Twenty-five years ago, Communist troops overran Saigon to end the Vietnam War. Photos of U.S. helicopters ferrying citizens and dependents from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in that city provided a last searing image of the conflict. In the quarter of a century that has passed, the two countries have grappled with the scars left by the war. Relations between the two nations are improving, but neither country has truly put the war behind it.
For Americans, the Vietnam conflict was the longest and most controversial war in its history. More than 58,000 Americans died; every day, families and friends of the fallen visit the smooth black stone of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., to remember those lives and commemorate the deaths. The survivors returned to a nation divided. They received little understanding for what they went through. A nation that prided itself on always having right on its side was besieged by doubt. Vietnam's win was said to have been the result of unstoppable "forces of history." A domino effect was feared. National confidence was shattered. A "Vietnam syndrome" was said to have hobbled the country's ability to act in the world. The economic troubles that followed only compounded American uncertainty.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and victory in the Persian Gulf War ended the self-doubt. The roaring economy of the '90s restored the shine to the American dream. Today, Pax Americana is accepted as a given, and there is no end in sight to Washington's international pre-eminence.