Last week— April 30 — marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the American role in the Vietnam War, a conflict that had such a profound impact for many millions of people. Its reverberations in our culture and politics remain strong all these years later, especially here in Dorchester, home to more than 10,000 Vietnamese people and the Little Saigon Cultural District.
A younger generation of Vietnamese Americans whose parents were refugees from that war are working hard to honor the history and struggle of their parents’ experiences.
The 1975 Vietnamese Diaspora Commemorative Project is one example. Led by a group of volunteers, its goal is to site a permanent memorial to the diaspora inside Town Field in Fields Corner, a placment not yet agreed to by the Wu administration.
Dorchester is also home to the Dorchester Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Morrissey Boulevard, just before you turn into UMass Boston. There’s room to pull off to the side of the road and visit the memorial, which includes the names of 79 Dorchester residents who were killed while serving in the war. The memorial was created by a group of American veterans some 40 years ago. There is a ceremony each Memorial Day to honor those men — many of them teens when they died on the battlefield.
The book “Working-Class War” by Christian Appy speaks about the trauma of American soldiers who returned from Vietnam. The author attended a meeting of a Vietnam veterans support group at the Dorchester House back in the 1970’s where he heard their stories.
While all men of a certain age were subjected to the draft in the World War II, that was not so for the Vietnam War. College students got deferments from enlistment while working class and poor young men not in college did not. Others used their privilege and connections to get out of serving overseas based on questionable medical conditions, like President Trump’s “bone spurs.” President Clinton got student deferments and then got a high draft number. I got a student deferment one year and then received a high draft number, so I was privileged, too.
Many young people in the ‘60s and ‘70s opposed the war, so their decision to avoid service differed from what drove the World War II generation to enlist. But class played a role, too. It was not fair.We are haunted, humbled, and inspired by all these memories from our Vietnamese neighbors and the Americans who fought there.
Lew Finfer is a Dorchester resident.
