On April 30, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, and America also suffered the same fate.
Our alliance, South Vietnam, was the one who trained, supported, and eventually sacrificed more than 58 000 of our service people ‘ life as a result.
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As President Donald Trump works to stop Kyiv from suffering a fate similar to that of Saigon, the terrible anniversary serves as a reminder that those we support to the great have the power to drop.
Despite the amount his troops pay daily in their own blood, Vladimir Putin’s military occupies less than a fifth of Ukraine’s place, despite three years since he launched his full-scale conquest.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be led to believe that an American-negotiated harmony guarantees Saigon as much safety as the United States ‘ negotiations with North Vietnam promised.
He is well aware of that possibility, and the Russian president has so far refused to take the chance of making any concessions that might lead to total fight:
If Zelenskyy concedes Crimea, why haven’t Trump media for the Donbass as well when he’s rested and prepared to restart his war system?
What will stop it from ending up like the Paris Peace Accords, which were supposed to have ended the Vietnam War in 1973 but in reality ended South Vietnam’s chances of survival, if peace doesn’t involve a military security assurance, a journey to NATO account, or something else that may set a power greater than Russia’s in the way of any additional anger?
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Trump and his administration, in contrast, are skeptical of Kyiv’s chances if an agreement is not reached soon. What America has given Ukraine has kept the nation in the fight, but our arms and aid haven’t reversed the course of the conflict.  ,
Few Americans wish we had stayed in the Vietnam War for longer or believed that doing so would have led to a different outcome while Americans mourn the loss of Saigon.
If Kyiv is to be expected to win, it can only draw on our money and our weapons, unlike South Vietnam did, because Ukraine doesn’t benefit from American troops fighting alongside its own.
Even though those funds and materials are impressive, they can’t guarantee victory.  ,
Trump is determined to try something beyond what has already been tried, which means putting a lot of pressure on Zelenskyy and Putin to reach a compromise.
There is a precedent for how a war like this might end, both for Kyiv and Moscow, despite how significant Vietnam is in the American experience.
Russia invaded another neighbor, Georgia, in 2008, and established puppet governments in Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia.  ,
Georgia and Ukraine both lost control of about 20 % of their land, and Russia still has military installations in the occupied areas.
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Georgia aspired to join NATO as well as the European Union, just like Ukraine, but Russia’s violence prevented it from achieving that goal.  ,
Georgia does not recognize the Russian-occupied territories as anything other than Georgian, just as Zelenskyy has refused to grant legitimacy to the Russians ‘ possession of Crimea.  ,
However, Georgia, a much smaller nation than Ukraine, quickly abandoned the idea of trying to combat Russia on the battlefield, and for the past 17 years, a parlous ceasefire has prevailed. It has fewer than 4 million people, compared to Ukraine’s nearly 40 million.
Faced with unavoidable military odds, the Georgian approach has been to adhere to principle regarding its territory and desire to join NATO, but to wait as long as necessary to validate those principles in practice.
Russia’s brutal war against the Ukrainians has also been much bigger and quite different from the one waged against the Georgians, and Ukraine is not only much bigger but also very different.
However, the Trump administration can take lessons from Georgian experience.
No matter how unlikely it may be for Ukraine to concede any of its territory to Russia, even a small country like Georgia, given how unlikely it is to be for the possibility of regaining control of Crimea.  ,
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Georgia’s example doesn’t offer any clues as to how to address Ukraine’s need for a security guarantee; in fact, such a requirement is most likely to be met by some commitment on the part of Western Europe, apart from NATO.
However, not every question of principle needs to be answered when creating a practical peace.
Georgia survives by having its answers but postponing their resolution.
That’s not the happiest of endings, and it’s a reprieve, not a relief, in the face of danger.
However, a pardon is more than Saigon ever had, and the president must try any path that doesn’t lead to horrors like those from a half-century ago.
