Community Vows to ‘Never Forget Saigon’ During Anniversary of Communist Takeover

High school student Truc Doan stands solemnly in uniform alongside a veteran at Brisbane’s “Freedom Place” in the multicultural suburb of Inala. Together, they raise the Australian and South Vietnam flags to the tune of “Advance Australia Fair,” as local police, dignitaries, and community members stand. Soon the South Vietnamese anthem blares—dubbed the “Anthem of Free Vietnam”—as both flags steadily reach their peak. It is April 30, the anniversary of the 1975 Fall of Saigon, which marked the end of the Vietnam War, as well as the last official vestiges of the anti-communist Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Under the weight of domestic pressure, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon began the process of withdrawing troops from the South....