American troops board a jet in Saigon as North Vietnamese and Vietcong officers look on, March 29, 1973.

The War That Never Ended

Fifty years after the last American troops left, Vietnam is thriving. The U.S., meanwhile, is still dealing with the aftermath—unconsciously or not

By Peter Osnos

In the spring of 1973, the remaining American G.I.’s and P.O.W.’s left South Vietnam after the Nixon administration declared “Peace with Honor” had been achieved in an agreement for which National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese Politburo member Le Duc Tho were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.

Le Duc Tho refused to accept it. Whatever else the treaty may have achieved, it was not peace in Vietnam. Two years later, North Vietnam and the Vietcong in the South consolidated a military victory and soon after declared the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.