50 years ago, on April 30, the capital of South Vietnam fell to Northern Vietnamese forces, unifying the two nations under Communist Party rule. The Fall of Saigon signaled an end to one of the 20th century’s most controversial and bloody wars—both at home and abroad. The deaths of over 3.4 million Vietnamese, as well as over 58,220 Americans, in the conflict have reverberated across decades. While the voices of American leaders and veterans often dominate narratives of the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon, the perspectives of Vietnamese people and Vietnamese Americans are frequently overlooked.
The week leading up to the Fall of Saigon, former President Gerald Ford gave a speech at Tulane University on the end of the war. He only explicitly mentioned Vietnam once, directing focus towards a more isolationist future for America, away from conflict and foreign affairs.
“Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned,” Ford said. “As I see it, the time has come to look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the Nation’s wounds, and to restore its health and its optimistic self-confidence.”
As Northern Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon, tens of thousands of Vietnamese civilians and American diplomats and officials attempted to flee the surrounded city, fearing persecution. On the day of the fall, over 7,000 Americans and Vietnamese escaped. In the aftermath, more than two million fled the country, seeking safety and stability elsewhere.
“There’s a massive diaspora of growth not only in the U.S., but also in France and in Germany as well, and also in Senegal and some Central African countries… Everyone’s just working really hard to figure out how to make sense of this,” said Emily Phương Trần ’26, a member of the Political, Educational, and Advocacy Team for the Harvard Vietnamese Association, in an interview with the Independent.
The HVA aims to foster awareness and appreciation of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American culture, history, and community at Harvard. With 22 board members, the organization regularly hosts events to maintain a strong presence across campus.
Trần spoke about her experiences growing up in Vietnam and her life as a Vietnamese American woman. “There are definitely Vietnamese American neighborhoods in the U.S. that strongly view April 30 as a day of mourning,” she said. “In Vietnam proper, it is a day of celebration.”
Trần, born after the war, lived in Vietnam until she was 11 and recalled celebrations commemorating the Fall of Saigon.“I knew it as a kid, just people calling it April 30, or the more official name, the Liberation of South Vietnam,” she said. “I remember it was like a holiday.”
She later moved to Portland, Ore.—a place that, according to Trần, did not have a large Vietnamese American community. Such a shift taught her about the importance of recognizing the trauma between the lived experiences of those who fled Vietnam during the war and those who stayed.
“Vietnamese people [who stayed] don’t have a sense of the trauma that a lot of people who have fled Vietnam, people who became refugees [have],” she said. “They don’t have that sense of how difficult it was for people who had to flee.” Trần suggested that this disconnect explains the range of opinions on the fall between those who immigrated to America and those who still live in the now-communist nation.
At Harvard, Trần was struck by the different ways Vietnamese Americans learn about the war. “The majority of my peers in the Vietnamese Association are people who are born in the U.S. and have only heard about the war from their parents,” she said.
“Different Vietnamese associations have different names for [April 30], and the way that they address it,” she continued. According to Trần, some of these names include ‘Black April,’ ‘Liberation of South Vietnam,’ ‘Reunification Day,’ and simply ‘April 30.’ While several Asian and Asian American student organizations include Vietnamese members, HVA serves as a dedicated space for Vietnamese students. However, no official statement recognizing April 30 was issued by the HVA.
To Trần, the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon is a time of reckoning and healing for all individuals affected by the war.
“It’s really easy to address the American perspectives and American memories of the war,” she said. “[Including] Vietnamese refugees of the war or other Vietnamese voices—even people who are anti-war actors within Vietnam—would help create a more comprehensive understanding of the war.” Trần believes that this expansion of narratives in media and academia would encourage critical thinking about the roots of the conflict and its aftermath, extending beyond U.S. involvement.
For those in Vietnam, the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon has resurfaced unanswered questions, heartaches, and deep points of contention. Looking for a unified path forward is difficult. Still, “Vietnamese people are optimistic about it, and [about] their relations with the U.S.,” Trần said.
“[HVA] is looking forward to next year to having a Vietnamese history professor for the first time in five years, and expanding the Vietnamese language program,” she continued.
“So I think right now, what does this say? What has come out of the [50th] anniversary?”
In the fall 2025 semester, Professor Uyen Nguyen will teach the 15-person seminar History 166: “Modern Vietnam: A History through its Cities,” furthering engagement with the Fall of Saigon and the Vietnam War on campus.
Ultimately, the questions raised and the damage caused through U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War have no conclusive answers. “I think people should just be ready to have very deep conversations, because [the Vietnam War] has a lot of deep connotations, and people have a whole variety of deep memories attached to it,” Trần said. “We should have a critical lens and think critically about the governmental levels’ actions and the groups of people that were affected by it.”
Sophia Gonzalez ’28 (sophiagonzalez@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.