Jim Webb: “Today is a day that, for Vietnamese around the world, is as significant as the distinctions we often make between B.C.…”

“Today is a day that, for Vietnamese around the world, is as significant as the distinctions we often make between B.C. and A.D. in other cultures. Thirty-two years ago today the Communist forces from North Vietnam finished their conquest of the south and South Vietnam ceased to exist. Ho Chi Minh would like to say the motivation for pursuing this war was independence and freedom. If we were to discuss independence, in the sense of removing foreign involvement, at that moment they were arguably correct. But if we were to discuss true issues of freedom, the aspirations of freedom for millions of people in Vietnam ceased on that day. Some liked to call the conquest of South Vietnam liberation. For millions of Vietnamese around the world it was the loss of everything, including their country. A million people were sent into reeducation camps, and 240,000 of them stayed in those camps for longer than 4 years, some as long as 18 years; 56,000 died in those reeducation camps; an estimated 1 million people jumped into the sea during some periods, with more than a 50-percent chance of dying, and many of them ended up in this country. We currently have today in this country 2 million people of Vietnamese descent.”