Fall of Saigon

Was the fall of South Vietnam something to celebrate or grieve? New grassroots initiatives in Vietnam are working to diversify and democratize historical memory.

The country is moving closer to a genuine reckoning with painful and politically sensitive realities about the war that pitted Vietnamese against each other.

The event marked the fall of the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam and paved the way for the nation's unification under communist rule.

Fifty years after the communist victory in Vietnam, the old domino theory seems to have been definitively replaced by a deeper conflict determined by history, power, and geography.

People's diplomacy efforts between veterans of the two countries are a symbol of the transformation from confrontation to cooperation in U.S.-Vietnam relations.

The events that unfolded 50 years ago remind us of the uncertainties of war and great power patronage.

U.S. Ambassador Mark Knapper had planned to attend events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Despite its growing prosperity and ambition, the country still has to tread a careful line between larger regional and global powers.

The war in Vietnam showed the abject failure of nation-building – and the imperial logic behind such efforts. But the U.S. repeated its mistake in Afghanistan.

For some Vietnamese, this week has been a time of remembrance, not celebration.

Forty years after the war, it is the ideals of the former South Vietnam that appear ascendant.