09-05-2025
Vietnam 50 Years Later: Twin Cities vets return to Asia decades after the war
The Vietnam War holds a unique place in American history. It stands as the last conflict to involve a military draft, and in every meaningful way, the U.S. "lost" the war.
This loss wasn't just a big military and political blow; it also left deep emotional wounds, changed the country's foreign policy and had a huge impact on the lives of many veterans and civilians.
For a growing number of veterans, some of the wounds could only begin to heal with a trip back to Vietnam years, if not decades, after they served. That was a case for two veterans from St. Louis Park: Jeff Roy and Bruce Berry.
Roy and Berry each discovered their duty to their country collided at a moral crossroads in Vietnam. Both went into service during the height of the war; both were just around 20 years old; and both were met with reality not long after they arrived.
Decades after they came home, the regret and wonder of what had happened to the country, and its people, stayed with them.
"The picture in my mind that I had of leaving and all the destruction we left, and the death," Berry said.
Then were each presented with opportunities to go back, one neither could turn down.
"I thought, 'Huh, I think I'd like to,'" Roy said. "No fond memories, but I realized that I liked the Vietnamese people."
Left to right: Jeff Roy and Bruce Berry
WCCO
"Vietnam had just reopened their international travel and I thought, 'Oh man, I could do that, I could do that,'" Berry said. "It's like I could sort of reinvent the pictures in my mind that were stuck to see what it looked like now."
And so they did. Berry went with his son for three weeks in 1997, and Roy with his wife visited in 2018.
Berry retraced his steps across the country and visited some of the places he served during the war.
"I just loved seeing people be and doing what they do and in what they do in different ways," Berry said. "It's just a lovely thing to see."
Roy went on a tour with the organization Veterans for Peace, where they traveled to some of the hardest hit places, like My Lai, where a 1968 massacre left more than 300 unarmed civilians dead. They even traveled to the communist capitol of the north, Hanoi.
"The idea of going to Hanoi is like, 'Whoa, boy, that's way up there and that's exotic, and what will it be like,' and the people were just absolutely incredible. They were so welcoming," Roy said.
Both were able to see the country in a different light, and feel a sense of closure.
"It told me that I was right to have been against the war," Roy said. "It told me that these people, north or south, were just very normal human beings who had their desires to live a safe and healthy life and to raise families."
"It's amazing how it works," Berry said. "Cultures figure out ways to continue living even after what had happened, and the generations that followed."
Veterans for Peace is taking another full flight of veterans back to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary.
This story is part of the WCCO documentary "Vietnam 50 Years Later: Reflection on a War that Changed Minnesota," by reporter Pauleen Le and photojournalist Art Phillips.
Watch the full documentary below, or on our YouTube channel.
