Skip To Content
Join the Conversation
Funded by
Support Provided by: Learn More
Last Days in Vietnam | Clip

Last Days in Afghanistan

Filmmaker Rory Kennedy discusses the parallels between America’s final days in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

August 20, 2021

The desperate, chaotic scenes from Afghanistan playing out in recent days immediately call to mind the fall of Saigon nearly 50 years ago. As director and producer of the Oscar-nominated film, Last Days in Vietnam Rory Kennedy observes, “There’s a real connection and analogy to what happened in Vietnam in 1975 and what we’re seeing right now in the streets of Kabul.” In this exclusive conversation, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s executive producer Cameo George speaks with the acclaimed filmmaker about the parallels between the 1975 evacuation of Vietnam and the recent American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the lessons that America’s history in Vietnam offer today.

Support Provided by: Learn More

Now Streaming

  • The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools poster image

    The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools

    Explore what happened when the small Mississippi town of Leland integrated its public schools in 1970. Told through the remembrances of students, teachers and parents, the film shows how the town – and America – were transformed.

  • The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools (español) poster image

    The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools (español)

    Explore lo que sucedió cuando la pequeña ciudad de Leland en Misisipi integró sus escuelas públicas en 1970. Contada a través de los recuerdos de estudiantes, maestros y padres de familia, la película muestra cómo se transformaron la ciudad y el país.

  • The Busing Battleground poster image

    The Busing Battleground

    The Busing Battleground viscerally captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order.

Related Features