Opinion: A lesson for America from the fall of Saigon in 1975

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His accentuated English was understandable; my car repair skills were bad. I just knew we had to relaunch, and when it didn’t work out, we gave up.

He then asked me where I was from. Vietnam, I said. He straightened up, patted his chest twice and said, “Afghanistan!

He added: “We have the same problem! I turned on and said, “Yes. Same problem.”

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, many comparisons have been made between the fall of Kabul in 2021 and the fall of Saigon in 1975. But the parallels run deeper than images of people desperately trying to flee their homes. country. The wave of Afghan refugees is demanding the same generous welcome the United States extended to those who fled Vietnam 46 years ago.

What this gentleman meant by “same problem” at the time, of course, was communism.

We must keep our promises for the little girl huddled in a refugee camp. That girl was me

The Afghans solved their problem by valiantly fighting the forces of the Soviet Union that invaded their country, and the Vietnamese took advantage of the eventual dissolution of the USSR. Little or no economic reform that made the Vietnamese economy vibrant would likely have happened if the Soviet Union had always existed.

The old man’s premonitory words haunt me now. Afghanistan and Vietnam have “the same problem” again. I used to think Afghanistan deserved to be invaded because it was home to Osama bin Laden. But as I watched city after city fall into the hands of the same Taliban who harbored bin Laden, my heart broke.

The chaotic scenes at Kabul airport are indeed very reminiscent of Saigon in 1975.

In the aftermath of this evacuation, what President Gerald Ford did was nothing less than Moses: let the people in!

Ford could have said “Interpreters only”. Or, “Stay in Southeast Asia.” But he never did.

We left my little brother and a world behind when we fled Vietnam by boat

All Vietnamese who reached a US ship, helicopter, plane or base were admitted. They all gathered in Guam and once the paperwork was completed, sent to destinations across the United States.

Much of the American public did not like it. The United States was suffering from double-digit inflation and unemployment, and GDP growth was negative, so critics asked: why bring in more people? According to the New York Times, the White House reported 2,809 telegrams and letters in opposition, and a minority, 2,451, in support. But the president went ahead anyway. The Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Edward Levi, has granted waivers to immigration restrictions for the whole. Over 130,000 people including my aunt, uncle and cousin.

This time in Afghanistan, we have 34,500 Special Immigration Visa (SIV) locations, and only for people who have worked with US forces. Guess what? The International Rescue Commission estimates that more than 300,000 Afghans have been affiliated with the US mission. What will happen to those who are still trying to get to the United States, or even just to leave Afghanistan?

We didn’t even consider what might happen when tyranny sets in. The Taliban have already proven what they can do. The Vietnamese Communists had done no better. After the end of the war, they marked their authority in a brutal way.

There was a continuous influx of Vietnamese into camps in neighboring countries. The US presidents of both parties helped. Between 1978 and 1982, under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, some 280,500 Vietnamese refugees were admitted to the camps.

This is how my brother arrived in America after seven repeated attempts, six nights and five days at sea in a small boat, and more than four months in the camp.

President Carter instituted an additional method, called the Ordered Departure Program (ODP) to receive Vietnamese refugees directly from Vietnam, in part to ease the pressure on the region’s refugee camps. So, seven years after the arrival of Communism in Vietnam, my parents and I joined the rest of the family here. We considered ourselves lucky because we were refugees with luggage.

President Reagan’s State Department began negotiations with the Vietnamese for the release of all prisoners from the “re-education” camps on a promise to welcome them all, negotiations that would be concluded under President George HW Bush. Some 200,000 people have passed through ODP, including many of my extended family, landing at airports and beaming with hope for a new future after decades of oppression.

These were not people who had worked for the United States. They had worked and fought for the sovereign nation of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), which the United States supported in the war against North Vietnam. But whatever. It was a distinction without difference. We knew the value of allies.

The hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who were admitted to the United States, in the years that followed, formed a thriving group of Vietnamese Americans who spurred economic growth in many parts of the country.

Should we do the same for the Afghan people? Yes. They have been our allies. Even among those who did not work for the United States, many worked and fought alongside us, and all will suffer under the Taliban – women, girls, soldiers, educators, doctors, activists.

Can we do it? Yes. As difficult as our times are today, the United States is economically and socially stronger today than it was in the 1970s.

The question is: will we do it?

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