Thank you Pro... It's a powerful finish. But like life, the struggle continues. The thought that conflict in and around Vietnam would end when Americans withdrew is as much a fiction as the film's narrative. The fight only matured into something new. What's sad is how the aftermath of a war stains the entire effort, no matter how noble the cause. My hope is that the films made about Iraq and Afghanistan in the future will capture the the fall of a tyrant and the rise of brave free people, and how Americans played a positive role in the transition. Unfortunately, hope doesn't pay the bills.
One result of the American pullout was the Afghan War where the USSR overstepped big time because of the judgment made about American abilities and resolve. In the short run it was a terrible thing America did to its allies in SEA- I especially feel it and cannot forgive our Left and politicians for it. In the longer run it firmly set the USSR on the road to dissolution. Of course, in the even longer run it brought us this century’s Jihad by giving Islam the confidence and the vision that their time to conquer the world had come. But even this war is an ourself-made problem insofar as we have not dealt forthrightly with the Islamic threat from he beginning. We can yet deal with Islam properly and if we do, then good will have come from the whole devious mess. Of course that is not having yet seen what comes out of the Islamic War. Politics and war will never end. Cause and Effect will never end and are not predictable.