50 years ago, direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War officially ended as the last remaining combat troops and prisoners of war returned to American soil.
It was a complex moment for the country, as the war was deeply unpopular and ended in defeat. More than 58,000 Americans died in the war, along with three million Vietnamese. Fredrik Logevall told Under the Radar that Americans were ready for the war to be over.
"I think they felt on some level, many of them, conflicted," he said. "They wanted these deaths to be justified, for this to matter."
After the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27th, 1973, American POWs were sent home in February and March.
“The prettiest thing I ever saw was when I looked out the window and saw the Golden Gate," one POW told KPIX in 1973, shortly after walking off the plane at an Air Force Base in California. "I want you all to remember that we walked out of Hanoi as winners. We’re not walking with our tail between our legs. We return with honor.”
But the horrors of war can be hard to forget. Tim Sullivan spent about five years at the "Hanoi Hilton," an infamous Vietnamese prison, and described to Under the Radar what happened soon after his plane was shot down.
"I ended up being interrogated right after I got there and went through probably three or four hours of basic interrogation," he said. "They were doing the, 'I'll ask you a question, you give me an answer, if I don't like it, I'll smack you until I get the answer I like.'"
Now, a half century after Operation Homecoming, the prisoner experience at the "Hanoi Hilton" is recreated in a new Massachusetts exhibit.
"The cells that we have are actual cells that came from the 'Hanoi Hilton' in Vietnam," said Rob Collings, president of the American Heritage Museum. "So when you walk into them you're getting the feeling of what it was like to be in these cells, and one of the most powerful torture techniques is actually isolation. And the guys will tell you they spent sometimes four or five years in solitary confinement..."
Under the Radar gets a first-person account of the POW experience and expert analysis as the country reflects on the 50 years since withdrawing from the Vietnam War.
GUESTS
Tim Sullivan, Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war
Rob Collings, president of the American Heritage Museum
Fredrik Logevall, professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of History at Harvard University; author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam"
