It should be no surprise in all of my reading focusing on The Vietnam War that I would of course take full advantage of PBS’s offer to watch a free stream of the broadcast of Last Days in Vietnam. This was a 2015 Emmy nominated documentary that did not win last night.
America made a generational investment in both Vietnam and Southeast Asia. We today reflect and measure that commitment in blood and money. It is still difficult to watch two democracies struggled to fight a dedicated communist enemy.
I hope anyone can appreciate the difficult position American soldiers and staff at the US Embassy faced in the days of the war. Their interviews about the experience they faced in light of our Ambassador’s delusion that the south could establish an outcome similar to a South Korean truce two years after US troops departed.
The cost in lives is not summed up at the movie’s conclusion but clearly the interview segments detailing last minute evacuations of key South Vietnamese patriots were not fully extracted to safety. We know today they faced brutal torture and execution by the North.
History in war is always written by the winner. Americans realize that both World Wars lasted 10 years. Overlooked in defeat is the realization that The Vietnam Wars lasted 35 years. Although a powerful story Last Days in Vietnam does not address the full measure of America’s effort to confront communism in Southeast Asia.