Opinion: National Vietnam War Veterans Day

The last American combat troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973—45 years ago today. On that last day of American military withdrawal, pursuant to the Paris Peace Accords, there were two commercial planes left on the runway that were to take those of us left out. Most Americans had left as had most of the press, officers, and doctors. Lining the path to the two planes were the enemy Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. Those of us left walked the gauntlet of Vietnamese soldiers to the last two planes. A Vietnamese soldier took a picture of us getting on the plane, which later hung in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The two planes took off from Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon as the last prisoners of war were leaving Hanoi. That was the end of the long American nightmare in Vietnam. Two years later the American Embassy fell.