Fifty years ago today, helicopters lifted the last large groups of Americans off the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. Hundreds of Vietnamese workers and their families who had supported the US presence had been promised evacuation, but were left behind to suffer the consequences.
America’s role in Vietnam began with support for the French colonial forces who had arrived in the country in 1859, and it ended in 1975 with the loss of 58,000 US troops and some 3 million Vietnamese. We are still dealing with the legacy.
Roosevelt
As recently as the end of World War II, the United States was broadly popular in Vietnam. America had repelled the country’s Japanese occupiers, and many Vietnamese appreciated the anti-colonial views of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who opposed the return of the French colonizers and who asserted in The Atlantic Charter that all people had a right “to choose the form of government under which they will live.”
Truman
Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, did not share his predecessor’s anti-colonialism. In 1947, he asserted that US foreign policy was to assist any country whose stability was threatened by communism. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, along with Mao Zedong’s success in China, reinforced Truman’s fear of communism in Asia, and he worried that Vietnam would become a communist state.
By September 1950, Truman was so concerned that he sent over transport planes, jeeps, and 35 military advisers as part of a multimillion-dollar aid package to Vietnam. Four more US presidents of both political parties would eventually follow his lead.
10 Ways to Explore the US Experience in Vietnam
Here are 10 ways to explore the US experience in Vietnam, starting with support of the French colonial venture and ending with the Fall of Saigon.
1. Watch the Ken Burns’ 10 episode series, Vietnam, for a complete history of the war.
Immerse yourself in all the details of the war from beginning to end in 18 hours. Don’t have 18 hours? Episodes 1, 9, and 10 will give you a decent overview. If you have PBS Passport, you’re all set. Otherwise, sign up for a 7 day free trial of PBS Documentaries on Amazon. Watch the Trailer below.
2. Consider the context of the war’s beginnings. Read or Stream The Quiet American and The Ugly American. Both books are available on Amazon.
Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1958) is available here. The novel depicts the breakdown of French colonialism in Vietnam and early American involvement in the Vietnam War. The narrative includes three main characters and a love story. Michael Caine received a third Oscar nomination for his role in the film. It’s available on both Amazon and Apple.
The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Durgene Burdick is available here. The 1958 political novel depicts the failures of the US diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia through an exploration of an incoming US ambassador’s inability to see beyond a struggle between communism and democracy to the more complicated forces of nationalism and a desire for independence. The movie The Ugly American, starring Marlon Brando, is available for free on YouTube.
It can be hard to find on other streaming platforms, but it’s occasionally available on cable TV’s classic movie channels. I watched it on Turner Classic Movies.
You can watch both trailers below.
3. Consider the aftermath of the war.
Read the Kristin Hannah bestseller The Women or The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2016. The book has also been made into a series on Max. You can watch the trailer below.
4. Check out Cold War Studies posts on Vietnam. They’re some of our most popular.
Vietnam War and Protest Movement Timeline
Protest and Resistance: The Lead Up to the 1968 Election
5. The Ho Chi Minh Trail
Explore the Ho Chi Minh Trail on the Explore Indochina website. There are four parts.
6. Check out the Vietnam movie playlist on the Cold War Studies YouTube Channel. They’ll give you an idea of what the war was like.
There are 10 movies listed, including The Green Berets, Apocalypse Now, The Killing Fields, and The Deer Hunter.
7. Read the following highly regarded books about the war.
The Quiet American by Graham Greene (recommended by The Vietnam Veterans of America
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (also recommended by The Vietnam Veterans of America
The Best and The Brightest by David Halberstam, 1972
If you have the patience to wade through the ads (the list is worth it), Literary Hub has a terrific listing of books titled: The Vietnam War 50 Years On published in 2023. You can find it here.
8. Check out Presidential Libraries
Five presidents of both parties were involved in decision-making regarding American support for the South Vietnamese. You can read about how each of them ratcheted up the war here. Then check out their libraries for more. Although technically Gerald Ford doesn’t belong in this group, following the end of the war, he expanded the embargo of North Vietnam to cover all of Vietnam, blocked Vietnam’s accession to the United Nations, and refused to establish full diplomatic relations.
Eisenhower Presidential Library
9. Read the Pentagon Papers.
The Pentagon Papers are a top-secret, 47-volume study of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, from 1945 to 1967, commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. They revealed that the US government had systematically lied to the public and Congress about the war, including privately expanding the conflict while publicly campaigning for a limited war effort
You can find the Pentagon Papers in the National Archive here.
10. Visit the Vietnam Memorial website and plan an in-person visit if time and money allow.
You can learn about the memorial here.
Some Random Thoughts
It’s interesting that Eisenhower made a diary entry noting: “I am convinced that no military victory is possible in that kind of theater. . .”
Still, he subscribed to the “domino theory,” which held that if one country fell to communism then its neighbors would follow, and he refused to abandon Vietnam altogether. The world may have been a different place today if he had just refused to supply the pro Western leader of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem with money and weapons. As it turned out, Ike sent nearly $2 billion in aid from 1955 to 1960 and, although he didn’t send troops, he increased the number of military advisors to around 1,000. Support continued throughout the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.
What is even more concerning is our inability to learn from history, as exemplified by the chaos and confusion surrounding the recent US departure from Afghanistan. It’s said that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I hope our learning curve improves.
I’d love to hear what you think after 50 years have passed. Please leave a comment below.
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