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Article: The Long Shadow of Vietnam: THE LEGACY: The former secretary of State on the war's end, the controversial strategy he helped make and how the conflict shaped the foreign-policy thinking of three generations of Americans.(SPECIAL REPORT)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
- Author:
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Not too long ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were reminiscing about his presidency and our experiences in government service. We agreed that the high points have a way of becoming blurred with the passage of time. But we shared one experience that will never lose its immediacy: the pain and anguish of the day when the last Americans and a pitiful band of refugees were evacuated from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
Movies and television present great crises as times of frenetic activity, with officious aides ripping telephones off the hook and shouting instructions to scurrying subordinates. In reality, crises are distinguished by a stillness born ...