Today is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The Vietnamese government staged some reënactments today, minus the mortars and deaths and panicked evacuation. Some of what happened that day can be seen in this ITN news clip, which begins soon after the last helicopter has left the American embassy, which is where the story, for Americans, tends to end...
There is a certain amount of talk, when pictures from that day are replayed, of regret and abandonment, of things we left undone in Vietnam. Some of it is meant as a subtle admonishment not to "abandon" Afghanistan--which is odd, given that those who favor an expansion of troop levels there often strenuously reject parallels between the two wars. (And one wonders: does supporting a corrupt government also count as an abandoning Afghans?)
