A time when we were all experts on war and B47s

Country Living with Francis Farragher

One of the curious things about the years passing by, is that memories from childhood seem to become even fresher in the mind’s eye, often prompted by some anniversary or historical event that’s being remembered. We recently had ANZAC Day (April 25) or Gallipoli Day as some people recall it, and last Thursday, April 30, marked the 40th anniversary of the ending of the Vietnam War (1975) when a North Vietnamese tank smashed through the gates of the presidential palace in the then Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, marking the end of the conflict, and victory for the communist North.

As a child of the 1960s, the radio news and the daily papers were the main sources of world information, and scarcely did a bulletin pass without mention of progress in the Vietnam War, as we all – rather innocently it must be said – listened to hear what progress the United States was making in its war against communism aka the Vietnamese people and their super-power allies in Russia and China.

Terms like the Demitiliarised Zone (DMZ), the Mekong Delta, the 17th parallel and B47 bombers were in everyday usage but despite all the claims of progress being made by the US in the battle to defeat the Viet Cong (the North Vietnamese rebels), the war seemed to drag on endlessly from week to week, month to month, year to year and decade to decade.

It was only last week, when taking a little trawl through some historical snippets on Vietnam, that I realised how long this conflict raged – an 18 year span from 1957 (and maybe even some rumbles before that) to 1975 – that spanned the US presidential reigns of Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

A total of 58,000 US soldiers perished in the combat – most of which occurred in South Vietnam – but this pales compared to the shocking wipe out of life suffered by the Vietnamese,both North and South, estimated at between one and two million people.

As with all major conflicts between the military giants of the time – the US, Russia and China – it was the people of an impoverished country like Vietnam, who suffered the most as the ‘big boys’ picked a theatre of war, far away from home to test out their latest military hardware. Of course when the going got tough, bodies – in the name of foot soldiers – had to face the music, while civilians also were wiped out en bloc during the conflict.

I’ve never been to Vietnam but have met a few people who holidayed there and also have watched the occasional TV programme about the country, but the most consistent message that seems to emanate from the country, is that of its friendly and welcoming people. So how on earth did they get wrapped up in one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the post World War II era.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.