March 29, 1973, The End

[Bill Greenwood]

There is an old saying or maybe its a song title but its' "A LONG TIME COMING". ON this day 45 years ago the U S withdrew the last combat troops from Vietnam. It was a long time coming for sure, either about 10 years or 15 depending on how you measure. Our involvement began all the way back about 1958, then we had military advisers there about 1960 under JFK and then LBJ sent troops to escalate in 1963. Finally the Peace Accords were signed in Paris in Jan 1973 and the U S kept its word and withdrew troops and NVA kept its word and released American POWs. I think both sides just got tired of it, and when they finally got around to the peace talks, it became a simple matter to end it. S Vietnam was not part of these talks, and would fight for another couple of years but no real chance to defeat the north. At the start of the war a U S general had said we should win in 6 months to a year. Ho Chi Minh said we will fight as long as it takes for 30 years if needed. The peace in 1975 ended for them either 30 years of war, with a defeat of the French in 1954 or all the way back 35 years when they were our ally against the Japanese. The North tarnished themselves with their abusive treatment of U S POWs, but for sheer effort and determination the V C/NVAwould have few equals. The P O W issue was big during the war, and still is,but one interesting fact is how few there were, I think 541. There are about 65,000 still missing from Korean and other wars.I think the POW issue was a big propaganda mistake by the north and hardened opinion against them. We lost 58,000 killed the cream of our young men, another 250,000 or so wounded and the losses to Viet Cong or NVA were 2 to 3 million, many of them civilians. This war was when I grew up, joined the Air Force and has been the biggest event of my life. It has effected so much of life even here in America. Amazingly the Vietnamese dont seem to hold a grudge about what we did, you can visit there as many have done, even vets and buy Nike sneakers or an Apple phone right there in Hanoi. We still have some vets today suffering from effects of agent orange. There is a saying for the Holocaust of wwii, "Never again" and this could certainly apply to this war also. The man who taught me to fly a warbird had 65 missions in A6 Intruder. He was a type A for sure, but toold me frankly how scared he was the first time launching off the carrier at night in imc weather to bomb the Ho Chi Min trail. He survived it. I learned to fly a fighter, but I was not a fighter pilot. Much of the war for the U S was an air war from helicopters to F4s to B52 s and we had such an advantage but the ground troops were still the finishing agent.