It was 35 Years ago that tanks of the North Vietnamese Army broke through the gates of South Vietnam’s President’s Palace while the last Americans in Saigon caught the final helicopter off the roof of the U.S. Embassy.
I have off work today, and apparently there are parades and fireworks and all other kinds of hoopla happening all over Vietnam. While I don’t plan on celebrating with the rest of the country, I wouldn’t say it’s completely strange to be here. Perhaps it is far stranger for those of my friends and family alive in 1975 to think of me being here.
In 1975, my parents were freshmen in college and I wouldn’t be born for another 11 years. When I told people of an older generation back in America that I would be coming to Vietnam, they always seemed surprised, if not a bit concerned. There was also at times the distinct look of “Are you crazy?” in their eyes. Of course, now I understand that I was in fact crazy, but not for the reasons they thought.
While I didn’t understand their feelings completely--the war ended 35 years ago after all--I can somewhat see where they were coming from. How will I feel if in 35 years my 20 something daughter tells me she is going to move to Iraq to teach English? Maybe, like people of my parents' generation with Vietnam, war images off the newsreel will flash through my mind and I’ll wonder what she is thinking.
But isn’t it something to hope for?
Taken by Dutch photographer Hugh Van Es, this picture is one of the most famous images from the Vietnam War. Although because of a newspaper editor's error it is widely believed to show the last helicopter on the roof of the US Embassy, it is in fact a different American chopper on the roof of a downtown Saigon apartment building.
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