According to the Aspen Institute’s Agent Orange in Vietnam Program, chemicals used by the US military during the war continues to have harmful impacts in Vietnam today. There are many testimonies about the horrors of the war and even about the lies that were used to motivate it, including the false flag Tonkin Gulf incident. However, what lacks is responsibility for many of the war crimes — see for example Jonathan Schnell’s article on war and accountability.

Instead of demanding accountability, many countries are today working closer with the US military than ever before. For example, the Swedish government now welcomes US warplanes on their territorry, including the B-52, known for devastating Vietnam. The fact that only a few small parties in the Swedish parliament are critical against this, illustrates that many others today ignore the atrocities of the Vietnam war or too simply dismiss them as mistakes.

It is more clear than ever, that we still need to remember Vietnam.