The Impact of Vietnam on Generation X
Carry on, my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more…
Kansas, 1976
The 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon was April 30. To mark the occassion, Netflix released Turning Point: The Vietnam War, another heartbreaking documentary about conflict. The series includes five episodes and features interesting presidential recordings; archival footage, and interviews with U.S. military veterans. Also, North Vietnamese fighters, South Vietnamese refugees, activists, and journalists. It also spotlights startling aspects of the war, which I’ve never fully explored including Operation Babylift, fragging, and heroin use among American soldiers. In addition, it covers the torture of the South Vietnamese people, which I am more familiar with because I wrote a paper about it a million years ago when I was a junior in high school.
Boomers to Gen X: “Don’t Ask About It”
At 16, I couldn’t grasp why American soldiers killed villagers in South Vietnam. Specifically, the My Lai Massacre where U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians, primarily women, children, and elderly men. I understand it better today but it is still horrifying. It’s also important to note that not all American soldiers committed such atrocities. Some tried to stop them and some reported them.
Although the fire of Vietnam ended before Generation X came of age, nothing has erased the smoke that has filled our lungs. There was no ventilation from it and, truth be known, we learned to step over the stain on the floor we were told not to ask about.
Here are some ways the Vietnam War had a significant, indirect impact on Generation X.
Film & Television
Generation X grew up immersed in Vietnam War-themed movies like Apocalypse Now (1979) and Platoon (1986). Also, Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). Later, in 1994, came Forrest Gump. Moreover, who can forget The Fonz (Henry Winkler) starring in the Heroes? The 1977 film was about a Vietnam Veteran struggling with PTSD? Did you know Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas played during the ending credits of the film? This helped catapult the 1976 song to gold in 1990. These films deeply influenced Generation X’s views on war, government, and authority. There were also a few popular afterschool specials that dealt with the war including My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel (1973), which was about a Vietnam Veteran dealing with PTSD and The Unforgiveable Secret (1972), which was about a sister who discovers her brother deserted the war.
Music & Literature
Anti-war sentiments carried over through rock music and protest songs that played on classic radio in the 1970s and 80s. They also spun on the suitcase record players of our older Baby Boomer siblings or parents. These include songs like Fortunate Son, Give Peace A Chance, and Blown’ in the Wind. In addition, there were literary works such as and the works of Vietnam War veterans including poetry anthologies. These all contributed to Generation X’s reputation for skepticism and irony.
Parental Trauma and Family Dynamics
Many Gen Xers were the children of Vietnam veterans, who returned with physical injuries and psychological trauma, including what would later be diagnosed as PTSD. These home environments were sometimes marked by emotional distance, substance abuse, or economic instability, which shaped the independent, self-reliant nature of Generation X.
Distrust of Institutions
The Vietnam War, coupled with Watergate, led to a pervasive disillusionment with government and traditional institutions. Gen X inherited this climate of distrust. As a result, Gen Xers were often raised with an awareness that the government or others in authority could lie and/or fail, which made us more skeptical and less ideologically driven than Boomers or Millennials.
Economic and Social Fallout
The war’s economic cost contributed to stagflation and budget deficits in the 1970s, meaning many Gen Xers came of age in a time of economic uncertainty, high interest rates, and few job opportunities. Please note this post I wrote in 2015, Why Are Gen-X Men Dying?
Socially, the war and the protest movements fractured American unity, which fed into the cynical and noncommittal reputation often associated with Generation X.
Military and Foreign Policy Shifts
Gen Xers grew up in an era shaped by the “Vietnam Syndrome”, a national reluctance to engage in foreign military interventions. This influenced how they later viewed U.S. involvement in conflicts. In regard to the Gulf War and Iraq War, they were skeptical about motives and outcomes.
In summary, even though Gen Xers didn’t fight in Vietnam, we absorbed its consequences through our families and our media. It contributed significantly to our worldview. The war didn’t define us as directly as it did Baby Boomers, but it shaped the landscape we grew up in. It left us with a legacy we are still trying to understand.
Generation X’s Impact on the Amerasian Homecoming Act
Student government leaders from the Huntington High School (New York) Class of 1987 and Class of 1988 played a pivotal role in the passage of the Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1987. The act ensured the immigration of approximately 23,000 Amerasian children to the United States between 1988 and the early 1990s.
The Gen-X students students included three seniors, David Zach, President; Marlo Sandler, Treasurer; and Sue Forte, and one junior, Tara Scalia, Historian. The catalyst for their involvement was a poignant photograph of Lê Văn Minh, a young Amerasian orphan in Vietnam severely deformed by polio. The picture was taken by Audrey Tiernan and featured in an article by in the November 1985 of a Long Island newspaper. Gloria Blauvelt (1923-2022) showed it to them in August 1986, and suggested they work to bring the boy to the United States for medical treatment. Lê had been living and on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City his entire life and selling paper flowers to buy food. He was in desperate need of surgery to straighten his legs so he would not have to walk using his hands.
Students Moved by Suffering
The students were moved by the suffering and agreed wholeheartedly to take on the project and under Blauvelt’s leadership began a media and advocacy campaign. In addition to contacting journalists, they gathered approximately 28,000 signatures on a petition asking that Lê be brought to the United States. Signatures were collected from 27 states, three countries and more than 180 communities across New York. The students also contacted contacted their congressman, U.S. Representative Robert J. Mrazek and urged him to help Amerasian children facing public condemnation and hardship in Vietnam. Mrazek responded and used language from the petition introduced the Act in 1987. The legislation was enacted in 1988.
Unlike previous policies, the Act permitted Amerasian children to establish their mixed-race identity based on appearance alone. They didn’t need documentation from their American fathers. Moreover, the students achieved what national refugee agencies could not. In addition, DuPont Hospital in Delware and Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia offered Lê free lifetime medical care.
From the Archives
Click here to read a commentary I wrote about the Fall of Saigon in May 2012. See photographs I took during a ceremony in Oklahoma City’s Asian District commemorating the 37th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.