April 30, 1975, the day the North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng captured Sài Gòn, the capital of South Việt Nam. It marked the end of the Vietnam War and reunification of Việt Nam under the Northern government. Also called “Victory Day,” “Reunification Day,” “the Fall of Saigon,” “National Day of Shame,” or (to Bui’s family) “The Day We Lost Our Country,” among others, Liberation Day is notable most of all because of the numerous conflicting narratives told about it. In the United States, Liberation Day is most associated with a famous photo of people climbing a ladder on a building’s roof to evacuate by American helicopter. And it is imagined as a monumental day of conflict and chaos that represents the South Vietnamese government’s incompetence. In reality, Bui’s parents remember, on Liberation Day “no blood [is] shed” and the city is eerily quiet.
Liberation Day Quotes in The Best We Could Do
The The Best We Could Do quotes below are all either spoken by Liberation Day or refer to Liberation Day. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7
Quotes
The American version of this story is one of South Vietnamese cowardice, corruption, and ineptitude…
…South Vietnamese soldiers abandoning their uniforms in the street…
…Americans crying at their wasted efforts to save a country not worth saving.
But Communist forces entered Sài Gòn without a fight, and no blood was shed.
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Liberation Day Term Timeline in The Best We Could Do
The timeline below shows where the term Liberation Day appears in The Best We Could Do. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Preface
...supporting the South and secretly bombing Cambodia until 1973, when American troops fully withdrew. On Liberation Day , April 30, 1975, North Việt Nam officially captured Sài Gòn, and the South Vietnamese...
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Chapter 7: Heroes and Losers
Thi Bui offers various images and stories about what some call “ Liberation Day ” and others, like her family, call “The Day We Lost Our Country.” She illustrates...
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A week after “ Liberation Day ,” Má and Bố are ordered to teach a totally “new curriculum” and write confessions...
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