I'm a little late with this

It's been 35 years since the fall of Saigon, effectively ending the Vietnam War, as America pulled out. In the last hours of their presence in the city, they evacuated thousands of Vietnamese, but left many more behind.

The first six years of my life, my father did several tours in Southeast Asia with the US Air Force. He was home for good by 1973, but had spent time in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. At some point he had a girlfriend in Thailand. I've always wondered if I might have any half-brothers or -sisters from that relationship.

The Vietnam War was polarising, and in many ways it defined the generation that both served in it and protested it. I know it had a profound effect on my father. For those of us left behind, it shaped us as well. And Vietnam was a different war than those previous or since--soldiers were not greeted with fanfare, but treated as if they were shameful, not only because they didn't 'win', but because there had been so much opposition. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at least, even those of us who oppose the war have kept respect for the men and women who serve, for the most part.

The following is a History Channel montage of the last day in Saigon:


This is a tribute to those who helped airlift babies in the last days of the war:


Finally, images of the Vietnam War set to Barry McGuire's 'Eve of Destruction':