The End is Nigh
The end of an era is looming
April 30, 2025 has long been on my radar.
Even as I worked on my Vietnam stories in the mid-teens of what still felt like a new century, I had the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War bookmarked as an official end to my focus on Vietnam Stories.
Now that we have turned the corner on the new year, it feels like the right time to announce that the end is near. There will be 17 more weekly “Stories of Vietnam.” (Note: For all those who have been generous paid supporters, your payments will cease or be refunded if you’re paid beyond April).
Though endings can be sad, I also look forward to filling my time with other forms of service. I hope on May 1st, I can wake up refreshed feeling as if all my Vietnam efforts have been a job well done.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last year, as detailed in my 2024 Review, I was pleased to share many different authors.
In the next four months, I will focus on recapping the events that led up to the fateful day of America’s final military and diplomatic withdrawal, including the stories of my father’s evacuation of the nearly 1000 South Vietnamese House Seven employees.
Though I will again strive to use a variety of stories, much of the content will come from excerpts from my own book and Karen Kaiser’s Gardens in the Midst of War.
Karen was the librarian at the school I attended in Saigon and we’ve both so much enjoyed reconnecting that we’ve decided to share our stories together.
Thank you for being on this journey with me and I hope you stay with it until the final days. The end of the Vietnam Era in 1975 did not mean the end of its effects and I hope that through the creative storytelling of this site, we can in some small ways help bring more of that time to a final resting place.
Please let me know what you think.
Thank you,
Kat
“Stories of Vietnam,” will continue to offer historical and personal glimpses into the Vietnam Era as we approach the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War.
I am a latecomer here, having stumbled on this Substack only very recently. I hope that the archive will continue to remain accessible after April 30. I was a Department of the Army civilian librarian in Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay with Army Special Services Libraries in 1969-1970. I managed recreational libraries for American soldiers in downtown Saigon, Cam Ranh Support Command, 6th Convalescent Center, 18th Engineers Dong Ba Thin, and Camp McDermott Nha Trang. The library in Saigon was on the corner of Nguyen Du and Le Van Duyet. From New Jersey, I helped some of my former Vietnamese employees leave Saigon at the end of April 1975, getting sponsorship letters and documents to them with help from my local Congressperson that got them on one of the last helicopters to leave Tan Son Nhut. In the eighties I helped bring more of their family members to the States via the Orderly Departure Program. I don’t think it will ever really be over for me, not even after a 50th anniversary. It was a life altering experience that continues to resonate. I think a lot of Vietnam War vets and civilians feel that way.
It's been an honor to read your story, Kat, and those shared by your wise guests. Thank you so much. And wherever the future leads you, your wisdom will light the path ahead.
Gratefully,
Denise