U.S. POWs celebrate, as the airlift, which becomes known as the Hanoi Taxi, brings them home [U.S. Air Force]
This article first appeared on March 16, 2023 in the New Pelican, a Broward County, Florida newspaper -
www.newpelican.com/articles/50th-anniversary-the-last-u-s-combat-troops-depart-vietnam/
March 29th is the 50th anniversary of when the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam. It is a good time to remember it, not for the victory over communism we wanted but were unable to achieve, but for the bravery and the sacrifice of the men and women of U.S. armed forces who engaged in that conflict.
On March 28th, the North Regional/Broward County Library, will host a book discussion (from 2:00 to 3:00 pm) of my new novel, Exit the Bronx: Coming of Age in the Mid 60s During the Vietnam War.
It’s the story of Bob Sievers, a young man from the Bronx. He is drafted into the U.S. Army at the height of the conflict. Luckily, he is sent to Heidelberg Germany, where he experiences many life experiences for the first time and grows up.
But, behind all the good experiences for Bob and his friends, the Vietnam war is always in the background. Its events drive their spirits up and down. They know that at any time, they may be reassigned there to fight.
In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the Peoples Republic of China.
Afterwards, The U.S. government, worried about the spread of communism, developed the “domino theory” to explain why it was better to fight communism in a far-off land, rather than closer to home. Three U.S. presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson gradually escalated America’s involvement in the conflict.
By the autumn of 1966, when Sievers was drafted, more than 500,000 U.S. combat troops were in Vietnam. Before assignment to Heidelberg, Sievers met some of the returning wounded at the hospital at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where he was stationed. They are the real heroes of the story: the First Air Cavalry Division, the 173rd Airborne Infantry Brigade, and many others, who answered their country’s call with bravery and sacrifice.
In the end, Walter Cronkite said it best. On February 27th, 1968, upon returning from his assessment trip to Vietnam, he said: “It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate… It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
In effect, Cronkite had given the American people his permission to end the war.
Then, much later, after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January, 1973, the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam on March 29.
Bob Sievers returned to the Bronx after two years, no longer the same person. He had grown up. The Bronx had changed. Actually. it was Bob who had changed. Seeing the Bronx through new eyes, Bob had to quickly decide where his future lay.
Barry Singer grew up in the Bronx, New York. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in the mid-1960s, and served in Heidelberg, Germany.
Exit the Bronx is available for purchase at Amazon.com. Available in paperback at $11.99, or as an eBook at $2.99.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578313251/ref=sr_1_1
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