Vietnam war

More than 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War that ended nearly 50 years ago – their names are on the famous wall in Washington, D.C. Those names include 266 Montanans. Now, five decades later, the effects linger. Those killed in action left behind grieving parents and children and significant others. They left behind their brothers and sisters, too.

In the United States, there are only 10 organizations that officially work with the federal government’s office of refugee of resettlement. One of them is the International Rescue Committee – which has offices in only 29 U.S. cities. The smallest city with an IRC is Missoula, Montana. It all started because of a connection to the American war in Vietnam, which wound down 50 years ago.

After the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, which wound down 50 years ago this year, many Hmong families fled Laos and eventually settled in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. They adjusted to life there. Those already there had to also adjust to learn a new culture and help school-aged refugees assimilate.

After veterans returned from the Vietnam War, which wound down 50 years ago, they struggled to adjust. That’s been true for combat vets before that war and since. For Vietnam vets, a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t possible until the 1980s. More recently – around 2009 – psychological experts further refined PTSD with the term “moral injury."

In the Vietnam War that ended 50 years ago, about 2.7 million men and women served in the various branches of the military. To be sure, most of them were men. But the war affected many women, too.

Fifty years ago, the Vietnam War wound down and soldiers who survived it returned home. More than 36,000 Montanans served in the war. For the 50th anniversary of its end, students at the University of Montana School of Journalism spoke with Vietnam vets across the state. Here are their stories in their voices.

A Helena resident and founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be honored Sunday as part of the National Memorial Concert on…

Veterans suffering from three health conditions related to Agent Orange exposure are closer to receiving expanded benefits from the U.S. Department of…

Both of Montana’s U.S. Senators are urging the Senate to pass the so-called Blue Water Veterans Act before the current Congress adjourns.That bill would…

Shot down in the early days of the Vietnam War, Lt. Commander Denny Moore endured seven and a half years in eight different North Vietnam prisons…