Fifty years ago Wednesday, the city of Saigon in South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese forces, marking the end of the nearly 20-year Vietnam War. The conflict defined a generation, divided Americans and resulted in an enormous loss of life.
The war also led to the mass exodus of South Vietnamese people to the United States, including to Kansas City. Many were seeking safety from the new communist government, which is how Béty Lê Shackelford's family ended up in the country.
"My grandfather was equivalent of a colonel in the Vietnam War with the South Vietnamese Army, fighting alongside Americans. So when they found out that they were going to lose the war, it was imperative to get his family out," said Shackelford.
Chi Nguyen was just an infant in 1978 when she and her mother fled the country in the middle of the night. It was her mother's third time attempting to escape; the first two times, her mother didn't have baby Nguyen with her.
But by the third attempt, "my grandmother said, 'if you try again, you have to take her with you, because she gets very upset every time you leave,"' Nguyen told KCUR's Up To Date. "So the third time, we were able to escape together."
In 1969, 21-year-old Lou Eisenbrandt received orders for Vietnam. She had signed up to join the Army as a way to "see the world" and to help pay for her nursing school.
"You go where Uncle Sam sends you. And they said Vietnam is on your plate," Eisenbrandt recounted.
She spent a year as a nurse in Chu Lai, South Vietnam, at the 91st Evac Hospital, caring for injured soldiers and civilians. Eisenbrandt says many men took their last breaths as she held their hands.
"Whether they could hear us or not, it meant that they didn't die alone, and there was someone there," said Eisenbrandt.
Eisenbrandt has written books about her experience in the war, and became a Parkinson's disease advocate. In 2003, she was diagnosed with the disease as a result of her exposure to Agent Orange during her service.
Shackelford and Nguyen are both part of the local non-profit Hella Good Deeds, which promotes Asian culture in Kansas City.
On Sunday, May 5, the group will co-host the event "Remembering Saigon" at the Don Bosco Community Center in downtown Kansas City.
"It's an opportunity to just take a moment and remember — politics aside — and just recognize the pain and the resilience of those who survived that war," said Shackelford.
- Béty Lê Shackelford, founder and executive director of Hella Good Deeds
- Chi Nguyen, board member of Hella Good Deeds
- Lou Eisenbrandt, Vietnam War veteran
