of deadly booby traps planted by the VC that were forgotten or simply left in place. A large number of south Vietnamese were brutalized. Their properties were confiscated and they were sent to harsh labor camps for up to 15 years simply because they were friendly toward Americans or had capitalistic ideals. Deng was a monster at best and it's a  crying shame that we abandoned that country and allowed this to happen. It was a very miserable reunion at best and it's doubtful that Ho Chi-Ming would have allowed this to happen had he lived. For the next 20 years, thousands of Vietnamese risked their lives to escape this brutal regime and even today to simply display the old South Vietnamese flag or wear those colors is punishable by imprisonment. Speaking out for your rights or against the government is also a prison sentence, probably in a labor camp that they never admitted existed. The war still lingers and will continue to do so until the last of the monsters who won it are dead. America cut off its support of Vietnam after the war, imposing a trade embargo that affected Vietnam immensely. While America paid for the damages done by Agent Orange, only American veterans and/or their families were compensated, Vietnamese were not. Other multilateral organizations like the World Bank held off support as well, pushing a war-worn country into further poverty. When Vietnam’s socialist policy collapsed in the eighties, Vietnam began selling surplus products, allowing capitalism back to its fold. Foreign investors were encouraged, and the Vietnamese government slowly made reconciliation with America. The US trade embargo was lifted in1994 and Vietnam was finally on its way to progress. Through the nineties, there were still tremors of socialism felt underneath the wave of capitalism, but Vietnam did not allow this to stop its tracks toward real progress. Slowly but surely, it pulled its people out of poverty so that, by the 2000, only 32 percent lived below poverty line. Vietnam wisely turned its focus on the education of its people and lasting trade alliances with other nations. It became a member of the World Trade Organization, which meant more and more foreign investments poured into its coffers, and by educating its people, they became partners for reform, not mere constituents that took from the government. Today, Vietnam attracts tourists who are eager to see remnants of the war long ago, as well as cultural attractions. Vietnam proudly shows off its scars, proof that it has survived a long, dark, and confusing period in history, a period that has helped usher the progress now experienced in Vietnam. It seems all is well for the country. Read the full article

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40 years ago this day, thousands of Vietnamese families, including my own, sacrificed so much to give their children a chance at a better life. My family's sacrifice, resilience and hard work is reason why I do the best I can everyday. Remember #BlackApril #FallOfSaigon #April301975