The Mysteries of History (March 29 Edition)
American Soldiers Return Home from Vietnam
1973 — American Soldiers Return Home from Vietnam
public domain images from wikimedia commons
The following is what I wrote about the end of the Vietnam War (from the U.S. perspective) in my book Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History — Volume 2: 1914-2006:
Without apparently having accomplished much—unless you consider the killing of thousands of young men, as well as civilians of both genders and age ranges an accomplishment—the Vietnam War was finally put out of its misery this year with the signing of peace accords in Paris. In 1976, North and South Vietnam combined to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
After eight years of direct American involvement in the Vietnam War (which Vietnamese call The American War), the last combat troops finally went home. Thousands of civilian employees of the Department of Defense remained in Vietnam there, still assisting the South Vietnamese as the fight with the North Vietnamese raged on.
Questions: What relationship did North Vietnam and the Vietcong in South Vietnam have with each other? Did you have any relatives in the Vietnam War? If you were around during the war, what was your position about it? Did you go? If so, was it voluntarily or because you were drafted? If you had it “to do over again,” would you do anything differently? Did any good come from the war?
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