AGAINST the backdrop of the beating of war drums at home, I watched former colleague Mai Huyen Chi`s documentary Vietnam: Fifty Years of Forgetting on Al Jazeera English. Chi and I worked together when I was editing a magazine in Hanoi in 2008. I have watched her blossom into an incredible filmmaker, but I did not know her family`s history and how it was impacted by the `American War` as it is known in Vietnam.

Various estimates say three to four million people (civilians and soldiers) died between 1954 to 1975 during this war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of this war and Vietnam is celebrating big. By the time this column is published, I will be in Ho Chi Minh City at the tail end of the celebrations. I will have a lot to report on in subsequent columns.

But when I moved to Hanoi 17 years ago to work at a newspaper, the war didn`t come up much because the largest demographic was born after 1975.

However, its images were never far from memory be it textbooks or war remembrance museums, events, wall chalkings, even pop art, but not so much in discussion. My young colleagues had no connection to the war and weren`t interested in it either. They wanted the new Apple phone or a Vespa or designer brand like Hermès, which opened its doors in 2008 a far cry from what communist leader Ho Chi Minh envisioned for his country.

Who could blame young folks for their disinterest? Their families had benefited from the 1986 economic reforms known as `doi moi`, which saw the country shift from a centrally planned economy to a socialist-oriented market one. Doi moi brought significant changes, including a remarkable improvement in living standards. Vietnam`s universal health coverage index is at 73, reports the World Bank, a figure which is `higher than regional and global averages, with 93 per cent of the population covered by the national health insurance scheme`. It achieved universal primary education in the early 2000s. Access to clean water in rural areas was up from 17pc in 1993 to 51pc in 2020.

According to the World Bank, real GDP capita `soared from less than $700 in 1986 to almost $4,500 in 2023, a more than six-fold increase`. The share of the population living in poverty `plummeted from 14pc in 2010 to less than 4pc in 2023`. Vietnam`s GDP growth exceeded the 6pc target by recording 7.09pc in2024. It wants to become a high-income country by 2045. (Let`s leave aside what Donald Trump`s tariff plans have in store for them.) It is against this backdrop of liberation and economic success story that I watched Chi`s documentary and learned about her family a grandfather who was a national war hero in Danang, one member who supported the South Vietnamese and then an uncle and cousin impacted by Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide used by the US army that continues to have devastating effects. A report in DW estimates that 3m people, including children, `still suffer serious health issues associated with exposure to the chemical weapons used by US forces, who sprayed about 72m litres of defoliant`. Dozens of dioxin hotspots continue to spread across 58 of its 63 provinces today.

The US army dropped twice the tonnage of explosives on Vietnam than what was used by the allies during World War II. Since the war ended, Vietnam claimsthat undetonated bombs have caused around 100,000 casualties, including 40,000 deaths.

Authorities claim 18pc of the country is contaminated by these un d et on ate d bombs, a figure that has onlydecreasedby1pcin a decade.

Chi revisits this painful legacy in her documentary, prompting a lot of important questions about war. Who will bear the burden of war crimes? The US has pulled its diplomats from attending this week`s events, according to a report in The New York Times, prompting a lot of criticism. Perhaps it is not ready to bear any burden of the devastation it caused, and continues to cause, especially in its support for Israel.

The aggressor gets away with it. While Vietnam is painted as a success story, the war continues to have catastrophic effects on families, three or four generations down.

War is stupid. A lot of that stupidity is visible on prime time screens, especially in India, where they have turned villainising the enemy (both real and perceived) into their hallmark. At the time of writing, a physical threat of harm looms over us; but that is not the only harm that will endure.• The wnter is an instructor of journalism.