The Vietnam Hangover

That was quite a fuss the media made this spring about the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Magazine editors and television producers cannot resist what is known as a hook. Yet in the intensity of this outpouring there was more at work than media faddism. The issues raised by America’s war in Vietnam are still alive, the passions still warm. We may be out of Vietnam, but Vietnam is not out of us. It suffuses our political and ideological universe like the hiss of creation.