White Bird: It’s A Beautiful Day -1968

NB: The NLF marched into Saigon on April 30, 1975. Whatever we did as comrades, was above all motivated by love and solidarity with the heroic Vietnamese people. I remember on that day, rushing to the DRV Embassy on Prithviraj Road and embracing the first Vietnamese diplomat I saw. It was our struggle, not just theirs. Salaam Vietnam. DS

50 years ago, on March 29, 1973, American troops, defeated, evacuated Saigon. The war in Vietnam lasted 11 years and claimed about 2 million civilian lives, more than a million Vietnamese military personnel, and about 60,000 U.S. soldiers. Seven million tons of bombs and 80 million liters of poisons were dropped on Vietnam.

But that’s not what I wanted to write about. The photo is of a lighter from the American soldiers of the Vietnam War. The inscription reads, “We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful.” Perhaps these words capture well the essence of that war through the eyes of a soldier. The essence of many wars. 

Thích Nhất Hạnh, Buddhist Monk and Peace Activist Dead at 95

Celeste – Hear My Voice: from The Trial of the Chicago 7

‘Napalm Girl’ at 50: The story of the Vietnam War’s defining photo / “Because Our Fathers Lied”: Craig McNamara Reveals the Lies of His Father, Robert McNamara

Joe Lauria: The Three Types of U.S. ‘Regime Change’ / Andrew Bacevich: Why Washington Has Learned Nothing From Vietnam to Afghanistan

Seymour Hersh on Witnessing American War Crimes in Vietnam

In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later

Annihilation – 50 years of Naxalbari

Yesterday once more – 50 years after Naxalbari

My friend

Salaam Comrade

The Modi Government Is a Regime of Low-Intensity Terror. By Ullekh N.P.