Today is April 30th, the 39th anniversary of the fall of Vietnam. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day back in 1975, sitting in a riverfront cottage in Jensen Beach, Florida, reading William Safire's Before The Fall, and listening to radio reports on the evacuation of Saigon. After 11 years of war and the loss of 58,000 American lives (not to mention up to one million Vietnamese lives), it was finally clear to everyone that it had all been for nothing. It made me, as well as many other - if not most - Americans, never trust their government again. For that reason alone, April 30th,1975 was a major turning point for this nation. Not much to celebrate on this anniversary, I'm afraid.
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