20 Years After The Fall : Lives Touched by the Vietnam Conflict

They had nothing in common 20 years ago but experiences of a war that touched them all. Two were terrified children, fleeing as their homeland fell to the North Vietnamese. Two were former soldiers trying to understand a war in which they were reluctant participants. And one was an activist who worked diligently to halt a war he never saw. Today, five Times OrangeCounty Edition staffers--Thao Hua, Tina Nguyen, Jerry Hicks, Don Kelsen and David Haldane--share the same newsroom, the same community and powerful memories of how the Vietnam War shaped their lives. Their recollections. Pages, A16-17

Life & Style: Three profiles and a scrapbook of photos from that chaotic time show how others were affected when Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. Pages E1-E-2