Vietnam vs. Afghanistan: Mirror-image scenes from America's longest wars
17 August 2021
Until Afghanistan, Vietnam was America's longest war. The images we're seeing now have a lot of parallels with that war — right down to the scenes of the chaotic, desperate final days.
Left: Members of the 1st Division Infantry look for Viet Cong fighters during the Vietnam War. Right: U.S. soldiers gather as their wounded comrades are airlifted by a Medevac helicopter in Afghanistan in 2011. Photos: (left) Corbis Historical via Getty Images; (right) Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
Left: Wounded U.S. soldiers are evacuated by helicopter after a Vietnam War battle in 1967. Right: U.S. Army soldiers protect an injured comrade from dust and smoke flares after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in 2012. Photos: (left) Francois Mazure/AFP via Getty Images; (right) Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images
Left: Soldiers salute as remains of American GIs are carried to a plane in Hanoi. Right: A U.S. Army team carries the remains of a U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class who was killed in Afghanistan in 2019. Photos: (left) Steve Raymer/Corbis via Getty Images; (right) Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Left: A young Vietnamese boy arrested during an anti-government demonstration in Danang, South Vietnam, stares out from behind barbed wire. Right: Displaced Afghans look through a fence in August 2021. Photos: (left) Nik Wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images; (right) Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Left: Desperate South Vietnamese citizens try to scale the walls of the American Embassy in 1975. Right: Afghans rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they try to flee Kabul. Photos: (left) Nik Wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images; (right) Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Left: Long lines of people hurry to get exit visas and air tickets out of Vietnam. Right: Afghans crowd at the tarmac of the Kabul airport. Photos: (left) Bettmann via Getty Images; (right) AFP via Getty Images
Left: An American Marine points an M-16 rifle at a South Vietnamese person trying to climb over the wall at the American Embassy to join evacuation flights. Right: A U.S. soldier points his gun toward an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport. Photos: (left) Bettmann via Getty Images; (right) Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Image
Left: A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter. Right: The U.S. national flag is reflected on the windows of the U.S. embassy building in Kabul. Photos: (left) Bettmann via Getty Images; (right) Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.