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Post Reports

Decades of trust-building in Vietnam, coming undone by Trump

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.45.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end, as North Vietnamese closed in on the South Vietnamese capital and thousands of American personnel frantically evacuated. 

The war left a devastating legacy: More than 3 million Vietnamese died and more than 58,000 U.S. troops were killed. The remains of more than 300,000 Vietnamese soldiers and 1,200 U.S. service members are still missing. 

Over the past five decades, there has been a delicate progress toward peace and reconciliation between the countries, facilitated by trade, U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Under President Donald Trump, that’s all being unraveled

On today’s show, South East Asia Bureau chief Rebecca Tan shares her reporting from Vietnam on the painful legacies of the war and how U.S.-Vietnam relations are suddenly faltering.  

This episode was produced by Elana Gordon, and mixed by Sam Bair. It was edited by Lucy Perkins with help from Peter Finn and Maggie Penman. Thank you to Emma Talkoff. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So we're in a commune in Guangchu province.

0:10.0

There's a team right now.

0:13.0

There was a call yesterday into the hotline that said that there was some kind of unexploded ordinance

0:19.0

to found in this commune. We're with the team that's trying to figure out what it is

0:24.6

before they decide how to detonate it, how to get rid of it.

0:27.6

With the construct of the do,

0:28.6

we have two members,

0:30.6

there are a team,

0:31.6

a team,

0:32.6

a foe,

0:33.6

a young viéééééé et cetera

0:36.6

I'm here with a translator and she says the team has seven team members, one team leader, a deputy leader, a medical staff member, and four D-miners.

0:48.6

This is Rebecca Tahn, the post-South East Asia Bureau Chief.

0:53.1

She's with a group of D-iners during a recent trip to Vietnam.

0:57.7

These are people with a dangerous task.

1:00.6

They respond to community reports of munitions and unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War.

1:06.8

These bombs are still all over the region, even though the war ended 50 years ago.

1:13.6

And what these deminers do is find those explosives and destroy them.

1:18.6

Because they're still live, they can kill people.

1:26.6

So I'm walking through a field to where the munition was spotted, which was at the bottom of a tree.

1:33.3

So we're just approaching, I think.

1:39.3

What is the site? Let's see.

...

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