> But did the US really lose the Vietnam War?
And did, "the Vietnamese, " win? Which Vietnamese? Many prominent PRG and NLF cadre, such as those noted below, were imprisoned after the war, leading to the last gasp of attn on the US Left to Vietnam, the, "Open Letter to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, " initiated by Joan Baez, in '77, if memory serves. Signed by Daniel Ellsberg, the Berrigan Brothers, Staughton Lynd, Allen Ginsburg. A follow up, two yrs. later signed by I.F. Stone, Daniel Berrigan, Lynd, etc.
Bui Tung Huan, anti-Thieu Senator, Rector of Hue Univ. Imprisoned by the Thieu regime, 4 months after the April 30, '75 Victory, imprisoned in a , "re-education, " camp (called by the AFSC c-coordinator for South Vietnam then, ahem, "study-practice sessions.") along w/ other members of the An Quang Buddhist sect.
Nguyen van Hieu, cadre in the Vietnamese Workers Party (CP) since 1945, led the Tet Offensive forces on Saigon in '68. Imprisoned in Tran Hung Dao prison.
Nguyen Van Thang, also joined the Party in '45, imprisoned after Liberation in Le Van Duyet prison.
Hai Chien Thang, NLF Commander in Chief, Saigon District. Imprisoned in Le Van Duyet prison.
Nguyen Hun Giao, former Pres. of Hue Student Union, organized burning down of the American Information Ctr. Hue, also in Le Van Duyet prison.
A radical left book, in a series ed. by Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the Vietnam War, " by J. Neale, The New Press, who has a UK SWP/ISO viewpoint, goes into this in the chapter, "Vietnam and Cambodia after the War."
-- Michael Pugliese