50 Years Later: The Lasting Impact of the Vietnam War

On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, marking an official end to the Vietnam War — a conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and millions of civilians.

Today, 50 years later, many are still haunted by the war’s legacy — veterans on both sides who came home as different people, forever transformed by what they had seen and done; civilians caught in the crossfire, who are still processing trauma handed down through the decades; even the land itself, which remains scarred by the millions of tons of bombs dropped throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

On this episode, we explore the lasting impact of the Vietnam War, and talk with people who — half a century later — continue to try to understand their experiences and put the pieces back together. We hear stories about how a military translator got closure decades after his service, how new technology is aiding in the continued cleanup of unexploded bombs, and the generational trauma of Vietnamese refugees.

ALSO HEARD:

• Grace Moore, a nursing student from a small town in Iowa, shares her experience caring for soldiers at a hospital in Cu Chi, Vietnam, in 1968 — and how, years later, she finally claimed the title of “veteran.”
• Poet and writer Mai-Linh Hong joins us to discuss her family’s experience of fleeing South Vietnam by boat in the aftermath of the war. She’s an assistant professor of literature at University of California Merced, and a scholar of refugee storytelling.