The Children’s War ended on April 30, 1975, with the self-liberation of Viet Nam

Empire: 61 percent of U.S. soldiers who died were under 21 years old

Afghanstan recently became America’s longest war, but Viet Nam is still the largest U.S. military engagement, without a declaration of war. Millions of young Americans fought in Viet Nam between 1965 and 1975. Of these, a third were draftees and many of the volunteers had joined to get job training. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.

Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old.

Once again Americans fell for a lie, which was that communism must be stopped or else all the countries of South East Asia would fall like dominoes. One of the worse U.S. Presidents, Lyndon Johnson, lied to congress that Viet Nam had attacked U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. After that, America was committed to a land war in Asia, something General Douglas MacArthur had warned against.

After the war, many veterans, including Ron Kovic, John Kerry and me, formed and became active in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. We fought for peace for many years, including all the other little wars our military started. My friend, and a real hero of this struggle, Ron Kovic, who came back from Viet Nam in a wheelchair but fought harder than anyone for the U.S. to stop its imperialist war policy. Read his book, “Born on the 4th of July.”

In Viet Nam, the most heroic voice was that of Ho Chi Minh, who echoed the sentiments of the Vietnamese when he said, “Nothing is more precious than Independence & Freedom.”

When I visited Viet Nam about 10 years ago, I found a modern city (Ho Chi Minh City) and country where everyone was well-dressed, had enough to eat, and a motorcycle to get around. Viet Nam has handled the pandemic well, with only a few cases in the entire country.

See also “My favorite book about the Viet Nam war was written by a Vietnamese woman doctor,” on this site.

Peoples Victory

It was 45 years ago
On April 30th
when the people won
and the military ran.

As the people,
men and women,
marched into Saigon
to claim again their land

The invaders escaped
from the rooftops
and threw their helicopters 
into the China sea

The American War
was won with blood
just like the French
and Japanese wars

Today, Vietnam is free
to make its own mistakes, or not.
There is no fear of sudden death 
from the sky.

The wind whispers through the trees:  
Ho, Ho, Ho  

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