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Technically speaking, America’s war in Vietnam ended fifty years ago today. On January 27th, 1973, the U.S. was a signatory to the Paris Peace Accords. This was the culmination of a negotiation process that had been ongoing since 1968, both above board and in secret.

While the United States immediately began full withdrawal of combat troops, fighting resumed almost immediately in South Vietnam with provisions of the treaty frequently violated on both sides. Open warfare resumed in March but after the treaty was signed the U.S. remained only indirectly involved.

US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiation of the accord. Lê Đức Thọ, a member of the North Vietnamese Politburo, was also granted the same honor but he refused to accept the award.

Five, almost six years ago, I had a post that talked about the 100-year anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. That anniversary roughly corresponded to the earliest posts in this blog. One hundred years ago seems like ancient history to most of us today. Nobody* who was old enough to remember, much less having participated in, the events leading us into the Great War remains alive. We imagine that world populated with people very different than ourselves.

It got me to thinking about how much, and how quickly, time has elapsed since I first began to focus on this “half a century” set of anniversaries. Younger readers may think differently but, for me, 50 years ago still has a “current events” tinge to it. I can remember watching the moon landings on TV or boarding the 1976 “Freedom Train”… well, not as if it was yesterday, or even very reliably, but it is all a part of my life.

Or focus on, for instance, the Spring of 1966, where the split in my graphical timelines between Cold War Part I and Cold War Part II occurs. I picked that as a date (circa 2016) in part inspired by the technological shift in superpower-fielded weaponry that occurred around 1965/1966. 1966 also put me at a mark close to half-way between the end of World War II and the end of the Berlin Wall. Most importantly, I was looking back almost exactly half a century – a nice, round 50 years.

May of 1966 is closer to the commencement of World War I than it is to the “great pandemic” in 2019. Likewise that “pivotal year” of 1968 is nearer to the June 1919 Treaty of Versailles than it is to Trump’s Syrian withdrawal or Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, both of which are already fading into the past. The Paris Accord itself was signed on a date closer to the end of Prohibition (another arbitrary date used to break up my graphical timelines) than to the current events of today.

The Wall Street Journal reminded me of the importance of today’s date in their weekend edition, last Saturday. The date served as an anchor for an interview/article with Vietnam Vet/author/former SecNav/sometimes presidential candidate Jim Webb. Among other things, the piece wonders whether enough time has passed since the 1973 treaty and the 1975 “Fall of Saigon” for us to entertain a kinder view of America’s intervention in Vietnam. Webb certainly thinks that the U.S. comported itself better in Vietnam than it has in recent years and continues to be frustrated with the popular view of Vietnam Vets as a generation ruined by their war experience.

But that is all its own topic better left for a future post.

For the moment I’ll just look, with a combination of marvel and trepidation, at how quickly these 50 year anniversaries are racing past me and into history.

Count this as the one-hundred-thirteenth in a series of posts on the Vietnam War. See here for the previous post in the series, here to go back to the master post, or follow on to the next post where I get back into gaming with another exploration of a single battle across multiple games.

*Had I written this post a week or two ago, I might have had to phrase this differently. On January 17th of 2023, Sister André (born Lucile Randon), a nun believed to be the world’s oldest living person, passed away. She would have been 10 at the outset of the First World War and we could argue about a 10 year olds ability to bear witness to world events. The oldest person on record is now Maria Branyas Morera, a Spanish woman born in San Francisco, CA in 1907. I will not argue whether she is “old enough to remember” the time leading up to WWI in Europe.