Good night, Vietnam!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

35 years ago today, Saigon fell.

(Saigon, that's what they used to call Ho Chi Minh City. (That's in Vietnam, btw.))

[FBM]

I'll bet there's a celebration. In Hanoi, anyway.

[maiforpeace]

35 years ago today, Saigon fell.

(Saigon, that's what they used to call Ho Chi Minh City. (That's in Vietnam, btw.))

Wow. That brings back some huge memories for me.

My father was one of the few Vietnamese living in the US before this event. Every distant relative that was even remotely connected by family ties, that lived in, and was sympathetic to the South Vietnamese cause either landed on his doorstep a few weeks later, or wrote and called, begging and pleading with him to sponsor them to come to the US. Being a dutiful elder son he took most of them in. Being a dutiful daughter, my mother and I became the boarding house managers. At one point in time we had 18 people living in a 3 bedroom house. My poor mother was horrified, they were fermenting cabbage in the bedrooms, and hanging fish to dry outside. (she was a very meticulous German hausfrau) I'm surprised none of our neighbors complained since our home was in a fairly upscale neighborhood.

My father's sister was married to a general in the south Vietnamese army. He was thrown into a re-education camp and barely survived. Their two children, my cousins, were not allowed to go to school because they were the offspring of "the traitor". 10 years later, when he was finally released from prison, they all came over to the US and taking in the relatives started up all over again, only this time it was much more challenging to get them assimilated because of my two adult, uneducated cousins, one of whom is deaf.

It was a very challenging time for our family.

[Rum]

Living in Hong Kong right through the war - except the last bit anyway, we saw a lot of hardware and personnel in Hong Kong which was an R&R base. Wanchai - the bar and brothel area was one of my haunts in my mid teens in fact!

Some time in the late 60s my parents and I flew home to England for home leave. We never found out if it was us or the Russian built Migs who had wandered off course, but we were somewhere in the vicinity of the Indo Chinese peninsula when our Boing (707 probably) was buzzed by three military planes. Our plane dropped a couple of thousand feet as a result and terrified us. I didn't see the planes because I didn't have a window seat but quite a few people did. We thought for a moment we might get shot down and it was scary as hell. I have only flown once since then!

Viet Nam.

[Fact-Man]

35 years ago today, Saigon fell.

(Saigon, that's what they used to call Ho Chi Minh City. (That's in Vietnam, btw.))

I remember this well, having been staunchly active in the antiwar movement from 64 through 68 and then working in Nammy almost all of 69 as a correspondent before returning to my antiwar activism. It was a day we had waited to see happen for years and the victory was sweet. My posse and me celebrated for several days. Seems like yesterday. My how time flies, especially when it dragged during the mid-60's when it seemed the war would go on forever.

Congratulations Viet Nam!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

35 years ago today, Saigon fell.

(Saigon, that's what they used to call Ho Chi Minh City. (That's in Vietnam, btw.))

I remember this well, having been staunchly active in the antiwar movement from 64 through 68 and then working in Nammy almost all of 69 as a correspondent before returning to my antiwar activism. It was a day we had waited to see happen for years and the victory was sweet. My posse and me celebrated for several days. Seems like yesterday. My how time flies, especially when it dragged during the mid-60's when it seemed the war would go on forever.

Congratulations Viet Nam!

I didn't get in the area until Jan. of '70. Only in Saigon long enough to catch a ride upriver.