Politics
Chicago Vietnam War Veterans, Community Groups Commemorate 50 Years Since the Fall of Saigon
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, which is also known as the fall of Saigon.
The conflict killed millions of Vietnamese and 60,000 American service members.
“I was 18 years old and that was my first, what we call the ‘Westpac’ cruise,” said Dale Tippett, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Navy and helped evacuate the city of Saigon as part of Operation Frequent Wind. “I was just excited about being out there, being part of the military, being part of the Navy. It’s something I wanted to do, and this all just coincided with just that moment in history.”
Mong Oanh was one of the evacuees who escaped Saigon. Her husband was in the Vietnamese Navy, but Oanh was able to board an American ship with him and their three children. They eventually made it to the U.S. and settled in Chicago.
“You know, that time I did not know, but this is the new life, whatever we get, we work for it and very lucky that we got to the U.S.,” Oanh said. “This is a free country.”
For some Americans, the war that effectively ended with the fall of Saigon 50 years ago Wednesday on April 30, 1975, continues to shape their lives. That includes Roger McGill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army.
“When the fall of Saigon came in ‘75, it was very disturbing to a lot of us, because we had fought there and tried to get freedom for the South Vietnamese people and it didn’t work out,” McGill said. “So I reflected an awful lot on it and then I didn’t do anything, never talked about Vietnam.”
In 1986, McGill took action and played a monumental role as program chairman for Chicago’s historic Welcome Home parade. McGill helped organize what still stands as the largest Vietnam veterans parade in the U.S.
While Vietnam marked the anniversary of the war’s end with a parade to promote peace and unity this week in Ho Chi Minh City, Chicagoans are also commemorating the event.
The Vietnamese Association of Illinois will host a “50 Years of Vietnamese American Community Building” event this Saturday. The organization is located in what is sometimes called “Asia on Argyle” or “Little Saigon” in Chicago’s Edgewater/Uptown communities.
“This is an opportunity for us to commemorate the 50th anniversary since the fall of Saigon and then also to celebrate what the community has been able to build in the last 50 years,” said Vietnamese Association of Illinois Executive Director Vân Huynh. “So to represent the experiences of Vietnamese refugees, but also the families that have come since then and also the perspectives of young people, … we have veterans that are doing a color march, and then also interfaith service prayer for obviously the millions of lives that were lost during the war.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
