Sunday, May 11, 2025

Sunday, May 11, 1975. Celebrating a peace that wasn't.

A photograph of doves and an Asian woman for the celebration.  In reality, the PAVN and Cambodians were already fighting.  The Khmer Rouge was murdering people and sending the entire population into the countryside, and the Pathet Lao were getting ready to murder the Hmong.

A celebration organized by anti war figure and songwriter Phil Ochs marked the end of the Vietnam War, which of course by necessary implication marked the South Vietnamese defeat.  The event in Central park included performances by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon.

The ironies are thick, as the poster above portrays. Rather than smiling Vietnamese women, there were thousands of South Vietnamese going into an uncertain future that included "reeducation", although this time the Communists in Vietnam did not commit mass murders.  The Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao, however, were about to.

A partial solar eclipse was visible in Greenland, Europe, north Africa and north Asia.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 10, 1975. Cambodian aggression.

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