When Saigon Fell

When Saigon fell, my son was 6.
His father and I had been divorced three years;
his father had been in Vietnam in 1969,
the year Michael was born; the year of tears.
When Saigon fell, I sat in the living room with my mother,

on the couch, while my son played Legos on the carpet,
and we witnessed the chaos--people in their terror
storming the gates of the Embassy--
the choppers taking off, one after another;
people waiting on the roof,
a child in the arms of her mother.
I don't believe my mother and I spoke at all
while we were watching Saigon fall.
My son was making car noises: "vroom, vroom"
while we listened to chopper sounds
in the comfort of our living room.
I remember thinking it was over, what a relief,
what sorrow; what happens to Saigon's people tomorrow?
What good ever comes from War?
All the lives lost, floating away
like the windblown, weightless feather?
(Michael, get up off the rug;
and come give mom a great big hug)
and then, the commentator said
Let's talk about the weather.

Christina Sharik

Copyright ©2003 Christina A Sharik Updated 4-30-03

-- Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in an October, 2001 address to the U.N.

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Today in History
313 - Licinius unifies the eastern Roman Empire under his rule.
1250 - King Louis IX of France is ransomed.
1527 - England and France sign the treaty of Westminster.
1563 - Charles VI expels all Jews from France.
1725 - Spain withdraws from the Quadruple Alliance.
1789 - George Washington is inaugurated as the first US president.
1803 - The United States purchases Louisiana from France for $15 million, instantly doubling in size.
1812 - Louisiana is admitted as the 18th US State; it is the first of 13 to be carved from the Louisiana Purchase territory.
1849 - Giuseppe Garabaldi, Italian patriot / guerrilla leader, repulses an attack on Rome by the French.
1864 - Work begins on the Red River dams, which will allow General Nathaniel Banks' Union troops to sail over rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
- At the Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, in Arkansas, General Frederick Steele and Union troops retreating towards Little Rock hold off Confederate General Kirby Smith's Confederates.
1930 - The USSR proposes a military alliance with France and Great Britain.
1943 - The submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a corpse planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker; he is succeeded by Karl Donitz.
1968 - U.S. Marines attack North Vietnamese troops in the village of Dai Do.
1970 - U.S. troops invade Cambodia in order to disrupt North Vietnamese Army bases.
1972 - The North Vietnamese launch an invasion of the South.
1973 - Nixon announces the resignation of a number of top aides, including Haldeman and Ehrlichman.
1975 - North Vietnamese troops enter Independence Palace in Saigon, ending the Vietnam War.
1980 - In London, terrorists seize the Iranian Embassy.

Birthdays
1858 - Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, First Lady to President Benjamin Harrison .
1909 - Juliana, Queen of the Netherlands.