I have discovered a fascinating documentary film that won’t air until next spring.
It’s worth discussing today as the United States prepares to end its involvement in Afghanistan.
“The Last Days in Vietnam” is a film produced by Rory Kennedy, the youngest child of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. The preview is attached on this link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/lastdays/player/
It’s part of the American Experience series. To say that the end of the Vietnam War is a unique American experience it to dramatically understate the impact this conflict had on a great nation.
The end came on April 30, 1975. The airing of the documentary will coincide with the 40th anniversary of that inglorious ending.
It was chaotic. It was frightening. It happened with stunning speed as North Vietnamese troops and armor came crashing into Saigon and other key South Vietnamese cities.
We’ve all seen those pictures of the pandemonium atop the U.S. embassy building in Saigon, as thousands of civilians sought rides aboard Huey helicopters to ships waiting offshore.
For those of us with direct experience in that Vietnam War, the images remain as troubling today as they did when we first saw them four decades ago.
I’m looking forward, though, to reliving that time through the eyes of Rory Kennedy.
