The End of the Vietnam War – 50 Years

SCW co-founder and longtime publisher Dik Cool first opposed the U.S. war on Vietnam in 1964. He was imprisoned in 1967-68 for draft resistance. In 1970 he joined the staff of the Syracuse Peace Council and became engulfed in anti-war organizing, including speaking at colleges, schools and community groups. Were he still alive, Dik would certainly have much to say about the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, coming up on Wednesday, April 30.

Ten years ago, on the 40^th anniversary, Dik wrote an op ed for the Syracuse Post Standard offering some thoughts about the war.

“The PBS documentary “Last Days in Viet Nam” is an excellent piece of cold war propaganda. What could be better than to show two hours of Vietnamese fleeing the (gasp!) advancing “communist hordes.” The map drips red, the people flee and the talking heads intone that Saigon is “falling to the communists.” But wait, aren't the communists also Vietnamese and isn't this their country? So, Vietnam has fallen to the Vietnamese? Isn't the U.S. the invader, the occupier, the imperial force that has tried to subjugate a nationalist movement? In 1776, didn't we fight to expel the occupying British? A more accurate description would be that the capitalist invaders had finally been driven out by Vietnamese forces committed to freedom and independence for their country. Their only sin was that they believed in a different economic system, communism, for their country.

Perhaps a brief history will bring perspective to all this.

During World War II, U.S. fliers shot down by the Japanese were frequently rescued by Ho Chi Minh's guerrilla force, the Viet Minh, the only reliable ally that the U.S. had in the area. After the war ended, at a million-person rally, Ho declared Vietnam's independence from France, using language from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, a document he revered. The United States, led by anti-communist zealots, chose to betray Ho Chi Minh and support France's re-colonization of Vietnam.

In 1954, at Dien Bien Phu, the Vietnamese defeated the French, by then 80 percent financed by the United States. The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam into north and south, with elections to be held in 1956. The United States refused to support the elections because, as President Eisenhower admitted in his memoirs, "Ho Chi Minh would win." Washington proceeded to install a series of puppet dictators in the south, claiming it was defending democracy and freedom.

By 1967, the United States had 500,000 troops in the south, was regularly bombing the north and using the carcinogenic herbicide Agent Orange over vast areas. The anti-war movement - military and nonmilitary - grew rapidly. Immolations, the ultimate protest, occurred in the south and in the United States.

The Pentagon does not want you to know any of the following information: The G.I. movement against the Viet Nam war was perhaps more important to ending the war than the civilian peace movement. By 1971, with 500,000 troops in Vietnam, the U.S. military was on the verge of collapse and the brass were panicked. Officers were being “fragged” (shot by their men), whole units were refusing to fight, drug use was rampant, black GI's had coined the phrase "no Vietnamese ever called me n-----," and antiwar GI coffeehouses and newspapers had sprung up at most U.S. bases around the world.

In April 1971, several thousand Vietnam vets, in a powerful, moving demonstration, threw their medals on the steps of the U.S. Congress. Vets symbolically occupied the Statue of Liberty. U.S. soldiers realized they had been lied to by a country they trusted. They came to understand that the people they were killing had done nothing to the U.S.; they simply wanted to control their own destiny. The veterans then and now had to bear a double burden. They had fought a war and then had to fight to stop a war they realized was unjust. The toll this took on our soldiers is staggering. Over 150,000 have committed suicide, far more than died in the war, and the suicides continue to this day. Veterans also have had to fight to get the VA to acknowledge the effects of toxic Agent Orange and PTSD. They deserve better. Much better.

The war's horrific toll: Vietnam -- 2 million dead, 3 million wounded, 13 million refugees, 200,000 missing in action; the United States - 58,000 dead, 304,000 wounded, 1,900 MIAs.

As with U.S. veterans, the war's legacy continues to exact a horrible toll on the Vietnamese. Since the war's end, 40,000 people have been killed by unexploded ordnance (bombs, grenades, mines, artillery shells) and another 65,000 maimed. There are millions of these killers still in the ground. In areas heavily sprayed by Agent Orange (produced by Monsanto), birth defects are an epidemic as are neurological diseases. From 1961-1971 about 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides were sprayed on southern Vietnam. Many US veterans have returned to Vietnam to help repair this devastation. They have also helped push the U.S. to do the right thing, and finally the Obama administration has begun to do so.

The war taught us that all authority must be challenged and held accountable to the needs of the people - and that this process never ends. Whether it is the U.S. government, multinational corporations, the Pentagon or state governments, the need for vigilance, resistance and community-building is essential.

In late 2014 retired general Nguyen Van Rinh was asked how the U.S. could make amends for the war. He said, “Admit the truth and acknowledge that a great crime was committed here.”